SAVANNAH POWDER MAGAZINE

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ONLY KNOWN REMAINING POWDER MAGAZINE IN GEORGIA

The City of Savannah commissioned LPC to compile a National Register Nomination for the 1898 Eichburg and Witcover designed Savannah Powder Magazine located off Ogeechee Road. Consulting services included extensive archival research as well as the preparation of the National Register Nomination. The nomination covered not only the history behind the Ogeechee Road Magazine but the City of Savannah’s powder magazine evolution in its entirety.

The Savannah Powder Magazine is significant under National Register Criterion A at the local level as its construction is directly related to the rapid growth the City of Savannah experienced in the second half of the nineteenth century. The construction of the Powder Magazine was one of several public works projects the City undertook to improve the safety and quality of life of its residents. It is significant at the state level as the only extant municipal powder magazine in the state of Georgia. Prior to the construction of the Savannah Powder Magazine in 1898, five other magazines existed in Savannah. However, these magazines were all originally designed for military use, two of which were later repurposed as city magazines. Only the magazine located on Ogeechee Road was purpose built as a municipal magazine and has remained under its original ownership.

The Savannah Powder Magazine is also significant under the National Register Criterion C for three distinct reasons. The design, construction, and materiality of the magazine took into consideration the relatively new invention of dynamite. It is the only powder magazine in the history of Savannah that was specifically designed to safely store dynamite along with the traditional explosive of black powder. The two-room plan of the magazine ensured that dynamite was stored separately from black powder by a double wythe brick interior wall. The Powder Magazine retains much of its integrity, including safety measures utilized in the construction of powder magazines such as the asphalt coated interior, iron vents in the walls and ceilings, and unique features such as light boxes vented through the twelve-inch-thick exterior brick walls.

Though the Powder Magazine is a utilitarian building, intended to provide safe storage for explosives, it was designed with a high style exterior. The Gothic Revival style building was purpose built as a municipal powder magazine however, its design is reminiscent of eighteenth and nineteenth century forts. Two notable Georgia architects designed the Powder Magazine, Alfred S. Eichberg and Hyman W. Witcover. Eichberg moved to Savannah in the 1880s and in 1894 hired Witcover as a draftsman for his independent architecture firm, at an unknown date Witcover became a partner in the firm. Eichberg and Witcover only worked as partners in Savannah for a brief period. By May 1899, the firm was dissolved, Eichberg had returned to Atlanta and Witcover had become an influential architect in Savannah. Though they only worked together for a brief period in Savannah, they designed several buildings such as the new Duffy Street Baptist Church (Asbury United Methodist Church today) in 1897, the new tower on the county jail, police court, the Knights of Pythias Castle Hall, and the Powder Magazine in 1898. To date, the Savannah Powder Magazine is the only known, entirely intact, original design from their brief period of collaboration left in Savannah.

The Savannah Powder Magazine was accepted to the Georgia Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places in November 2024.

Local designation is currently in process by the City of Savannah in order to provide local protections for the building and the site.