- Collection:
- Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
- Title:
- Savannah-Ogeechee Canal , Roughly along I-95, between the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers, Savannah, Chatham County, GA
- Creator:
- Historic American Landscapes Survey
- Contributor to Resource:
- Jenckes, Ernest,
Clinton, DeWitt, Jr,
Stiles, William,
Hibernian Society of Savannah ,
Savannah Ogeechee River Society and Museum,
Stevens, Christopher M, transmitter
Wehrle, Hilary, historian - Date of Original:
- 1933/9999
- Subject:
- Savannah (Ga.)--Buildings, structures, etc.
canals
rice plantations
Jewish Americans
African Americans
Indians of North America
lift locks
locks (hydraulic facilities)
rivers - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Chatham County, Savannah, 32.08354, -81.09983
- Medium:
- photographs
field notes - Type:
- Still Image
Text - Description:
- Data Page(s): 10
2016 HALS Challenge Entry: Documenting National Register Listed Landscapes
For additional documentation, see also HAER GA-139 (Savannah & Ogeechee Barge Canal)
Significance: The Savannah-Ogeechee Canal offers a significant greenbelt space connecting the Savannah River tourist districts and the Chatham County-based Savannah-Ogeechee Canal museum via multiple points of access. The canal serves as an ecological habitat for a variety of flora, and fauna including the Ogeechee Lime, and several rare bird species such as Swainson's Warblers and Mississippi Kites. Georgia DNR has recognized that 4% of the canal ecology to be imperiled and 7% to be endangered. The military sites, including the active Ft Stewart, are located nearby on the Ogeechee River, and the waterways are frequented by fishermen, kayakers and nature enthusiasts. The canal itself followed an existing water way, shown on historic maps as a small creek breaking from the Ogeechee River, leading through rice fields and agricultural plantations. The canal has several unique archaeological sites and could possibly contain several more prehistoric and colonial era sites, though damage to the sites through the construction and post-Industrial phase may render these sites unsalvageable. The Savannah Ogeechee Canal Museum has uncovered a dugout canoe dating to pre-contact native history in the area from the mouth at the Ogeechee River. This alludes to native sites present in the area and further survey may assist in locating. Distinctive construction features include Lock 3, known as Courvoisier's Lock, named after prominent Savannah citizen John Francis William Courvoisier (alt. spelling Courvoisie), a leading Free Mason and French Consul, who supplied rice and storage to Georgia Militia and the Continental Army during the American Revolution. While several sections of the canal are filled in or damaged, the greenspace as well as the towpath which exists or has been repaired in places, offers an internal park setting for the growing urban Savannah population. The area along the eastern Savannah River entrance is adjacent to the Savannah College of Art and Design campus, as well as the visitor's center and Savannah Museum complex. The location at Lock 3 at the Tom Triplett Community Park shows landscape features reflecting one-time heavy use of the lock. Further investigation of the site could yield important information of early colonial and post-colonial trade, as well as social structure among the various immigrants, workers and planters interacting at the mill and port areas. The canal continues as it cuts through several historic districts, and culturally significant areas of the city until it moves through a historic industrial area and into residential areas, past the I-16 overpass. Many of these districts and neighborhoods owe their existence to the canal and have unique interdependent histories to life ways along the canal. Several barge and locksmen's houses existed, in addition to the large mills. In particular, the city of Pooler, near the site of Locks 3 and 4, is the location of several Civil War breastworks and encampment sites, as well as a prewar workman's structures. As the canal passes through Garden City, several other historic canals, such as Horse Shoe canal, and South Louisville canal, connect to main canal. The city of Savannah has recently designated this area as the Canal District with the goal of improvements, such as trails and landscaping, to utilize the greenspace offered by the intersecting canals near the Port of Savannah. The community of Yamacraw, along the canal at the edge of the Savannah Historic Waterfront District and the Savannah Port was a community that grew inexorably linked to the canal and by extension the social landscape of the City of Savannah. The canal leaves the urban congestion out toward the Ogeechee River passing new residential and commercial structures that once were the great rice plantations of the region. The canal was pivotal in the survival of Savannah as the most influential southern city south of Charleston SC. The wealth and influence that became confirmed through the building of the canal altered the landscape of the entire region by allowing a series of inland waterways to open up expanded cotton and rice plantations and its associated industry and settlements. Ultimately, the expansion of agriculture due to increased capacity to transport goods, led to an increase in the demand for slavery. Communities, such as Yamacraw, began to reflect the African culture that had been bought against its will to this country, through food, music and customs. African culture, in turn, became influenced by the other immigrants along the canal, dominantly the Irish and Jewish. This melding along the canal, altered the social landscape of Savannah and the influence continues to be felt to this day.
Survey number: HALS GA-5
Building/structure dates: 1825-1830 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 97000814 - Local Identifier:
- HALS GA-5
- Metadata URL:
- http://www.loc.gov/item/ga1152/
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
- Original Collection:
- Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)
- Holding Institution:
- Library of Congress
- Rights:
-
