City Market (Savannah, Georgia)

City Market
City Market in 2017, looking east from West St Julian Street to Ellis Square
Map
LocationSavannah, Georgia, United States
Coordinates32°04′51″N 81°05′42″W / 32.0808290°N 81.0949980°W / 32.0808290; -81.0949980
Opening date1733 (291 years ago) (1733)
Websitesavannahcitymarket.com

City Market is a historic market complex in the Historic District of Savannah, Georgia. Originally centered on the site of today's Ellis Square from 1733,[1] today it stretches west from Ellis Square to Franklin Square.[2][3] Established in the 1700s with a wooden building, locals gathered here for their groceries and services.[1] This building burned in 1820 and was replaced the following year with a single-storey structure that wrapped around the square.[4] A brick building, the work of architects Augustus Schwaab and Martin Phillip Muller, was erected in 1876.[4] They had submitted plans to the city six years earlier. The cost of the building's construction "vastly exceeded expectations" after excavations revealed weakened arches in the basement floor that required them to be replaced.[5] It was an ornate structure with arches in the Romanesque style and large circular windows.[6]

The interior of the Schwaab and Muller structure encompassed 33,000 square feet. The city's mayor, John Screven, described it as "roomy, capable of being kept in the highest condition of cleanliness, with ample ventilation". The construction was headed by carpenter James C. Saltus.[7]

The market area survived two fires (in 1796 and 1820),[8][9] the Civil War, and the hurricane of 1896.[2] It is now part of the Savannah Historic District, and is a popular destination for tourists due to its restaurants, art galleries and shops, which occupy many of the buildings erected in the 19th century.[2]

Sweet Georgia Brown's, a piano bar which gained popularity after its appearance in John Berendt's 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was located at 312 West St. Julian Street.

  1. ^ a b "Savannah Then and Now: City Market" – WSAV-TV, March 3, 2020
  2. ^ a b c "Savannah's Heart Since the 1700s" – Savannah City Market
  3. ^ "Franklin Square - Savannah, GA". Savannah.com. Savannah.com. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  4. ^ a b Lost Savannah: Photographs from the Collection of the Georgia Historical Society, Luciana M. Spracher (2003), p. 52 ISBN 9780738514871
  5. ^ Building Savannah, David E. Kelley, Arcadia Publishing (2000), p. 77 ISBN 0738505730
  6. ^ Sickler, Linda. "Cornelia Rankin Groves witnessed Savannah's preservation movement come to life and was dedicated to bringing it forward". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  7. ^ Building Savannah, David E. Kelley, Arcadia Publishing (2000), p. 78 ISBN 0738505730
  8. ^ Morse 1797.
  9. ^ William Darby; Theodore Dwight Jr. (1834), New Gazetteer of the United States of America (2nd ed.), Hartford: E. Hopkins, p. 482