Union Station, Savannah

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.

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. [The Savannah Press, December 13, 1900]

The exterior walls were made of pressed brick with grantite and terra cotta trimings. The building also had two towers.

ignificance and history

Many visitors disembarked trains onto West Broad Street. [ [http://www.savannahnow.com/node/288587 Revitalizing MLK Boulevard: Enough business to go around?, Christian Livermore, Savannah Morning News, May 20, 2007] ] 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. [ [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2734 The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, The New Georgia Encyclopedia, History & Archeology] ]

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. [ [http://savannahnow.com/node/2900024 Savannah's 'iron curtain' may be torn down, Chuck Mobley, Savannah Morning News, May 22, 2007] ]

Current use of the site

An "Enmark" service station (405 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd) is located nearby what was once the site of the Union Station.

The "Savannah Visitor Information Center" is in another former train station, located nearby, at 301 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

Footnotes