The Thomas Square Streetcar Historic District, designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1997, is a large, primarily residential, district to the south of Savannah’s Victorian Historic District (which is itself to the south of the more famous Landmark Historic District).
Thomas Square Historic District occupies the area roughly bounded by Anderson Lane to the north, East Broad Street, Victory Drive on the south and Montgomery Street on the west.
Though not so well preserved as the principal Historic District, Thomas Square is home to many late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings of note, mostly examples of residential architecture in the Queen Anne, Craftsman, Italianate, and various revival styles.
The development of this portion of the city has its origins in the extension and electrification of Savannah’s streetcar system.
Streetcars, then horse or mule drawn, were built in Savannah from the late 1860s. They allowed residents who might still work in the central district of the city to live at much greater distances from their workplace than when transportation was on foot or, for the more wealthy, by horse or carriage.
Horse and mule cars increased the distance people could sensibly live from the central city. Electrification, which in Savannah came in 1890, increased it still further, as the electric cars were able to travel much faster than the heavy carriages pulled by draught animals.
The city bought the land that would become the Thomas Square district in the mid 1880s, laying off streets and selling the lots to individuals hoping to build their homes there.
Development was slow at first, largely confined to the area immediately around the streetcar line that ran down Whitaker Street.
By the first years of the twentieth century, however, it gathered considerable pace, the area rapidly settled with single and multiple family homes, mostly middle class in the central parts but with a greater portion of less affluent residents on the eastern and western margins.
Development of the district was mostly complete by around 1920. By that time, the streetcar industry was ailing severely, replaced by the new technology of personal automobiles as the preferred mode of transport for Savannah’s middle classes. The prestigious Ardsley Park and Chatham Crescent districts, each constructed by a single development company rather than the city itself, were built on the basis of the automobile rather than the streetcar.
Thomas Square as a district holds great historic significance as an example of the streetcar era in residential development, besides the individual structures to which it is home.
Though efforts at preservation of its many significant buildings are underway, the Thomas Square Historic District is in many places in a somewhat rundown condition, decay of the historic properties and inappropriate uses thereof remaining significant challenges.