The History of the Headquarters Building of Central of Georgia Railroad – Now Kiah Hall
Kiah Hall was built as a railroad headquarters and for many years was known as the Gray Building. It is one of the original 1856 components of the country’s only intact antebellum railroad complex, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as "a precedent example of comprehensive industrial planning."
Kiah Hall or the Gray Building is the oldest surviving railroad office building in the United States and one of the oldest buildings in the complex. It was constructed between 1854 and 1856 as the headquarters office building for Georgia’s early railroad — the 1833 Central Rail Road and Banking Company, later called the Central of Georgia Railway. The building predates the passenger station (now the Savannah Visitors Information Center and History Museum) which was completed after the Civil War, as well as other office and functional structures in the complex. In 1855, apart from Kiah Hall, only the depot (the Up Freight Warehouse) attached to the rear, its adjacent wall, and the machine and repair shops were standing. The depot behind the Gray Building at that time served both freight and passenger functions and was where ex-President Millard Fillmore was ceremoniously welcomed in 1854.
Regarded as a remarkable design achievement by contemporaries, the complex was planned by William M. Wadley around 1850 and cost more than $500,000. In 1855, a writer for the national journal Colburn’s Railroad Advocate described it as "the most complete and elegant railroad station in the country (besides its being also one of the largest) …" The transportation and general offices of the railroad (the Gray Building) were described as having a front façade that was "large and handsomely finished in the Roman Doric style of architecture."
For more than 130 years, the Gray Building served as a railroad office building, the longest such continuous use in the country. In addition to the Central Railroad, the depot was also used by other early railroads, including the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, from 1855. From 1855 to 1991, the Gray Building was owned or leased by railroads, most recently by Norfolk Southern.
The Gray Building and the Early Railroad Presidents
This first permanent office building housed the railroad’s transportation and administrative offices, including the office of successive railroad presidents who played influential national roles throughout the American Industrial Revolution and the 19th-century rise of the railroads. Chartered in 1833 to provide transportation between the port at Savannah and Georgia’s interior, the Central was one of Georgia’s and the country’s first railroads.
The first president of the Central Railroad and Canal Co. was William W. Gordon, a mayor of Savannah and the grandfather of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low. After his death in 1842, his brother-in-law Richard R. Cuyler (1798–1865) served as the second president of the railroad for 23 years, including the period during which the Gray Building and the railroad complex were constructed. On the railroad’s board of directors during the 1840s–50s were notables such as plantation owner and brick manufacturer Henry McAlpin, wealthy cotton factor Andrew Low, steamship company owner and Fort McAllister commander Major John B. Gallie, his partner John Wilder (who completed the Mercer-Wilder House) and Civil War mayor Thomas Purse. The original boardroom in the Gray Building was on the main (second) floor near the president’s office.
Shortly after the building was dedicated in 1856, the Civil War placed great demands on the South’s rail system, which became a lifeline for troop, arms and supply movement as well as mail and communications. Cuyler played an active role in supporting the Confederacy through both his railroad and its affiliated banking business, which was the first bank to purchase Confederate war bonds and to issue its own Confederate notes. Toward the end of Sherman’s march to the sea, Cuyler was captured on the last train out of Savannah and brought to Sherman’s headquarters.
William M. Wadley (1812–82) designed the complex around 1850 and served as the general superintendent for Central Rail Road during the 1850s. Trained as a blacksmith in New Hampshire, he had previously been superintendent of the construction at Fort Pulaski. During 1862–63, Wadley was appointed supervisor for all of the Confederate railroads, holding the title of assistant adjutant general. After Cuyler’s retirement and a six-month term by William Johnston, Wadley became the railroad’s president for the subsequent 16 years, during which time Central acquired a steamship shipping line and expanded to almost 2,500 miles of track.
Architectural Significance of the Gray Building
The 16,968-square-foot Gray Building is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in Georgia. In 1859, the Savannah Daily News provided a detailed description of the structure, including the president’s office with its black marble mantelpiece, the basement level, the portico painting, the seven-foot plaster ceiling medallions, the walnut stair railings, the pine doorways and window casements, as well as the different wall treatments and materials used, all of which are still intact, as are most of the heart pine floors. The reporter called it "a marvel of solidity and beauty."
