The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-26
AN APPEAL FOR THE
BEAUTIFUL IN CITY HALL

Editor Morning News: AS a citizen
of Savannah, l feel very much inter-
ested in the architectural competition
now on for savannah's new city hall.
A municipal building, it appears to me,
ought to be gauge on which the
standard of civilization and culture of
its builder is registered. BY the build
en- of course, 1 have reference to the
citizens.
The best advertisements city can
have are it's public buildings. Through
out European cities municipal build
ings are not only beautiful on the out
side, but they are attractive on the in
side as well. This is due to the inte-
rior decorations and frescoes illustrate
ing the history of the city. A big
pile of stone or marble with tower
or dome, but without interior decora-
ton, to say the least, is very poor
taste. 1t is like a nicely gowned wom-
an with little intellect
There is one set of plans now at the
! City Exchange, the anthor of which
| will not mention, which, aside
from being beautiful and
well proportioned design, has
with a number of sketches of in
terror decorations illustrating the his
tory of our city well worth considering
before a decision is reached.
For instance, standing on the second
floor. being the floor the Council Cham
Der and Mayors office are located on,
looking up, one has fun view of
dome decorated with four small fres-
Goes. One is Adventure" the second
Conquest" the third Discovery" and
the fourth Civilization" represented
by figures. All of them are surround
ed by the signs of the zodiac. Imilc-
diateiy below this dome are four lu
nettes. Acting, from an architectural
standpoint, it appears to me, as the
base of the dome. On the first of these
lunettes is depicted Oglethorpe stand
ing on the bluff in conversation with
Tomochichi in reference to treaty of
land on which our city now stands. In
the background are seen tents with In
dams around them; to the right the
early settlers are carrying their belong
ings to the tents, and to the left we
have the Savannah river The other
lunette has as a subject the raising of
the Liberty pole in front of Tondee's
Tavern. A crowd of people in great
excitement rushing to the tavern.
dressed in colonial costume, some drag
SlhB CduIpiS dIleT them. Inc Inlfd
lunette gives a view of the river with
the rice boats, and the British vessels
when they We're fired upon by the CO.
lonials. Some of them are burning and
others run aground. The fourth is an
allegorical painting representing Sa-
Vannah, in the form of a figure on the
Prov of a boat. The boat is laden
with cotton, turpentine. etc, and is
pulled out to sea by Tritons. On both
sides of the boat are lighters, on which
laborers are loading cotton. lumber,
etc In the distance an outline of the
city is seen.
The rest of the lobby and rotunda is
decorated in pleasing colors, in con-
formity with the rest. The Council
Chamber is especially beautiful. and the
Mayors office also is as handsomely
decorated as is possible for the amount
of money at disposal. All of the fig
ure painting the author tells me win
be done in oil on canvas and put I'D
later
The exterior of the building is de-
signed in a classic style, looks massive
and strong and is topped with a hand
some dome. We have already a num-
Der of towers and steeples. a dome
would be variety and a change from
+ the monotonous. John Tahaferro