
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 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 »
“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 »
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 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 »
Mills Lane IV completed his first edition of Savannah Revisited in 1969 while he was in the U.S. Navy.
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 »
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 »
“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 »
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 »
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.
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.
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.
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 »
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 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 »
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 »
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 »
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.
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 »
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 »
“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 »
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 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »