SAVANNAH, Georgia — City of Savannah officials, staff, and community stakeholders will unveil a new historical marker at the World War II Memorial “A World Apart” on River Street on Thursday, Sept. 19.
The new historical marker will stand within a garden bed adjacent to the World War II Memorial. The marker is being added to the site to provide a greater interpretive context to the memorial and acknowledge the Memorial Committee.
The marker was donated to the City by the widow of architect Eric Meyerhoff, Harriet Meyerhoff. Eric Meyerhoff acted as architect and project lead for The Riverfront Urban Renewal Project, completed in June 1977. The World War II Memorial, completed in 2010, was designed by Eric Meyerhoff and funded by the Veterans Council of Chatham County.
Harriet Meyerhoff coordinated with the City’s Municipal Archives and Park & Tree Department on the donation and installation of the marker that reads in part “The Memorial’s theme, “A World Apart,” represents the global nature of World War II, which was fought on numerous battlefronts simultaneously. As an active port, Savannah supplied valuable war materiel, including Liberty ships and minesweepers built along the Savannah River.”
The Riverfront Urban Renewal Project, completed in June 1977, was a public-private partnership that leveraged Urban Renewal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program funds, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant as well as City of Savannah funds to transform a dilapidated area of the City into a thriving riverfront park. Eric Meyerhoff was the project architect of Gunn & Meyerhoff A.I.A. Architects who led the renewal project as well as many others in the city. Eric Meyerhoff passed away in 2020.