GLYNN COUNTY HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY REPORT Prepared for: The Glynn County Board of Commissioners By Robert A. Ciucevich, M.H.P. Quatrefoil Historic Preservation Consulting 22 W. Bryan Street #139 Savannah, Georgia 31401 (912) 233-8655 2 GLYNN COUNTY HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY REPORT Prepared for the Glynn County Board of Commissioners 701 G Street, Brunswick, GA 31520 By QUATREFOIL CONSULTING Robert A. Ciucevich, M.H.P. – Project Manager, Historic Preservation Planner July 2009 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5 SECTION 1: PROJECT DESCRIPTION 8 SECTION 2: METHODOLOGY 9 SECTION 3: SURVEY RESULTS 10 Overview 10 Analysis 15 SECTION 4: DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY 21 SECTION 5: ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS 28 Architectural Style 28 Building Types 31 Structural Characteristics and Building Materials 34 SECTION 6: INTEGRITY AND PHYSICAL CONDITION 39 SECTION 7: NATIONAL REGISTER ELIGIBILITY 41 Recommendations of Priorities for Nomination 47 SECTION 8: LOCAL PERSPECTIVES 71 SECTION 9: BIBLIOGRAPHY 74 APPENDIX A: INDEX OF HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEYED MAINLAND: INDEX OF HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEYED ST. SIMONS ISLAND: INDEX OF HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEYED JEKYLL ISLAND: INDEX OF HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEYED SEA ISLAND: INDEX OF HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEYED APPENDIX B: INVENTORY OF HISTORIC GLYNN COUNTY CEMETERIES APPENDIX C: HISTORIC PRESERVATION ELEMENT, GLYNN CO. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks to Dick Newbern, Grants Coordinator, Glynn County Community Development Department, who served as project supervisor and who helped guide the project to a successful conclusion. Mr. Newbern helped guide the survey and coordinated project tasks with Quatrefoil Consulting, providing tremendous assistance and moral support throughout the duration of the project We would also like to extend a special thanks to the Glynn County GIS Department, especially P. Hunter Key, who provided us with quality community base maps for the field survey. This survey was greatly enhanced through the generous cooperation of many individuals in Glynn County. They provided information about their residences and business establishments, shared their personal histories, recounted memories of their neighborhoods, and occasionally gave impromptu tours of the interior of their buildings. Glynn County and Vicinity from Jedediah Morse’s Map of Georgia c1797 5 Map of Glynn County c1839 6 George Cram Railroad and County Map of Glynn County 1885 7 SECTION 1: PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Glynn County Historic Resources Survey Update was conducted as part of an ongoing county-wide preservation planning initiative sponsored by the Glynn County Board of Commissioners. The survey will identify all historically significant buildings, structures, and sites located within the unincorporated sections of Glynn County and will serve as an update to the c1996 Glynn County Historic Resources Survey (also conducted by Quatrefoil Consulting of Savannah, Georgia) through the inclusion of all relevant historic resources built on or before 1960. The survey, which will form the basis for all future preservation planning in the county, will also make up the historic resources component of the Glynn County Comprehensive Plan as well as the planning component for the Coastal Comprehensive Plan. The survey was funded through a grant from the Georgia DNR Coastal Zone Management Coastal Incentive Program and matched in part by the Glynn County Board of Commissioners. All phases of the survey were conducted by Robert A. Ciucevich of Quatrefoil Consulting in consultation with Dick Newbern, Grants Coordinator, Glynn County Community Development Department. Glynn County Historic Resources Survey Area 8 SECTION 2: METHODOLOGY Survey procedures outlined in the Georgia Historic Resources Survey Manual provided by the Historic Preservation Division were followed throughout the Glynn County Historic Resources Survey Update. The surveyor conducted a preliminary area analysis field survey of the survey area during which the different types of historic properties, locations of their major concentrations, and general periods and patterns of development of the historic resources were identified. Following this, an intensive field survey was performed in which all properties deemed to be 50 years or older were photographed, its location marked on a USGS Quadrangle map, and a Georgia Historic Resource Survey form completed. Those resources that suffered a significant loss of integrity were excluded from the survey. Following the field survey, all data and digital photos were input in NAHRGIS, the Natural, Archeological, and Historic Resources Geographic Information