Gas chandeliers lit the building; gas lights had been introduced in Savannah only five years earlier. Sidewalk skylights illuminated a front basement corridor with indoor "toilet rooms," cubicles separated above by the spring vaults of the masonry. The imposing exterior of Savannah gray brick, accented by sandstone elements, is also original, with a six-columned, two-story portico surmounted by a pediment, brick pilasters defining the bays, and triglyphs in the upper entablature around the building. The metal roof is an early example of this usage in the South and is in keeping with the iron roofs used on the attached train shed and repair shops to establish an administrative structure with great aesthetic emphasis. Fireproofing was achieved from the metal roof and from an aggregate fill between floors, while there were nearby fire hydrants protecting the depot and Cotton Yard. The adjacent wall (still present) in front of the former carriage yard was completed at the same time as the building in 1856. While the architect’s name is unknown, there are numerous parallels in the design, floor plan, scale and hexastyle Doric portico with the 1852 United States Custom House in Savannah, which was built by John S. Norris from New York, the architect for at least four of Central’s directors.
History of the Site
The Gray Building, like the rest of the railroad complex, is located on land given by the city in 1833 and built on the site of the Revolutionary War's 1779 Battle of Savannah. By 1839, the depot was under construction on a five-acre plot given to the railroad by the city of Savannah. During the 1864 Siege of Savannah, a battery of four guns was mounted at the depot. For years, the Gray Building was the principal anchor building projecting onto West Broad Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.), the historic western boundary of Savannah’s original colonial city plan. This was the first street in Savannah to be paved, first with planks (before 1850) and then with cobblestones in 1860, in order to facilitate the railroad's access to the Savannah River wharves at the street's north end. Confederate troops evacuated the city on this street. Union troops occupied the Gray Building and the rest of the depot in December 1864-January 1865 after Sherman’s march to the sea along the Central of Georgia’s tracks. In the early 20th century, this important transportation corridor with train stations, docks, livery stables and early auto stations was the hub of a vibrant African-American commercial district.
 The building is named after Virginia Jackson Kiah, a pioneering African-American artist from Baltimore who was educated at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, Columbia University and the New York Art Students League before coming to Savannah. |
Kiah Hall was built as a railroad headquarters and for many years was known as the Gray Building. It is one of the original 1856 components of the country’s only intact antebellum railroad complex, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as "a precedent example of comprehensive industrial planning."
Kiah Hall or the Gray Building is the oldest surviving railroad office building in the United States and one of the oldest buildings in the complex. It was constructed between 1854 and 1856 as the headquarters office building for Georgia’s early railroad — the 1833 Central Rail Road and Banking Company, later called the Central of Georgia Railway. The building predates the passenger station (now the Savannah Visitors Information Center and History Museum) which was completed after the Civil War, as well as other office and functional structures in the complex. In 1855, apart from Kiah Hall, only the depot (the Up Freight Warehouse) attached to the rear, its adjacent wall, and the machine and repair shops were standing. The depot behind the Gray Building at that time served both freight and passenger functions and was where ex-President Millard Fillmore was ceremoniously welcomed in 1854.
 Richard Cuyler, president of Central Rail Road when Kiah Hall was built, is shown here in an albumen print by the prominent early photographer Abraham Bogardus, who began his New York City practice in 1846. (Courtesy of the Georgia State Archives, Vanishing Georgia Photographic Collection) |
For more than 130 years, the Gray Building served as a railroad office building, the longest such continuous use in the country. In addition to the Central Railroad, the depot was also used by other early railroads, including the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, from 1855. From 1855 to 1991, the Gray Building was owned or leased by railroads, most recently by Norfolk Southern.
The Gray Building and the Early Railroad Presidents
This first permanent office building housed the railroad’s transportation and administrative offices, including the office of successive railroad presidents who played influential national roles throughout the American Industrial Revolution and the 19th-century rise of the railroads. Chartered in 1833 to provide transportation between the port at Savannah and Georgia’s interior, the Central was one of Georgia’s and the country’s first railroads.
