Vintage Savannah Georgia View Over Johnson Square
by Mark E Tisdale
Title
Vintage Savannah Georgia View Over Johnson Square
Artist
Mark E Tisdale
Medium
Digital Art - Digital Painting Over Vintage Photo
Description
I love the nostalgia of vintage scenes and this one of Savannah's Johnson Square has a genuinely antique vibe about it. And that can be said whether or not you are familiar with Savannah and its beautiful squares. My work is based on an original black and white photo published by the Detroit Publishing Company in the early 20th century. After spending some time examining the original, it appears this must be Savannah as it appeared sometime between 1905 and 1911. The two skyscrapers just beyond historic Johnson Square are the Germania Bank Building (also known as the Blun Building) and the Liberty Bank and Trust building. Construction was completed on these, the first of Savannah's skyscrapers, in 1904 and 1905. By 1911, the Savannah Bank and Trust Company had built another skyscraper on the adjacent corner. Since it would obscure part of the view over Johnson Square from this vantage point, we can narrow the time frame to the first decade of the 20th century!
There's very little of this historic view of Savannah that one would see around Johnson Square today. Both of the Beaux arts skyscrapers were demolished in the 1970s, and many of the old hotels and residences that can be seen on the square were gone before the middle of the century passed. There's no doubt the 20th century brought a lot of change to this cityscape which makes this lost view of Savannah all the more unique.
Johnson Square is the oldest in Savannah and I tracked down as much history as I could about the buildings immediately around the square in my attempt to be somewhat authentic with the color choices, etc. Where I couldn't identify the buildings and they no longer existed, I consulted paint swatches from the period. The end result is one part vintage fantasy and two parts history. If you're familiar with any of the historic buildings around the square, I'd love to hear any details you can share about them!
This and more can be seen at tisdaleart.com
Original photo can be viewed at Library of Congress:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994023942/PP/
Uploaded
February 16th, 2015
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