Savannah Victorian Historic District, 119 West Park Avenue (House), Savannah

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA,26-SAV,53E-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

This central-hall Greek Revival-style house is the only one of its type remaining in the Victorian District. It was damaged extensively by fire in PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION A. Physical History: 1. Date of erection: Ca. Lot 22, upon which this struc- ture stands, was sold in together with lot 20 for In the owner of the lots, CA. Cloud, rented two houses located on the corner of Barnard and Park Avenue, one of which may have been this structure. In lot 22 was sold alone for indicating that a building had been erected on the lot. 2. Architect: Not known. 3. Original owner: Carroll A. Cloud of Walton County. 4. Alterations and additions: A two-story concrete block section was added to the rear. The direction of the interior stairs has been reversed.

In the ground floor the central hall had originally extended through the entire length of the house; during the reno- vation the eastern wall of the hall was removed at the rear of the house creating a large rear room. The door from the front hall to the dining room was opened up into a large rectangular opening. A door to the exterior in the west wall of the dining room was closed up. On the second floor the vertical sliding doors between the front and rear bedrooms have been closed. Closets have been installed in the second-story bedrooms by the fireplaces. The door to the west back bedroom from the hall was moved several feet to the south. 119 WEST PARK AVENUE HABS No. GA-1169E (Page 2) B.

Historical Events and Persons Connected with the Structure: Madame Chastenet, wife of a later owner of the house, conducted a French school in this house. The house is located in an early development of the Victorian District known as Oglethorpe Town. For background information, see Savannah Victorian Historic District, HABS No. GA-1169. C.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA,26-SAV,53E-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Deed Records, 3 I 20, and 3 X Chatham County Courthouse, Savannah, Georgia. Daily Morning News, 2 January vol. 5, p. 204 located at the Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia. Prepared by: Beth Lattimore Reiter Project Historian Historic American Buildings Survey August, PART II. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION A. General Statement: 1. Architectural character: This two-story masonry structure with a raised entrance stoop is characterized by a Greek Revival doorway and interior woodwork. 2. Condition of fabric: Poor; this house had been completely restored when it was severely damaged by fire in the summer of B. Description of Exterior: 1. Overall dimensions: This L-shaped house is one story with a fully exposed basement level. It measures (five-bay front) X with a rear addition X 2.

Foundations: Brick. 3. Wall construction, finish: Load bearing brick construction with a concrete block rear addition. A brick belt course defines the first-floor level on the north facade. 119 WEST PARK AVENUE HABS No. GA-1169E (Page 3] 4. Structural system: Load bearing brick construction. 5. Porches, steps: The central entrance porch rests on brick piers, and is approached from the west by iron steps. Plain wooden posts support the flat canopy and turned balusters are between the posts, 6. Chimneys: One brick chimney is located at the east end of the house and one near the west center. 7. Openings: a. Doorways, doors: The main central entrance is framed by four-light sidelights and a five-light transom. The door is wooden with arched panels.

The ground-floor central entrance is a wooden four-panel door. The door from the kitchen is a wooden panel door with an exterior metal and glass storm door. b. Windows: There are no windows on the east wall. The ground- floor windows are segmental-arched with stx-over-six-light sashes, sashes, flanked by louvered shutters. On the north facade of the second floor there are floor-length parlor windows with nine-over-nine lights. 8. Roof: a. Shape, covering: Shallow hip roof with standing seam metal sheathing. b. Cornice and eaves: A brick dentil course is below the wooden box cornice. Gutters with metal downspouts are concealed by the corntce. C. Description of Interior: 1. Floor plans: Central-hall plan, two rooms deep on both the ground floor and first floor.

The central hall terminates in a room created by the concrete block addition. 2. Stairways: The stairs are a straight run which originally ran from the ground-floor to the first floor directly opposite the ground-floor entrance. The stairway has been reversed and now runs from the ground-floor rear room to the first floor, 3. Flooring: Hardwood floors throughout. 119 WEST PARK AVENUE HABS No. GA-1169E (Page 4) 4. Wall and ceiling finish: Painted plaster walls. Originally the plaster cornice in the first-floor central hall stopped midway down the hall. There was no cornice in the rear half of the hall. Dur- ing the present renovation a wood cornice resembling the plaster cornice has been installed in the rear half. The ground floor has an exposed beam ceiling. 5. Openings: a.

Doorways, doors: The interior doors are wooden six-panel doors. There are sliding double doors between the hall and the parlors on the main level. Each of these doors has six panels arranged in two rows of three. The doors between the front and back rooms on this level slide up into the wall, and are framed by wide Classical shoulder trim. b. Windows: The windows are framed in wide shouldered surrounds. 6. Decorative features: All rooms have fireplaces with simple wooden mantels of a plain frieze and pilasters supporting a simple shelf. The largest fireplace is located in the southwest ground-floor room, the original kitchen. 7. Hardware: Silver-plated escutcheons are attached to the sliding parlor doors. 3, Mechanical systems: a.

Heating, airconditioning, ventilating: The house was originally ventilated by the central hall crosscurrent of air and heated by wood-burning firplaces. Now it is centrally airconditioned and heated. b. Lighting: Electrical wiring. D. Site: The house faces north and is built on the lot line. Prepared by: Beth Lattimore Reiter Project Historian Historic American Buildings Survey August, 119 WEST PARK AVENUE HABS No. GA-1169E (Page 5) PART III. PROJECT INFORMATION This project was undertaken by the Historic American Buildings Survey in cooper- ation with the City of Savannah, the Historic Preservation Section of the Georgia Department o Natural Resources, the Savannah Landmark Rehabilitation Project, Inc., and Historic Savannah Foundation.

The recording project was completed dur- ing the summer of under the general direction of John Poppeliers, Chief of HABS; Kenneth L. Anderson, Principal Architect; Eric Delony, Project Coordinator, Savannah Landmark Rehabilitation Project, Inc.; Beth Lattimore Reiter, Project Historian, Savannah Landmark Rehabilitation Project, Inc.; and Susan Dornbusch, Project Supervisor, University of Virginia; with student architects Gregori Ander- son (Howard University), David Fixler (Columbia University), Stephen Lauf (Temple University), and Tamara Peacock (University of Florida), at the HABS Office in Savannah, Georgia. The drawings were edited in the Washington office in September by architects Susan Dornbusch and Gregori Anderson.

The historical and archi- tectural data was reviewed and edited during October-November by staff histo- rian Jan Ciglianc. Photographs were taken in September by Walter Smalling, a staff photographer with the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service. The doc- umentation on the historic district will be used in the rehabilitation of the resi- dences and in developing design guidelines for the area.