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March 12, 2010

Savannah revives square destroyed in 1950s

AP Associated Press

SAVANNAH — Savannah is celebrating the resurrection of one of its famous squares, a site that helped spark the city’s preservation movement after its demolition in the 1950s.

Ellis Square was one of the original Savannah squares plotted by James Edward Oglethorpe, who founded Georgia in 1733. The square was destroyed, along with the original City Market, in 1954 to build a parking garage.

An outcry among citizens led to the creation of the Historic Savannah Foundation to prevent further loss of the city’s important structures.

City officials scaled back plans for a grand reopening ceremony Thursday, when heavy rain forced them to hold a small ribbon cutting inside the square’s mini-visitor center. Savannah spent more than four years and nearly $32 million restoring it Ellis Square.

The parking deck was razed in 2005 and replaced with an underground garage. Work on the square began in February last year.

 

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