Union Station, Savannah
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The Union Station was a train station in Savannah, Georgia. It was located at 419 through 435 West Broad Street, between Stewart and Roberts streets, on the site that is now listed as 435 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
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[edit] Architecture
It was designed by Columbia, South Carolina architect Frank Pierce Milburn and completed in 1902 at a cost of $150,000. It is an example of Spanish Renaissance and Elizabethian styles. The main feature of the structure was an octogonal rotunda which measured 80 feet in diameter and served as the general waiting room. Since most of the station's history took place under the South's Jim Crow segregation system, a colored waiting room was assigned to African-Americans. [1]
The exterior walls were made of pressed brick with grantite and terra cotta trimings. The building also had two towers.
[edit] Significance and History
Many visitors disembarked trains onto West Broad Street. [2] They brough enough business for theaters, bars, stores to open in that section of town. For decades, the Union Station and its surroundings became known as the economic and cultural center for Black Savannah. [3]
In 1963 though, the Union Station was demolished to make room for Interstate 16 and what would eventually be known as the Earl T. Shinhoster Interchange. The neighborhood entered a period of economic and social decline and has never recovered since then. [4]
[edit] Current Use of the Site
An Enmark service station (405 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd) is currently located nearby what was once the site of the Union Station.
The Savannah Visitor Information Center is currently located in another former train station, located nearby, at 301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ The Savannah Press, December 13, 1900
- ^ Revitalizing MLK Boulevard: Enough business to go around?, Christian Livermore, Savannah Morning News, May 20, 2007
- ^ The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, The New Georgia Encyclopedia, History & Archeology
- ^ Savannah's 'iron curtain' may be torn down, Chuck Mobley, Savannah Morning News, May 22, 2007
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