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Fort Wayne Site (Fort Prevost)

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1734, 1776; 1778 modification, 1808–1812 new fortification; 1871 retaining wall. Near intersection of E. Bay and E. River sts.

Yamacraw Bluff, commanding the eastern approach to Savannah, has been the site of several fortifications, beginning with a battery of twelve cannon roughly on the site of the Cotton Exchange (1.4), documented in the Gordon View print of 1734 (see page 6). By the time of the Revolution in 1776, American forces constructed a simple battery on the easternmost end of the bluff (incorporating part of the Trustees’ Garden), which was captured by British forces in 1778 and rebuilt as a bastioned work named Fort Prevost. This was renamed Fort Wayne with the British surrender of the city. A new fort was built on the site beginning in 1808 as part of the Second System (a series of coastal forts authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1807). This fort consisted of a crescent-shaped earthen parapet, barracks and storage buildings, a magazine, and a shot furnace. The site was purchased in 1852 by the Savannah Gas Light Company. The present brick retaining wall overlooking the Savannah River, constructed by the City in 1871, roughly corresponds to the parapet of the Second System fort.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler
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Data

What's Nearby

Warehouses (Archibald Smith’s Factor’s Building)
Morris Multimedia (Oliver Sturges House)
John Stoddard’s Lower Range Warehouses
Warehouses
The Strand

Citation

Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler, "Fort Wayne Site (Fort Prevost)", [Savannah, Georgia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/GA-02-15.1.

Print Source

Buildings of Savannah, Robin B. Williams. With David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, 232-232.

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