Systems online data base. All data and digital photos resulting from this survey can be viewed by logging onto the NAHRGIS website, www.itos.uga.edu/nahrgis. Historical information for the preparation of the developmental history, as well as the background information of the individual properties, was obtained through research at the Brunswick-Glynn County Regional Library, Georgia Historical Society, Glynn County Courthouse (plat maps and records), and the Live Oak Branch of the Chatham-Effingham County Regional Library System. The Glynn County Tax Assessor’s website was used extensively in assessing the date of construction of each resource. When available, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps were also consulted in determining the date of construction, type of construction, as well as other relevant information. A number of local informant interviews were conducted as well. While it is possible that a historic property may have been inadvertently omitted from this survey, whether as a result of physical changes that have obscured its historic character or due to borderline age, the surveyor believes that the vast majority of historic resources located within the survey area have been documented by this project. 9 SECTION 3: SURVEY RESULTS A total of 1387 historic resources were surveyed during the Glynn County Historic Resources Survey Update. A survey index listing the survey field number, Georgia Historic Resources Survey Resource ID number, historic name (if applicable), address, academic style, academic type, construction date, and individual National Register eligibility can be found in the appendices. The survey is broken up into four main parts comprised of the three principal islands – Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, and Sea Island – and the remainder of the unincorporated sections of the county, hereafter referred to as “the Mainland.” Two resources surveyed on Little St. Simons Island have been included as part of the St. Simons section of the survey. Survey Results - Overview The Mainland: 810 historic resources were surveyed in this section of the survey area. About 1/3 of the historic resources were found in outlying rural areas of the county. Most of these resources were spread out and isolated. However, quite a few of these resources were found in rural communities such as Sterling, Blythe Island, Brookman, and Everett. The remaining 2/3 of the historic resources were located on the outskirts of Brunswick. Many of these resources are situated in moderate to densely populated industrial, commercial and or suburban areas, and along major highways. Historic Resources Lost Since 1996 It appears that most of the historic resources surveyed during the 1996 historic resources survey remain extant and are represented in the new survey update. Unfortunately, one of the most significant and unique historic resources identified during the 1996 survey – the Atlantic Refining Company (ARCO) Workers Village – was demolished in 2008. Of the 85 historic resources included in the 1996 survey, only two original workers cottages remain in the “white” section of the company village. Other related resources that remain include the ARCO Methodist Church, the ARCO Primary School, and the ARCO Public School (“colored”). Although a dozen workers cottages in the “colored” section of the village remain intact (and are included as part of the survey update), these resources appear to be in danger as the county has targeted the area for redevelopment. New Historic Resources Added to Inventory Since the completion of the 1996 Glynn County Historic Resources Survey, which was limited to historic resources built on or before 1946, two major mid- 20th 10 century housing types – the American small house (or post WW II house) and the ranch house – have attained the 50 year age requirement for consideration of historical significance. The housing boom that occurred during this period appears to have had the most impact on the Mainland as 323 resources surveyed – or 39.8% - date from this period. Although many of these resources are scattered throughout the county, several hundred are concentrated in 1940s and 1950s era subdivisions that were built in close proximity to Brunswick’s industrial areas – such as Brunswick Villa (c1942) near ARCO and Highland Park (c1957), Glendale Gardens (late 1950s) and several other “mid-modern” subdivisions in Glyndale – as well as high concentrations of mid-modern subdivisions south of GLYNCO and adjacent the Brunswick Country Club – such as Country Club Park (c1950) and Beverly Shores (c1954). Because of the sheer numbers of American small house and ranch houses built during the 1940s and 1950s, respectively, a representative number of examples where surveyed within identifiable and distinct subdivision developments where it was deemed most appropriate. Several of these subdivisions appear to be eligible for listing in the National Register