IRONWORK

The great common denominator of historic downtown Savannah houses and buildings, whether they’re Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate or even Richardsonian Romanesque, are the exquisite ironwork railings, fences and gates that drape entrances, steps and porches as though they were expensive lace.

The ironwork started going up after the fires of 1796 and 1820 destroyed virtually the entire early colonial city. Two early advocates were William Jay and Henry McAlpin.

The enormous iron leaves that support the balcony at the Jaydesigned Owens-Thomas House Museum were manufactured in London. They were ordered circa-1818, when construction on the house began, and arrived before it was completed. I n 1820, after the devastating Jan. 11 conflagration, Jay offered to help rebuild the business district with fireproof construction, including iron floor joists and iron roof rafters, but was turned down, and shortly thereafter departed town.

McAlpin opened a foundry at the H er mitage, his Savannah Riv er plantation, in the 1820s. “Work of every description will be executed in a style equal to that of any other factory in the United States, and in the lowest possible terms,” read an 1827 advertisement in the Savannah Georgian. Among the products offered were elegant railings to suit inside or outside stairs, balconies, platforms or tombs.

Soon, other foundries opened in the city. Lachlison Brothers, located in the I ndi an Street – F ahm S treet area; Alvin N . M iller & Co. on the east end of R iv er Street; and brothers David and William R os e, whose I ndi an Street F o undry in Yamacraw did a booming business in the 1850s, turning out fences and gates.

Northern foundries found plenty of opportunities here as well, as the city expanded in the 1840s and 1850s. Youle and Sabbaton of New York sold cast iron doors and frames, window frames and shutters, items that were particularly popular in Bay Street and River Street commercial buildings, through a Savannah agent. Another New York foundry, John B. Wickersham, fashioned the fence that was put up around Forsyth Park in 1851.

This traffic was, of course, interrupted during the Civil War, but the Savannah foundries stayed busy then as well. The Rose brothers manufactured shot and shell for the Confederacy, and built the ironclad Atlanta.

After the war, other foundries started, including McDonough & Ballentyne, but the two big names in Savannah iron, then, and for many years afterward, were William Kehoe (1842-1929) and John Rourke (1837-1932).

Both natives of Ireland who sailed to Savannah as children, Kehoe and Rourke also each served the Confederacy, Kehoe as an arms maker in Selma, Ala., Rourke as a soldier. After the war, Kehoe worked at the Savannah Machine and Boiler Works and the Phoenix Architectural Works. In 1880, he set up his own company, Kehoe Iron Works, and it eventually grew to 150 employees and was located on the river front, near the presentday intersection of East River and East Bay streets.

He was most famous then, as he still is now, for his house on H a bersham Street at Columbia Square. E quipp ed with many cast-iron features, it served as a R en aissance R e vival advertisement for his foundry. T o day, it is a bed and breakfast.

Bourke’s Iron Works was located nearby at Bay and East Broad streets. H is ho use at 530 E . Br oughton St. likewise served as testament to his business with its cast-iron window hoods and sills. R o urke remained active in his company until his death at age 94.

Decades later, two blacksmiths settled in Savannah, and brought decorative iron works back to the fore. I v an Bailey arrived first, setting up his shop, “Bailey’s F or ge,” in A ug ust of 1973 on East Bay Street. H is w orks, including sunflower gates, weather vanes and 5-foot-andirons, were an immediate success. Charles Kuralt filmed an episode of “ On the R o ad” at his shop in Fe bruary of 1974. Bailey twice did repair work on the fountain at F or syth Park – repairing and reconstructing its tritons in 1973, and repairing its statue in 1977 after it sustained serious damage during an ice storm.

He moved to Atlanta in 1982, but came back to Savannah in 1996 to craft the 17-foot-high Olympic Cauldron in Morrell Park.

Johnny Smith appeared some years later: The first story on him in the Savannah Morning News’ archives is dated Oct. 2, 1988. Talented and talkative, he quickly hammered out such artful works as wrought-iron gates with flowers, butterflies and hummingbirds adoring them, a spiral stair railing featuring egrets standing in marsh grass, and 8-foot-high, 2,000-pound lamps on Washington Avenue.

And, like Bailey, he added to the city’s Olympic legacy. His 5-foot-high Olympic weathervane was placed atop the pavilion at Daffin Park, an iron and sheet metal depiction of sailboats racing to the finish line across a sea of stylized water.

Sources: Georgia Historical Society papers and publications; “The National Trust Guide to Savannah,” by Roulhac Toledano; “William Kehoe: Fulfilling the American Dream,” by Carol Ann Causey, part of the Savannah Biographies held at the Special Collections of Lane Library of Armstrong State University; online archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah; editions of the Savannah Georgian pulled from savnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu.

Death-head skull motif iron fence in the 100 East block of Gordon Street.

Gates at the entrance to Gordonston Park, added by Juliette Gordon Low. Balcony at the Owens-Thomas House.

Iron railing and scrolled panel at the Davenport House, which were shipped in from the North shortly after the War of 1812.

An example of Ironwork at the Kehoe House, which came from the Kehoe foundry.

Blacksmith Ivan Bailey operated Bailey’s Forge in the 1970s and early ‘80s creating new works of wrought iron art for Savannah. At Jones and Lincoln Streets are a stairway and porch with sea oats and marsh birds.

Another popular Ivan Bailey creation is this intricate courtyard gate on York St. It took Bailey over a month to complete the climbing rose entwined in an orange tree. At the bottom of the gate are several flowers and a mushroom.