 Central Rail Road and Banking Company was also a major bank and issued Confederate notes during the Civil War, as seen in this $2 bill. |
Shortly after the building was dedicated in 1856, the Civil War placed great demands on the South’s rail system, which became a lifeline for troop, arms and supply movement as well as mail and communications. Cuyler played an active role in supporting the Confederacy through both his railroad and its affiliated banking business, which was the first bank to purchase Confederate war bonds and to issue its own Confederate notes. Toward the end of Sherman’s march to the sea, Cuyler was captured on the last train out of Savannah and brought to Sherman’s headquarters.
 William Wadley was the superintendent of Central Railroad and designer of the complex when Kiah Hall was built. This photo is from Sarah Wadley, "A Brief Record of the Life of William M. Wadley," New York, 1884. |
Architectural Significance of the Gray Building
The 16,968-square-foot Gray Building is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in Georgia. In 1859, the Savannah Daily News provided a detailed description of the structure, including the president’s office with its black marble mantelpiece, the basement level, the portico painting, the seven-foot plaster ceiling medallions, the walnut stair railings, the pine doorways and window casements, as well as the different wall treatments and materials used, all of which are still intact, as are most of the heart pine floors. The reporter called it "a marvel of solidity and beauty."
Gas chandeliers lit the building; gas lights had been introduced in Savannah only five years earlier. Sidewalk skylights illuminated a front basement corridor with indoor "toilet rooms," cubicles separated above by the spring vaults of the masonry. The imposing exterior of Savannah gray brick, accented by sandstone elements, is also original, with a six-columned, two-story portico surmounted by a pediment, brick pilasters defining the bays, and triglyphs in the upper entablature around the building. The metal roof is an early example of this usage in the South and is in keeping with the iron roofs used on the attached train shed and repair shops to establish an administrative structure with great aesthetic emphasis. Fireproofing was achieved from the metal roof and from an aggregate fill between floors, while there were nearby fire hydrants protecting the depot and Cotton Yard. The adjacent wall (still present) in front of the former carriage yard was completed at the same time as the building in 1856. While the architect’s name is unknown, there are numerous parallels in the design, floor plan, scale and hexastyle Doric portico with the 1852 United States Custom House in Savannah, which was built by John S. Norris from New York, the architect for at least four of Central’s directors.
 | This aerial view of the Central of Georgia Railroad complex was taken at the height of its prosperity in 1923, a century after the railroad was chartered. By 1929, the railway had almost 2,000 miles of track. After the railway switched to diesel engines serviced at its Macon depot and after the Great Depression, the decline of the Savannah complex began. Kiah Hall is located at the lower right as No. 2. Behind it stretches the 800-foot-long Up Freight Warehouse of 1853. Paralleling the warehouse (No. 7) is the Down Freight Warehouse, which, with the 1888 Eichberg Hall (No. 1), houses the college’s School of Building Arts. The passenger depot at the lower left (No. 4), left of Eichberg Hall, is now the Savannah Visitors Information Center (completed shortly after Kiah Hall) with the Savannah History Museum at the back. In the upper left are the roundhouse and the historic repair shops. (Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society, GHS Photograph Collection) |
History of the Site
The Gray Building, like the rest of the railroad complex, is located on land given by the city in 1833 and built on the site of the Revolutionary War's 1779 Battle of Savannah. By 1839, the depot was under construction on a five-acre plot given to the railroad by the city of Savannah. During the 1864 Siege of Savannah, a battery of four guns was mounted at the depot. For years, the Gray Building was the principal anchor building projecting onto West Broad Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.), the historic western boundary of Savannah’s original colonial city plan. This was the first street in Savannah to be paved, first with planks (before 1850) and then with cobblestones in 1860, in order to facilitate the railroad's access to the Savannah River wharves at the street's north end. Confederate troops evacuated the city on this street. Union troops occupied the Gray Building and the rest of the depot in December 1864-January 1865 after Sherman’s march to the sea along the Central of Georgia’s tracks. In the early 20th century, this important transportation corridor with train stations, docks, livery stables and early auto stations was the hub of a vibrant African-American commercial district.