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Habersham Hall, SCAD (Chatham County Jail)

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1887, McDonald Brothers and DeWitt Bruyn; 1898 alteration; 1984 roof demolition; 1989, 2007 renovations. 235 Habersham St.

Described as “large and costly” by celebrated Georgia historian Charles C. Jones Jr. in 1890, the old Chatham County Jail is noteworthy for its exuberant Moorish-influenced tower (106 feet high) which replaced the original octagonal Byzantine style tower (93 feet high) following a fire in 1898. The McDonald Brothers Jail Building Company of Louisville, Kentucky, constructed the brick and iron 117-cell jail with the assistance of local architect DeWitt Bruyn and contractor W. F. Bowe. The jail was closed in 1978 with the completion of the new Chatham County Jail on Montgomery Street and the building gradually became a largely ruined shell. The Savannah College of Art and Design acquired the old jail in 1989, restoring only the jailer’s residence and tower.

Writing Credits

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

What's Nearby

Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters (Police Barracks)
De Renne Apartments
Colonial Park Cemetery
Convent and Academy of St. Vincent DePaul
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

Citation

Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler, "Habersham Hall, SCAD (Chatham County Jail)", [Savannah, Georgia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/GA-02-6.23.

Print Source

Buildings of Savannah, Robin B. Williams. With David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, 119-119.

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