Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 11 2022, 19:22:54 UTC

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Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. Collection of the Georgia Historical Society: http://ghs.galileo.usg.edu/ghs/view?docId=ead/MS%201349-ead.xml

Walter C. Hartridge’s legacy to Savannah is one which will endure. His life was devoted to preserving not only the architectural treasures of the city, but also to rescuing and preserving its documentary heritage. History was alive to him, and Historic Savannah Foundation, Inc.’s tribute to him after his death, captured the heart and spirit with which he fought to enlighten and educate Savannah’s citizens:

“…his scholarship formed an early and continuing ingredient of the historic preservation movement in Savannah. He loved this city without reservation and worked tirelessly and unselfishly his entire life to preserve its historic character. His legacy to Savannah is vast: his ability to bring Savannah’s history alive is legendary, and his life will be an inspiration to the cause of historic preservation for years to come…”

The son of Walter Charlton Hartridge, Sr. (1870-1932), a distinguished Savannah attorney, and his second wife, Catharine Honoria McIntire Hartridge (1879-1949), Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. numbered among his illustrious forbears: U.S. Representative Julian Hartridge (1829-1879), his grandfather; and his great–grandfather Robert Milledge Charlton (1807-1854) a judge and U.S. District Attorney.

He attended Pape School in Savannah, then Loomis Academy in Windsor,Connecticut and received his B.A. in History, cum laude, from Harvard in 1936. In 1938 he received his masters degree in architectural history from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He modestly referred to himself as a “historical researcher”, but his talents were undeniably more persuasive and influential.

Among his civic activities and accomplishments, Hartridge was president of the Georgia Historical Society from 1952-1961; chairman of the Chatham-Savannah Historic Sites and Monuments Commission; historian for the Society of Cincinnati; a fellow of the American Genealogical Society: a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, the Parish Council of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, and the Oglethorpe Club. He organized Savannah Restorations, Inc, and was active in the efforts to develop the Revolutionary Battle Park, and to save the Scarborough House. Earlier efforts resulted in saving the Pink House, the Davenport House, and a number of other significant dwellings.

He was a popular and charismatic speaker, and his words influenced the preservation movements in Athens, Augusta, Milledgeville, and Jekyll Island as well as Savannah.

His knowledge of southern families was encyclopedic, and he was resourceful in preserving a number of significant collections of family letters, as well as documents in both government and private archive. In addition to editing collections of letters by Robert Mackay, Don Juan McQueen and Michael Wallace, he wrote the text for Savannah, a book of etchings and drawings by Christopher Murray. He published a number of genealogical articles in historical journals, and his collection contains a number of his other articles and speeches.

On July 7, 1956, in Orange Park, Florida, Hartridge married Susan L’Engle Macmillan, the daughter of Thomas Hasley Macmillan, Jr. and Helen Sandwich Hartridge Macmillan. The couple had one son, Walter Charlton Hartridge III, born February 21, 1958.

Walter Charlton Hartridge, Jr. died on August 19, 1974, and is buried in Savannah’s Laurel Grove Cemetery.