Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. collection Descriptive Summary Repository: Georgia Historical Society Creator: Hartridge, Walter Charlton, 1914-1974. Title: Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. collection Dates: 1500s-1900s Extent: 102.5 cubic feet (189 boxes, 11 volumes, 62 oversize folders) Identification: MS 1349 Biographical/Historical Note Walter Charlton Hartridge , Jr. (1914-1974). Walter C. Hartridge’s legacy to Savannah is one which will endure. His life was devoted to preserving not only the architectural treasures of the city, but also to rescuing and preserving its documentary heritage. History was alive to him, and Historic Savannah Foundation, Inc.’s tribute to him after his death, captured the heart and spirit with which he fought to enlighten and educate Savannah’s citizens: “…his scholarship formed an early and continuing ingredient of the historic preservation movement in Savannah. He loved this city without reservation and worked tirelessly and unselfishly his entire life to preserve its historic character. His legacy to Savannah is vast: his ability to bring Savannah’s history alive is legendary, and his life will be an inspiration to the cause of historic preservation for years to come…” The son of Walter Charlton Hartridge, Sr. (1870-1932), a distinguished Savannah attorney, and his second wife, Catharine Honoria McIntire Hartridge (1879-1949), Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. numbered among his illustrious forbears: U.S. Representative Julian Hartridge (1829-1879), his grandfather; and his great–grandfather Robert Milledge Charlton (1807- 1854) a judge and U.S. District Attorney. He attended Pape School in Savannah, then Loomis Academy in Windsor,Connecticut and received his B.A. in History, cum laude, from Harvard in 1936. In 1938 he received his masters degree in architectural history from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He modestly referred to himself as a “historical researcher”, but his talents were undeniably more persuasive and influential. Among his civic activities and accomplishments, Hartridge was president of the Georgia Historical Society from 1952- 1961; chairman of the Chatham-Savannah Historic Sites and Monuments Commission; historian for the Society of Cincinnati; a fellow of the American Genealogical Society: a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Parish Council of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and the Oglethorpe Club. He organized Savannah Restorations, Inc, and was active in the efforts to develop the Revolutionary Battle Park, and to save the Scarborough House. Earlier efforts resulted in saving the Pink House, the Davenport House, and a number of other significant dwellings. He was a popular and charismatic speaker, and his words influenced the preservation movements in Athens, Augusta, Milledgeville, and Jekyll Island as well as Savannah. His knowledge of southern families was encyclopedic, and he was resourceful in preserving a number of significant collections of family letters, as well as documents in both government and private archive. In addition to editing collections of letters by Robert Mackay, Don Juan McQueen and Michael Wallace, he wrote the text for Savannah, a book of etchings and drawings by Christopher Murray. He published a number of genealogical articles in historical journals, and his collection contains a number of his other articles and speeches. On July 7, 1956, in Orange Park, Florida, Hartridge married Susan L’Engle Macmillan, the daughter of Thomas Hasley Macmillan, Jr. and Helen Sandwich Hartridge Macmillan. The couple had one son, Walter Charlton Hartridge III, born February 21, 1958. Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. died on August 19, 1974, and is buried in Savannah’s Laurel Grove Cemetery. (Abstracted from obituaries and biographical materials in Box 1) Scope and Content Note Rich in family histories and research on Savannah’s architectural heritage the Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. collection is a voluminous testimony to his passion for documentation and preservation. His collection is an eclectic treasure-trove and is represented by virtually every sort of format and genre: correspondence (1700s-1900s.); manuscript drafts (for his own publications and for others’), photographs, prints, maps and charts, pamphlets, account books, diaries and journals, research notes, organizational records, abstracts from public and church records, legal documents, newspaper and magazine articles, scrapbooks, audio tapes, photocopies and photostats, et al. Hartridge transcribed many original materials himself, and the collection is filled with his handwritten notes on school note-book paper. The bulk of the collection is contained in two series, Architectural History and