I'm a grad architectural student at SCAD and am looking to do a term paper on the Central's facilities in Savannah on West Broad (MLK Blvd). I'm looking for any obscure info that the Georgia Historical Society and the Coastal Historical Society may not have. If you have any interesting info on the facilities here, I'd love to hear from you. Any and all info is welcome. Thank you in advance for the help.

Nate Gillette Savannah, GA

-- Nate Gillette (NateGillette@netzero.net), September 30, 1999

Answers

Nate,

The Central of Georgia Railway boasted several different facilities on West Broad Street (now MLK Blvd) in Savannah. The "Red Building" and the "Grey Building" (I believe that both are now owned and occupied by SCAD) were administrative buildings for the CofGa. The building that is currently the Savannah History Museum was the Central's passenger terminal, where trains such as Nancy Hanks II arrived and departed. The area where the parking lot is now (between the Museum and the Red building) boasted a number of tracks as well as at least one large building (became the Accounting Department). The CofGa's shop complex is now the Historic Railroad Shops. This is site of the turntable and roundhouse, as well as passenger car shops.

There is a wealth of information in the archives of the Coastal Heritage Society (which operates both the Historic Railroad Shops and Savannah History Museum). About 10 years ago, an architectural / engineering organization surveyed and mapped the roundhouse and passenger station. These drawings and reports should be available from the Coastal Heritage Society.

The Georgia Historical Society has an enormous number of maps and drawings, covering both the shop complex and the station. It's possible that there are copies of the original construction plans for either the station or Shops complex.

Also, note that the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society is meeting in Savannah this weekend (Oct. 1-2, 1999). We'll have a business meeting Friday night at the Georgia Historical Society, and we'll be at the Roundhouse and History Museum on Saturday from about 10:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. That will be followed by visits to several other CofGa points of interest.

Please feel free to let me know what other types of information you might need.

Allen Tuten

-- Allen Tuten (ahtuten@aol.com), October 01, 1999.

You may consider researching the files of the Georgia Historical Society on Whitaker St. in Savannah. While I did not have the time to look at their CG files (too busy with the ACL stash), I seem to recall it was extensive and may have contained drawings for numerous CG structures. Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable of their CG collection can weigh in to let you know if this would be a good source of info.

-- Buddy Hill (palmettoLTD@hotmail.com), September 30, 1999.