The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-31
CITYS BANNER YEAR
HANDSOME AND COSTLY BUILD
INGS HAVE BEEN ERECTED.
HEALTH CONDITIONS GOOD.
DEATH RATE FOR 1908 PROMISES
TO DE LIGHTER THAN FOR 1902.

Reports of the City Officers for the
Year Ending To-day Shows Tint
the City Government Is in Excel
lent Shape-City Marshal Collected
Much More MOneS-Great Many
More Business Places ON Books.
City DIspensary's Splendid show
fng-Were More Fires Than in
1902.
What has been the most successful
year in the history of the city gov
eminent will close at midnight to-
night.
Sufficient progress has been made by
the heads of the various departments
in their annual reports to give an ac-
curate idea Of what the city has done
during 1903, although these reports will
not be ready for the Mayor until well
into next year.
Up to last night forty-three more
building permits had been issued by
the Board of Tax Assessors than were
issued in 1862. The year has been
banner one from a building standpoint
and more handsome residences and
costly buildings have been erected
than during any previous year in the
history of the office. The value of the
Improvements made cannot even be
estimated at this time, and it will be
II week before the assessors will be
able to figure on the Improvements in
dollars and cents.
Many More Permits.
During the year 593 permits for i'm
provements and new buildings were
issued by the board of assessors. In
1902 the permits numbered only 551.
Architect II. w. Witcover, who is the
supervising architect for the new Ger
mania Bank building, and who will be
in charge of the construction of the
new City Hall, says that the year
has been an unusually active one in
building circles and that many fine
homes have been erected. Yet Mr..
Witcover has reason to believe that
1904 will be even a better year than
the one now closing.
Outside of the erection of the Ger
mania Bank building, the first sky
scraper to go up in Savannah, the
most important piece of work in the
building line that has been taken up
in 1903, is the improvement of the
DeRenne property on the north side
of Bay street. An unusually large
number of handsome dwellings have
been erected during the year. One
of those that has attracted a great
deal of attention is the home of Mrs.
G.. B. Dasher at Drayton and Thirty
fifth streets.
Some New Buildings.
Among the other valuable improve
ments made during 1903 were Joseph
Rosenheims home at Bull and Thirty
first streets; M. S. Bycks resident at
Park avenue and Whitaker street: the
Minis building at the northwest corner
of West Broad and Jones streets; DIR.
John w. Daniels home at Henry and
Drayton; j. c. Slater's building on Nc
Donough and West Broad; S. P. Ke-
hoes home on Harris, near Drayton;
Mrs. NJ. Paulsen's residence on Thirty
sixth between Drayton and Abercorn;
Wayne Cunningham's dwelling in the
same block; F. S. Van Giesen's resi-
dence at Thirty-seventh and Barnard,
and Thomas CANDLES home on the
same street, between Barnard and JEFF
ferson.
Bright Year Ahead
The new City Hall will be the most
pretentious building of 1904, but other
costly structures will be erected, be-
sides a great many pretty private res
licences. Work on the Sacred Heart
Church, which will cost approximately
100000 will be resumed during the
year. The prospects for the building
of a Masonic Temple are bright and
the Elks may decide to have work
started on their proposed new home.
Something may be done during the
year with the National Banks prop
erty on Bull and Broughton streets,
and with the property on Bull and
Macon streets, where it is intended to
erect a modern apartment hotel A
new Y. NJ c. A.. building is a posi-
bility for 1904. The outlook is that the
coming year will be even brighter than
the one that is now dying.
AS has been stated in the Morning
News before, the city treasurer will
carry over surplus of over $4,000.
This amount will be used without any
trouble during 1904 and will be drawn
on to pay for the new City Hall.