Chronology and History

Tybee Post Theater Chronology

by John Duncan

When the U.S. Government sold the Fort Screven complex at the end of World War II, the Tybee Post Theater floundered under many owners until very recently. But the island and its theater have a glorious past and an even brighter future.

Historians tell us that the name Tybee is a Euchee Indian word meaning salt, and it is likely that Indians as early as 12,000 years ago came to Tybee to get salt from the island's salt flats. Tybee also has the distinction of coming into contact with Europeans over 400 years ago. Spanish Captain Francisco de Ecija in 1605 left the first written description of Tybee Roads calling it "Los Bajos" - the Bay of Shoals. The river, he called "Rio Dulce"- the Sweet or Soft River.

Frenchmen also claimed the area when Huguenot Jean Ribault placed stone columns on Parris Island across the Savannah River in South Carolina and another in the Jacksonville, Florida area. After a few years the French abandoned their Port Royal Fort, sailed into the Atlantic only to resort to cannibalism just before they were rescued. The Spaniards massacred the French settlement in Florida leaving a note they had been killed not because they were French but because they were Protestants. The Spaniards built numerous settlements on the Georgia coast but none on Tybee.

The colony of Georgia was settled by philanthropist James Edward Oglethorpe at Savannah in 1733, and in l736 he had completed a lighthouse on the north end of Tybee Island. The current lighthouse is the fourth on the general site. Begun in 1762, it is the oldest and tallest lighthouse on the Georgia coast. This landmark is the pride of the island and is well known by the description of Georgia as being "from Rabun Gap to Tybee light."

The 1734 Peter Gordon view of Savannah shows Savannah's first fort on the eastern end of town in what we today call the Pirates' House area. Savannah's forts thereafter began a gradual movement eastward. The site of Fort Jackson, just 2 ½ miles downriver from town, was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1808, and today Fort Jackson is the oldest, still-standing fort in Georgia. Ft. Pulaski, almost at the mouth of the Savannah River on Cockspur Island, has the distinction of being laid out by Robert E. Lee on his first military assignment after his graduation from West Point in 1829. In 1862 the Confederate-held fort surrendered to Union forces after the first use of rifled cannon in the history of warfare. The Confederate Commander Charles Olmstead announced: "I surrender my sword, I trust I have not disgraced it." Fort Screven, which operated from the Spanish American War through World War II, would be Tybee's contribution to Georgia's coastal defense.

From the very beginning Tybee was accessible only by water but the completion of the Savannah and Tybee Railroad in 1887 changed all that. The Central of Georgia Railroad acquired ownership in 1890 and train service was finally abandoned in 1933 due to the completion of the million dollar 14 ½ mile Tybee Road in 1923. The town of Tybee was incorporated by the Georgia legislature in 1887 with the original name of Ocean City. Later it was renamed Tybee, still later it became Savannah Beach and in 1978 it became Tybee again.

In 1887, the U.S. Government began construction of the Fort Screven complex on nearly 150 acres on the northeast corner of the island. It was named for General James Screven, mortally wounded near Spencer's Hill in Liberty County in 1778. Dying on the steps of Midway Church, he became the first prominent Georgian to die in the American Revolution. Begun as a coast artillery fort, it later evolved into an infantry post and finally, during World War II, a deep-sea diving school. During the Great Depression it served as a training center for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Perhaps most notable of its commanding officers was Col. George C. Marshall who arrived in 1932. He and his wife Katherine lived on the famed Officers' Row. During World War II, Marshall served as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, and afterwards, as U.S. Secretary of State, he initiated the European Recovery Program often known simply as the Marshall Plan.

Theater in the Savannah area has always had a difficult time beginning in 1781, when soldiers began erratic performances in a Broughton Street building. In 1802, the Savannah Baptist minister the Reverend Henry Holcombe did battle with "a detachment of his Satanic majesty's forces, called 'Stage-players.'" In the early twentieth century, when the Savannah Theater converted from plays to silent movies the building burned just before it was to show the controversial film "The Birth of a Nation."

Ft. Screven Builds a Theater

The Tybee Post Theater was no exception to this general rule. The first Post Theater was a simple tent and showed silent films, but the second one was one of the last major buildings of Fort Screven's 279 structures. It was built in 1930 of red brick with white wooden cornices in a modest Greek revival style. The pediment featured a lunette above three windows. Shallow wings on either side of the entrance sported arched poster windows. The front doors opened into a small entrance foyer. There was a central aisle with the usual side aisles. The floor was concrete with rubber mats for traction. Sound motion pictures or talkies began in 1929, and it has been claimed the Tybee Theater was one of the first in Georgia to have a sound system. It was standard U.S. Government theater design and is similar to theaters at Fort Benning, Georgia and Fort Hancock, New Jersey. It was almost 5,000 square feet and was capable of seating approximately 250 persons. The interior was originally "Streamline Moderne."

During its heyday, the theater was patronized by the 500 post soldiers and their wives. Tybee's young ladies attended as dates of the soldiers, and others might be allowed in at the discretion of the door keeper. Although this was a time before air-conditioning, the theater became the highlight of recreational activities at the fort. Perhaps the most famous patrons were George and Katherine Marshall, future President Dwight David Eisenhower and Savannah's own native son, famed lyricist Johnny Mercer. Today the Tybee Island Museum (located in Battery Garland) has a collection of playbills shown at the Post Theater including two 1940 movies, "The Seahawk" starring Errol Flynn and "The Westerner" starring Gary Cooper with Walter Brennen. The theater showed cartoons and Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon shorts to keep its patrons coming back each week. Newsreels kept everyone up with the latest happenings around the world. Officers and their families had reserved seats on the three back rows. It was also the scene for children's activities such as dance recitals and musical performances.

Theater Declared Surplus by US Army

On October 21, 1944, the U.S. War Department declared Fort Screven surplus, and the last use of the theater by the U.S. Army was in 1945, after only fifteen years of use. The next sixty years witnessed many owners, a devastating fire which destroyed the wooden stage area and the rear part of the roof, vandalism and a 1999 request for demolition by a developer. The theater had fallen under the curse which has visited so many theaters in the Savannah area.

In 1945, the town, then called Savannah Beach, acquired the Fort Screven property containing 138 acres and 279 buildings for a mere $200,000.00. Slowly the property was divided and sold off. In 1949, the owners of the Lucas Theater in downtown Savannah acquired the theater property and made it "modern in every particular." $30,000.00 was spent on air-conditioning, new seats and new projection machinery. The Tybee Museum has a playbill advertising the Christmas classic "Miracle on 34th Street" starring Maureen O'Hara, and the Georgia Historical Society has a c. 1950 photograph of the Beach Theater which was currently showing "Kansas Raiders" starring Audie Murphy. The Beach Theater, as it was known, had a short run until about 1962, when it was closed. The last movie on the marquee was "Shane".

Building Saved from Demolition

The Tybee Historical Society saved the building from demolition by purchasing the property in 2001. The same year the the Friends of Tybee Theater (FOTT) was formed as a support group. FOTT acquired title in 2006 and began planning the rebirth of the theater. SPLOST funding of $350,000 was used in 2008 to refurbish the walls, recondition the steel roof structure and install a new roof. Later that year the Friends of Tybee Theater received a $30,000 state grant (Historic Preservation license tag fees) to restore the façade.

Building Reopens with Temporary COs

In 2010 the organization initiated use of the building with temporary certificates of occupancy and began planning a calendar of performances to provide the opportunity for people to experience the space, even in its basic condition.  In the prior year the organization had conducted outdoor events.