"Incredibly, just days after Sherman captured Savannah, a majority of the city's leading  

citizens voted not just to surrender but to rejoin the Union, turning their backs on  

their sons and husbands fighting in Confederate armies on other battlefields." 

—Michael L. Jordan (Hidden History of Civil War Savannah) 

The Algernon Sydney Hartridge Residence 

Savannah College of Art and Design's Keys Hall is located at 516 Abercorn Street, sitting east across the street from beautiful Forsyth Park. SCAD purchased this building in 1995 and refurbished it by 1998 for use as the college's communications department. 

Initially, it was built in 1871 as a four-story Italianate residence to serve the family of Algernon Sydney Hartridge. Constructed with Savannah grey brick, some of the residence's more stylish features include its scored stucco, the angled metal pediments above its many windows and doors, and the eaves from its roof supported by lovely wooden brackets.  

Algernon Hartridge was a cotton merchant in Savannah. Like many of Savannah's successful businessmen from that period, Hartridge also served on the Board of Directors of several politically powerful companies, including the Central of Georgia Railroad Company (see PFS-91). 

During the Civil War, Algernon served as the first lieutenant in the Dekalb Riflemen, a militia responsible for protecting the city from invasion. Algernon's older brother, Alfred, captained that militia. After the war, Algernon led an effort to raise the sunken ships resting on the bottom of the Savannah River and to create a memorial for the Confederate naval battles on the river.  

Algernon died from hepatitis in 1876 at age 44. Two years later, Alfred committed Algernon's widow, Susan, to a mental ward, as she was declared insane by local authorities. Susan Hartridge had run up debts, requiring the family to take charge of Algernon's diminishing estate.  

Algernon and Susan Hartridge are now buried in the family plot in Laurel Grove Cemetery. Buried nearby rest a total of nine infants named Hartridge — the death of children was a common tragic occurrence in that day. The Hartridge family were active members of Christ Church (see PFS-27). 

In 1939, the Savannah Broadcasting Company purchased this former residence to serve as the AM radio studios of the local CBS affiliate WTOC. A tall broadcast tower, which is still standing, was later built next to the building. Then, in 1954, WTOC-TV was established to become the first television station to serve Savannah and the nearby Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina. 

After the Civil War, the efforts initiated by Algernon Hartridge to raise sunken Confederate battleships from the bottom of the Savannah River continued for almost 150 years.  

For example, the CSS Georgia — built in Savannah in 1862 with funds raised by The Ladies' Gunboat Association while the Civil War raged on — was deployed to prevent Union naval forces from advancing on the city from the Atlantic Ocean. When the Union Army, led by William Tecumseh Sherman, burned its way across Georgia after overtaking Atlanta in September 1864, it reached the gates of Savannah by that December. To prevent the CSS Georgia from being captured, its crew scuttled the ironclad in the Savannah River. 

In 1866, efforts led by Algernon Hartridge helped salvage the CSS Georgia's valuable iron armor. The remainder of the ship was left untouched and largely forgotten until 1968, when it was rediscovered during a dredging operation deepening the Savannah River to advance the city's shipping industry. Beginning in May 2012, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began recovering more remains of the CSS Georgia ironclad, including its canons and ordinance. By 2017, the Corp recovered over 1000 artifacts.