By Eric Curl
Sept. 2, 2021 update – The Historic Preservation Commission approved the demolition on Sept. 1. (The Aug. 25 meeting was postponed due to a lack of a quorum.) The commission’s approval was contingent upon the petitioner first submitting and having plans approved for the new building that will replace the former gas station. Staff had recommended approval after learning that last December the city’s Code Compliance department determined the property was unfit for human habitation due to fire damage, according to the staff report for the Aug. 25 meeting.
Aug. 6, 2021 – A property owner is seeking approval to demolish a former gas station in Savannah’s Cuyler-Brownville neighborhood before the building is designated as a historic structure next month.
Owner Thomas Cribbs said on Friday that he submitted a demolition application this week because the building is a stucco-covered wooden structure that is rotting and unsafe.
“The building is minutes from falling down,” Cribbs said. “There is nothing that can be saved.”
Cribbs purchased the former gas station at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 32nd Street for $12,800 in January 2020, according to the property record. As the owner of Cribbs Customs, he said he is considering opening another scooter sales and rental business at the site.
The 91-year-old building is one of 90 properties that that the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission recommended be designated as contributing structures in historic Cuyler-Brownville. That recommendation came after a survey conducted between 2018 and 2021 identified properties that were missed or left off the neighborhood’s contributing resources map in the past.
The Savannah City Council unanimously approved the MPC’s recommendation on July 22 and the designations are set to take effect on Sept. 1. The historic designation adds protections against demolition and deterioration, while requiring that the owner go through an approval process prior to making exterior changes to the property.
Cribbs’ demolition permit application was submitted on Tuesday, about two weeks after the council’s vote. The application is expected to go before the Historic Preservation Commission for consideration on Aug. 25. (FYI: The city is seeking applicants to fill a vacancy on the commission and other boards.)
The commission will have some say over whether the structure can be demolished, even though the structure has not yet been designated historic, said Leah Michalak, MPC’s director of historic preservation.
“The ordinance allows them to evaluate a non-contributing building for contributing status when demolition is being requested,” Michalak said.
The property is one of two former gas stations in Cuyler-Brownville set to be designated as historic. An 85-year-old former station at MLK and West Victory Drive, where Shabazz Seafood is located, is also being added as a contributing structure.
The Cuyler-Brownville neighborhood was originally developed in the mid-19th century for freed slaves and survives as one of the most intact and continuously occupied African-American neighborhoods in Savannah, according to the MPC. The neighborhood was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
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