Teaching classes at the Savannah College of Art and Design kept me busy this fall, but I am now settling in for marathon winter writing…. Read more »
In the Most Delightful Country of the Universe
About Mills Bee Lane IV
One house and a couple of confusing Waring names
Mills Lane IV had colorful characters on both sides of his family. These stories take us into his mother’s side, and since it is the… Read more »
The Gingerbread Village, a warehouse and an alcohol license
Through the mid and late 1970s, Mills B. Lane, Jr. and his wife, Anne, continued their renovations down Habersham Street around Whitefield Square and on… Read more »
Renovating houses by the row
In The Wonderful World of Mills B. Lane, Jr., his son, Mills IV, describes how his parents got into the renovation and restoration business in… Read more »
The Lanes wove their creations throughout the city’s arteries
Our final look at the Mills B. Lane family efforts in Columbia Ward unites the work of parents and son. Lumber merchant Patrick K. Shiels… Read more »
Heineman House Puzzle and Artistry on Columbia Square Trust Lot
A cooking crane, an arm that would have held a pot, still hung in the basement fireplace of the brick Heineman House in 1991. Victorian… Read more »
Finding the restoration clues on Columbia Square
Save the carved door stops; toss the pigeon dung. Restoring derelict houses requires detective work and housecleaning skills. After a century or so of neglect… Read more »
Stone House expands and contracts with the times
Columbia Ward is one of the most famous in Savannah, and the Lane family put their time and money into restorations of houses on the… Read more »
Wending Our Way Through Washington Ward
Mills Lane IV wholeheartedly entered the family discussions of Savannah restorations and renovations with his pied-à-terre at 14 Price Street in Washington Ward. His parents,… Read more »
African American Folk Tales contribute context and controversy
NPR aired an All Things Considered segment last week with Robert Siegel interviewing Harvard professors Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Maria Tatar about a book… Read more »
Another Eppinger House Makes a Move
The face of Warren Ward took shape in the 1800s, but a major facelift in the 1960s brought a new energy and glow. “Warren Square… Read more »
Warren Square Encircled
Two more houses complete our walk around Warren Square. The William Parker House built 1806-1809 sits on the square’s northwest corner at 324-326 East Bryan… Read more »
Spanning the Gap with Names
One of the ways we tell our stories is by the way we choose to name our children, our places, our monuments. One of the… Read more »
The squares are staged better for walking
The Mills Bee Lane family was instrumental in the house ballet that moved buildings around Savannah. Those houses have played musical squares and filled in… Read more »
Signs of history, signs of change.
“We have caught the sunshine in the bricks and mortar of our homes and have builded therein not one ignoble prejudice or memory,” said Henry… Read more »
Signs of art, possibility and wayfinding
If you are up for a lively discussion or a good argument in Savannah, civic engagement can provide the agenda. My favorite is the Historic… Read more »
Buildings and cities as living organisms
“Buildings are three-dimensional history books that reflect the comings and goings, successes and failures, aspirations and follies of real people.” – Mills Lane in the foreword… Read more »
Ships, space and reworked history
Mills Lane IV completed his first edition of Savannah Revisited in 1969 while he was in the U.S. Navy.
Taking a slow boat to the Med
As many college friends continued to learn more about the geography of Southeast Asia, Mills Lane IV was back from the Caribbean, thinking about historical… Read more »
SKILL on the water and on Price Street
With friends in Vietnam and on Navy ships throughout the world, Mills Lane IV continued to maneuver minesweepers out of Charleston and negotiate renovations on… Read more »
Bumper boats at sea and the lure of lusty men
“Anyone who can fathom the mysteries of celestial navigation must be a wizard.” As Mills Lane IV explored the seas and stars in the Navy,… Read more »
Scrimshaw, swords and sailing away
As Mills Lane IV is finishing Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1966, mail call continues to connect him with friends and… Read more »
At OCS, Mills IV Learned to ‘Just Float’
Mills Lane IV would often send basically the same letter to several people. Sometimes Mama and Papa would receive a specialized letter replete with requests, but often family and friends would receive versions of the same script.
Uncle Sam wins the family challenge
Mills Lane IV received some unexpected military aid in deciding his future while toiling away in the summer of 1965 at the C&S Bank in Macon, Ga.
Little success with laundry, banking or milking cows
The Lanes seemed to use letters as admissions of failure, intense self-scrutiny and promises of success, so let’s take another diversion with letters and listen to words of struggle from Mills Lane IV before we return to renovation.
Dear Mills – letters that illuminate
So far these posts have focused mostly on what the Lane family restored and accomplished in Savannah, and there is much more of that to… Read more »
Church on the Square
Mills Lane IV was perhaps most pleased with his exterior restoration of the Unitarian Universalist Church on the northwest trust lot of Troup Square from… Read more »
The family and the college on Gaston
The recent news about Armstrong State University involves a possible merger with Georgia Southern University about 50 miles west down Interstate-16. In the 1960s the… Read more »
Legacy in the Garden
Mills Lane IV had contemplated several scenarios for the land around Scarbrough House. When the replication of the original courthouse on Wright Square was coolly… Read more »
Making a case for moving history
In the late 1990s Mills Lane IV dreamed of replicating the demolished Chatham County Courthouse that had originally been built on Wright Square. He wanted… Read more »
Scarbrough House Relaunched
Eventually Mills Lane IV decided that Scarbrough House was the place for the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum and took on the restoration project.
The Money Pit
By the 1970s, historian and preservationist Walter Hartridge had convinced new Savannah resident Frances Bosworth to buy Scarbrough House and create a foundation for it…. Read more »
A house tied to the sea
Before “Museum in the Moonlight” and art exhibits like “Gestalt,” the William Scarbrough House on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., was a scene of privilege… Read more »
In family tradition, the Mills Lanes built, buried and borrowed.
“Come and get me. We’re going to Bonaventure and steal a fence post.” Mills Lane IV had called architect John Deering when they were working… Read more »
Drama on the Historic Review Board covered glass, lanes & elevators
The Historic Board of Review was a lively monthly meeting when Mills Lane IV joined the discussion. As a member of the board he questioned applicants and architects. He lectured. He cajoled and encouraged. He didn’t hide his sense of humor or outrage.
Mills Lane IV worked to fill in the gaps with trees, bricks and buildings
Mills Lane IV was more than a tree hugger: he started a tree fund. He was more than an admirer of Savannah’s streets: he paid… Read more »
Mills Lane IV Pursues His Own Path
Today we continue our introduction to the Mills Lane family with Mills Lane IV starting on his own path through Harvard, the Navy and the… Read more »
Mills Lane, Jr.’s Wonderful World
Anne and Mills Lane, Jr. were passionate about making downtown Savannah a livable place in the 1960s. They put their money where their hearts were…. Read more »
The colorful legacy of Mills Bee Lane IV
August 28, 2016 the Savannah Morning News published a special section about the architecture of Savannah. That provides perfect timing for us to reintroduce the… Read more »
