The rehabilitation of the Francis Wagner Dasher Carriage House is an excellent example how a small-scale Savannah preservation project can have a big impact. Located in the Thomas Square Streetcar Historic District, the Francis Wagner Dasher Carriage House was built in 1914.

Originally bookended by large doors on the east and west facades to allow for the pass-through of a carriage, the Drayton Street opening had been modified to accommodate a large aluminum garage door. Pairing much needed structural work with the adaptive reuse of the first floor garage space, an exhaustive historic rehabilitation was undertaken. On the exterior, the building’s large aluminum garage door was removed. In its place, two new fixed carriage doors were installed with a new brick wall section added in between.

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Throughout the interior, beadboard wainscotting and wood trim extant was salvaged. While the carriage doors added to the west wall read as doors from the exterior, the interior reveals only the doors’ transom windows. This compromise allows the building to read as a historic carriage house from the exterior yet remain a comfortable living space on the interior. 

The project is utilizing the federal and state historic tax incentives and received unanimous approval from the Historic Preservation Commission for a Certificate of Appropriateness.

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Project Team: Frank Stevens, Architect, JDR Construction, and Ethos Preservation