“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

—Thomas Jefferson 

Citizens & Southern Bank: Now SCAD’s Propes Hall

Originally built in 1895, this building was created for the Citizens Bank and was the first ‘skyscraper’ to tower over Savannah. All 5.5 stories of it!

The building’s original construction costs were a modest $60,000. The bank would later merge with another to form the Citizens and Southern Bank; later relocating in 1910, thereby opening space for the building’s next major tenants, to include the Savannah Fire Insurance Company and Western Union. 

Over its long history, mergers would lead this bank to become part of Bank of America. The bank was run for years by Mills Bee Lane, Jr. Upon retirement, Lane, with his wife Anne, returned from Atlanta to become very influential in numerous restoration projects throughout Savannah’s Historic District.

Acquired in 1992, the building now houses Savannah College of Art and Design’s Propes Hall.

Gottfried L. Norrman was the Swedish-born architect who designed this skyscraper. The building included the modern convenience of an elevator, fire-proof construction with a steel frame, and interior iron columns covered with clay tiles. Norrman relocated to Atlanta in 1881, and went on to design many buildings throughout the south, including South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, and in Florida.

The year following his completion of the Citizens Bank building (1896), Gottfried L. Norman designed the Anderson Street Elementary School in Savannah, which now serves as SCAD’s Anderson Hall. 

SCAD’s Propes Hall is a National Historic Landmark.

The area surrounding Johnson Square is known as Savannah’s ‘banking square’ because of the many banks that have long been located nearby. 

The square was named for Roger Johnson, a close associate of Savannah founder James Oglethorpe. Johnson was the Royal Governor of South Carolina when Georgia was founded in 1733.

From its beginning, James Oglethorpe laid out the city of Savannah in a ward system. The centerpiece of each ward included a square, and each ward was designed to make its military defense more effective.

Johnson Square is part of the Derby Ward, which was named for the Right Honorable James, the Tenth Earl of Derby, who was one of the founding Trustees of the Georgia Colony. Johnson Square is also the largest of all the squares in Savannah, originally laid out the year the colony was founded in 1733.

On this particular day, the sun intensely focused my eyes to one small part of the building, leaving the remainder of the Citizens & Southern Bank, as well as all surrounding buildings, in darkened shadows. 

And as I mentioned in my prior Postcard from Savannah, as beautiful as this building truly is, my eyes and brushes were drawn like a magnet to the Cotton Exchange Building residing up the street.