Globe Shoe Company

This is Savannah's Art Deco jewel, reflecting the exuberant stylishness of 1920s commercial architecture. Locally based Globe Shoe Company (established 1892) is the city's oldest retailer continuously operating on Broughton Street and the principal occupant of this store throughout its history. The design employs an eclectic range of Art Deco motifs that include Cubist angling of the display windows, Native American sunburst motifs on the entrance ceiling and along the top of the second story, stylized floral motifs in etched windows flanking the doors, and abstract classical pilasters framing the entire facade. The angled display-window glass originally rose into the second floor to form a square arch that framed a mural above the surviving ceiling of stylized people against a backdrop of angled spotlights; this was replaced by the modernist opaque glass and Streamline Moderne aluminum lettering on the second floor. Much of the original interior decor remains intact, including on the second floor, which originally also served as retail space.