City Hall - 1940

City Hall - 1940. . The City of Tybee Island, by comparison to our neighbor Savannah, is a relatively young city. The city was chartered in 1887 as Ocean City, and a year later the name was changed to Town of Tybee. Tybee Island was developed as a seaside resort town for the Central of Georgia Railroad, and the majority of the island's small full-time population worked within the booming tourist industry. , , In 1929 the town once again changed its name to the Town of Savannah Beach, and by the beginning of 1940 Tybee Island had a year round community of 636 people and more than 600 houses had been built. Savannah Beach, as it became known, had grown to over 1000 residents by the end of 1940 , , The neo-classical City Hall was completed for a sum of $27,000 in 1939, which would amount $541,000 in 2022. , , The building was used for city business as well as for city and community events. During this time Tybee Island also built its first public school (1943), a new recreation area known as Memorial Park (1947), and the Fort Screver Theater became a community movie theater (1946). By 1980 Tybee Island's population had swelled to over 2,200 people, and to return to its roots, the Town of Savannah Beach changed its name back to City of Tybee Island. City Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. , (captions) , Tybee Island City Hall 1940 , , Dance Recital at Town Hall 1951 , , Tybee Island City Hall on left in the 1960s