Commercial Development of Western Savannah

Commercial Development of Western Savannah. . Urbanization of western Savannah in the early twentieth century was spurred by growth in employment opportunities at the Central of Georgia Railroad facilities, the port, and the port-dependent industries that included the Hilton-Dodge Lumber Company, American Can Company, Mutual Fertilizer Company, Diamond Match Company, and Union Bag and Paper Corporation. The industrial facilities provided abundant jobs for both white and African American workers in the Jim Crow era, and the major roads and electric railways serving the area helped create the Hudson Hill, Woodville, and West Savannah neighborhoods as workers chose to settle close to the city's major employers. A diverse mix of small businesses that appealed to both neighborhood residents and motorists soon expanded along the Augusta Avenue and Bay Street corridors. These businesses reached their peak in number and diversity in the 1950s and included small grocery stores, seafood markets, fruit stands, restaurants, dry cleaners, pharmacies, and gas stations. They declined in the 1970s as residents shopped elsewhere and finally collapsed in the 1990s when layoffs in the manufacturing sector caused working-age residents to move, leaving fewer homeowners and customers to support local businesses., Information from Low Land and the High Road: Life and Community in the Hudson Hill, West Savannah, and Woodville Neighborhoods, by Martha L. Keber