Genealogies, but materials in the other series are usually tangential and support information in the two larger areas. Information, therefore, often overlaps, and the internal collection index should be consulted carefully. All the series contain both original and transcribed (or copied) documents. They relate primarily to coastal Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, but are certainly not restricted to those locations. There are a few copies of 16th century maps and some 18th century correspondence, but most of the collection is 19th-20th centuries. The architectural history materials include detailed information on local buildings, sites and plantations; on the architects, artisans and craftsmen who worked in Savannah, and on preservation movements in Savannah. They should also be invaluable to students of architectural history and decoration, to homeowners who wish documentation of their properties, and to communities which need guidelines in establishing their own preservation programs. The unpublished draft of a book on Savannah’s architectural history (written by Hartridge and David McCord Wright) should both supplement and augment books on the subject which have been published since Walter Charlton Hartridge’s death. Over 1500 hundred individual families (and hundreds more collateral lines) are represented in the genealogical research: Walter C. Hartridge’s (referred to throughout the collection as Walter Charlton Hartridge) own prominent family members, of course, but there is extensive documentation on the French émigré families who fled Santo Domingo at the turn of the seventeenth century; on Florida settlers descended from Minorcans in the Balearic Islands: and on families with Catholic roots, and those descended from Georgia’s colonial settlers. His research includes transcribed interviews with family members, reminiscences, correspondence, charts, and a wealth of other documentary support. Of special interest are the collections of family letters from: * the Hallowes family of north Florida (letters are circa 1836-1931), mainly relating to Co. Miller Hallowes (1799-1877), an Englishman who served as an aide to Simon Bolivar from 1819-30, and who was later a pioneer planter on St John’s River properties in the last days of the steamboat era. * the Hartridge family (circa 1820-71), primarily from John Hartridge to his fiancée, later wife, Mary Hubbard Greene Davidson. These letters are from (among others) John and Mary’s children. Their sons, Charles John and Julian, attended northern colleges, and their letters reflect society and academe circa 1850. Charles John was in medical school when the yellow fever epidemic of 1854 broke out. He volunteered to minister to the sick in Savannah, contracted the disease himself, and died; letters to his parents during the siege were filled with resolute fortitude. Letters from another son, Alfred Lamar, illustrate his student life at Georgia Military Institute before the Civil War, and his life at Ft. McAllister during the War. * the Della Torre family (circa1840-1920), which include a group of letters spanning nearly 20 years between Rosine Della Torre and Sally Cantey Elmore Taylor, and which are an affirmation of friendship and a sampler in the 19th century women’s studies. * the courtship letters of Francis F. L’Engle and Charlotte J Procher (1847-1853),with later letters following their marriage. This collection also includes letters from Edward l’Engle, describing Florida life and politics. * the courtship letters of John Albon Crowther and Mary Barnwell Elliott (1883-1890). Also of note are the materials relating to Dennis Dean O’Keefe, the self-styled “King of Yap”; information on the naval stores industry in Savannah; rosters and “Morning Report Books” from Ft. Pulaski during the Civil War; the ship’s logs kept by Capt. John Wambersie, which give detailed weather conditions during Atlantic crossings; the correspondence of Catharine McIntyre Hartridge; letterbooks kept by Savannah Postmaster, Solomon Cohen; two fascinating account books kept by Robert Milledge Charlton from 1831-1841, and Peter Guerard’s manuscript account of building a house on Habersham Street between 1820-27. The papers of four coastal women (all active in women’s rights) also form part of the Hartridge Collection: * Emelyn Battersby Hartridge, Walter Charlton Hartridge’s cousin, was principal of the Hartridge School in Plainfield, New Jersey for 36 years and her papers include school accounts, correspondence, information on school entrance examinations, texts of speeches and photographs,etc. * Edith Duncan Johnston was an author and historian, and her papers contain manuscript drafts and research for her book The Houstouns of Georgia; drafts of an unpublished biography of her sister, Eugenia; drafts of an unpublished book on the Campbell family; autobiographical