COLLECTION NAME:
Undergraduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Compromised Preservation in the Face of the Industrial Progress of 1930s Savannah
Creator:
Rizzo, Elizabeth
Subject:
Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Architectural History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Architectural History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
“Savannah, Georgia, played a significant role in the development of the Preservation Movement. The tension between industrial expansion and historic preservation strongly marked the 1930s. This proved to be the decade that catapulted the nation to implement widespread laws and regulations for the preservation of structures, land, and monuments. Sites along the Savannah River proved pivotal for debates about preserving the past or making way for the future. Early efforts of Savannah’s preservation movement served as key steps in ultimately shaping the nation’s attitude and efforts toward preservation. The abandonment and subsequent efforts to save the Hermitage Plantation in the face of industrial expansion provides one case study of the challenges facing one of the few remaining coastal Georgia antebellum plantations of its kind. This endeavor did not come to an entirely successful fruition, but the industrialist Henry Ford did re-use the plantation’s materials to build his own estate, as well as relocating two of its slave quarter buildings to his architectural history museum, Greenfield Village. Just a short distance southeast on the same riverbank, industrial expansion threatened the Native American Irene Mounds built during the Mississippian period around 1100 A.D. Just two years after the sale of the Hermitage Plantation the federal government was forced to excavate the burial mounds in an effort to preserve the legacy and history of the indigenous people who built them before the Georgia Port Authority covered the site with concrete. Unrelenting industrial expansion in Savannah proved inevitable, but with its growth came a reciprocal drive to save or at least record key components of the area’s heritage as possible.” –Abstract
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2024-10
Format:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 90 pages, color illustrations)