Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
, United States. It was opened in 1852 by Mary Magdalene Marshall as one of Savannah's first hotels (although it was built thirty years after the City Hotel, the city's first). Located on East
Broughton Street
Broughton Street is a prominent street in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located between Congress Street to the north and State Street to the south, it runs for about from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the west to East Broad Stre ...
, it is the city's oldest operating hotel today, owned by Savannah's HLC Hotels, Inc., which also owns the city's Olde Harbour Inn, the Eliza Thompson House, the East Bay Inn, the Gastonian and the
Kehoe House
Kehoe House is a historic building in the American city of Savannah, Georgia. It is located in the northwestern civic block of Columbia Square and was built in 1892.Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
in 1864 and 1865 during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
veranda
A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure.
Although the form ''veran ...
on the front of the second floor of the property.
A decade later, the Marshall Hose Company, a volunteer fire department, was founded to protect the property, and others, in Savannah.
The Florida House, an adjoining property, became part of the Marshall House in 1880.
The hotel closed between 1895 and 1899. When it reopened, electric lights and hot and cold plumbing was installed on every floor.
Mary Marshall owned the property until 1914, and a later resident was
Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris (December 9, 1848 – July 3, 1908) was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a planta ...
, author of the ''
Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post-Reconstruction era Atlanta, a ...
'' series.
In 1933, Herbert W. Gilbert, a
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
native, leased the building and changed its name to the Gilbert Hotel.
Gilbert sold the hotel in 1941, at which point it had a lobby, dining room, living room, reading room, 66 guest rooms, one suite, an apartment and six storage rooms.
The property was named the Geiger Hotel for a period.
The Marshall House closed in 1957 due to an economic downturn. The upper three floors were abandoned, but the ground floor was used by shopkeepers up until 1998. The building was restored the following year and reopened to the public as Savannah's oldest hotel.
Original parts of the building include the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
pressed brick on the exterior, the Savannah grey brick throughout, its staircases, wooden floors, fireplaces and the doors to each guest room. Several claw-foot baths date to 1880. The veranda and
gas light
''Gas Light'' is a 1938 thriller play, set in the Victorian era, written by the British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton. Hamilton's play is a dark tale of a marriage based on deceit and trickery, and a husband committed to driving h ...
s were reproduced in the likeness of the originals.
An 1830 portrait of Mary Marshall, who died in 1877 at the age of 93, is hanging in the lobby after it was acquired from the estate of Jim Williams, the central figure in
John Berendt
John Berendt (born December 5, 1939) is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'', which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.
Biography
Ber ...
's non-fiction novel ''
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published in 1994 and follows the story of an antiques dealer on trial for the murder of a male prostitute. Subtitled ''A Savannah S ...
Savannah Morning News
The ''Savannah Morning News'' is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Gannett. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry". The paper serves Savannah, its metropolitan area, and parts of South Ca ...
'', October 13, 2020
Gallery
File:Hotels -- Marshall House.jpg, The Marshall House in the late 19th century
File:Street Scenes -- Broughton Street at Night, Savannah Georgia.jpg, The Marshall House shown adjacent to the Avon Theatre in a 1952 postcard
File:Metropolitan, Savannah, GA, USA - panoramio.jpg, Viewed from the East Broughton and Drayton Street intersection (2015)
File:Marshall House Historic Savannah Hotel-4.jpg, alt=The Mary Marshall Suite at The Marshall House, The Mary Marshall Suite
File:Marshall House Historic Savannah Hotel-6.jpg, alt=Staircase inside The Marshall House (2022), The interior (2022)
File:Marshall House Historic Savannah Hotel-3.jpg, alt=Sign outside The Marshall House, Sign on the exterior
File:Marshall House Historic Savannah Hotel-5.jpg, alt=Inside The Marshall House lobby (2022), Lobby (2022)
See also
*
List of historic houses and buildings in Savannah, Georgia
This is a list of historic houses and buildings in Savannah, Georgia, that have their own articles or are on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
;Houses
* Owens–Thomas House (NRHP and National Landmark)
* Isaiah Davenport Hou ...