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Circa 1908. "DeSoto Hotel, Savannah, Georgia." Automobilists welcome! 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
In the late 50's and early 60's my family and I would often walk through this beautiful hotel after church. I can still remember the portico area with its ceiling fans, what I think was marble flooring and lots of palms. It was a sad day in the city with historic preservation really getting underway that this remarkable building was replaced with a glass and steel edifice of 60's modernist architecture.
Horse drawn conveyances, please wait around the corner for the doorman to flag you.
The Desoto Hotel opened in 1890. It was designed by William Gibbons Preston, a Boston architect, who was responsible for some of the remarkable Romanesque buildings in Savannah.
The Desoto Hotel was revered as one of Preston's masterpieces. The hotel was torn down in 1968 by the Hilton chain because it did not have air conditioning. There is a new Desoto Hilton hotel built on the site. Some of the terracotta ornamentation and some photographs from the original hotel are on display in the hotel's lobby.
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