Kensington Park-Groveland Historic District Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, USA

National Register Feature

The following text is courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

The Kensington Park-Groveland Historic District is significant as one of the first residential subdivisions built in Savannah after World War II. The Kensington Park-Groveland Historic District is significant in the area of architecture because the district contains one of the best collections of mid-20th-century houses in Savannah. The district includes American Small Houses, Split-Level houses, and Ranch houses, which are the most prevalent house type in the neighborhood. They were built primarily in the Colonial Revival and Contemporary styles. The district is significant in the area of community planning and development because it is one of the first Savannah suburbs developed for upper-middle-class homeowners outside the city limits. Its plan, laid out in 1950, featured curvilinear streets, cui-de-sacs, and 294 house lots. The smaller Groveland development, also laid out in 1950, included curvilinear streets and 107 house lots. These neighborhoods capitalized on new ideas about "country" living in the suburbs and in doing so, broke Savannah's 200-year tradition of the gridiron plan based on the 1733 Oglethorpe plan. Kensington Park and Groveland were among a string of residential suburbs developed on the south side of the city along DeRenne Avenue, including Fairway Oaks, the first suburb in Savannah. The historic district is also significant for its early homeowners' associations, which were social organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life in the neighborhood. The Kensington Park Association and the Groveland Men's Club were established in 1955. These groups sought to lower the speed limit on DeRenne Avenue, petition for natural gas, and, in Kensington Park, construct a pool and bathhouse. The Kensington Park Garden Club (1953) and the Groveland Garden Club (1954) were women's clubs organized around the beautification of the neighborhood.