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Commercial Building (Savannah Morning News Building)

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1875, Miller B. Grant; c. 1885 addition of four bays and two stories. 5 Whitaker St.

At the time of its construction in 1875 this Italianate building alone served the needs of the Savannah Morning News. Stylistic enrichments—notably ground-floor detached marble columns, segmental and flat cast-iron lintels, elaborate cornice bracketing, and corner quoining—broadcast the company’s success. Around 1885, the four-bay-wide edifice was doubled to eight and two floors were added, with the sixth story in the form of a fashionable mansard roof, increasing the building’s height to 62 feet (raised further by a now-lost two-story tower) and making this the tallest commercial structure in the city at the time. The News expanded its facilities within this block in 1926 and 1958, but finally left the site for a new suburban home in 2004. The News Place redevelopment (2005–2008, Dawson Wissmach Architects and Design Reese Architects) by Batson Cook Developers incorporated two historic facades at 121–123 W. Bay Street (1852) and 111 W. Bay (1926), which are ornamented with spandrel panels depicting local flora (pine bough and palm frond) and a torch, symbol of enlightenment and truth, a concept often adopted by newspapers in the early twentieth century.

Writing Credits

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

Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler, "Commercial Building (Savannah Morning News Building)", [Savannah, Georgia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/GA-02-2.43.

Print Source

Buildings of Savannah, Robin B. Williams. With David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, 66-67.

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