{"nrhp_refnum":"77000413","name":"Hodgson, W. B., Hall","other_names":["Georgia Historical Society"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"501 Whitaker St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Savannah","county":"Chatham County","state":"GA","lat":32.070470354000065,"lon":-81.09667136199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-03-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Conservation","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick, stuccoed library and headquarters building at 501 Whitaker Street in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, built in 1874-1875 for the Georgia Historical Society and designed by Detlef Lienau.","why_significant":"It is the home of the Georgia Historical Society, founded in 1839 and described as one of the oldest historical societies in the country. The building is also notable as the work of New York architect Detlef Lienau. Its library and archives hold Georgia books, newspapers, manuscripts and portraits, and the Society published collections and a historical quarterly.","narrative":"Hodgson Hall, at 501 Whitaker Street in Savannah, was built in 1874-1875 as a memorial to William Brown Hodgson, a diplomat and scholar of Oriental languages, and as a home for the Georgia Historical Society. New York architect Detlef Lienau designed it. The main floor is a library room with a three-story ceiling, two balconies with bronze railings and tall arched windows meant to provide light and ventilation before electric lighting and air-conditioning. A brownstone stairway leads to a two-columned portico. In 1969-1970 a stuccoed annex, the Abrahams Archival Wing, was added to house rare books, manuscripts, maps and local government records. The Society, founded in 1839, is described as one of the oldest historical societies in the country. Its collections include Georgia newspapers from 1763, portraits and over 25,000 volumes, and it has published volumes of Collections and the Georgia Historical Quarterly. The building remains the Society's headquarters.","period_of_significance":"1874-75, 1969-70","architect_builder":"Detlef Lienau (1818-1887); Thomas, Hutton, Johnson, Inc. (1969-70 annex)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as the Georgia Historical Society's headquarters and library; the library room has been only slightly altered and an annex was added in 1969-1970.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:41.279493-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/77000413.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000413/967b452f17-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000413/967b452f17-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Brendanghs","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GHS-Hodgson-Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Brendanghs</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GHS-Hodgson-Hall.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"66000277","name":"Savannah Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/georgia/savannah-historic-district-66000277/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207314","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Hodgson_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109236319"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/chatham-county/hodgson-w-b-hall-77000413/"}