Law's Murphys: Works by Christopher Murphy, Jr. from the W. W. Law Art Collection
Christopher Aristide Desbouillons Murphy (December 28, 1902-October 20, 1973) was born in Savannah, Georgia to artists Lucile Desbouillons and Christopher Patrick Hussey Murphy. From a young age, Christopher Murphy, Jr. studied art, receiving instruction first from his parents. After graduating from Benedictine Military School, he attended the Art Students League in New York City. Also interested in architecture, he studied design under Lloyd Warren, director of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York. In 1925, he was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship. During his career, he was widely exhibited with pieces displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Brooklyn Society of Etchers, the New York Water Color Club, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and a solo exhibition in New Jersey. His work was also included in traveling exhibitions of the Southern States Art League and the American Watercolor Society. Murphy was also a teacher, instructing art classes at Armstrong State College, Hunter Air Force Base Service Club, the Savannah Area Vocational-Technical School, and the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Known for his etchings and watercolors of Savannah and the surrounding area, Murphy’s subject matter included both Savannah’s grand architecture and everyday street life. He captured both progress and neglect and how they changed his native city. Local historian and preservationist Westley Wallace “W. W.” Law (January 1, 1923-July 28, 2002) appreciated how Murphy’s art documented African American neighborhoods and landmarks, which he was working to bring attention and protection to. In 1981, Law mounted “Changing Times: On The Streets of Old Savannah,” a pictorial exhibit at the King-Tisdell Cottage Museum. The exhibit included six works by Murphy and focused on how Savannah’s African American churches and sites had changed through the years. Several of these works became part of Law’s personal art collection and are featured here.
-
"[St. John Baptist] church on Hartridge Street," watercolor, 1966
St. John Baptist Church, known as “The Mighty Fortress,” was established in 1885. The congregation built the sanctuary at 526 Hartridge Street in 1891 and completed exterior renovations in the 1970s. After a devastating fire destroyed the church building in 1993, the congregation rebuilt on the same lot on Hartridge Street in the Beach Institute Historic Neighborhood.
-
"Sunday Service July 1966," watercolor, 1966
-
Untitled [Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church], watercolor, undated
In 1859, the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia purchased the Unitarian Church on Oglethorpe Square for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, the first Episcopal church for African Americans in the Diocese of Georgia. The congregation moved the church building to Troup Square and held services there until 1943 when St. Stephen’s merged with St. Matthew’s and St. Augustine’s to form St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on the west side. The Diocese sold the building in 1947 and in 1997 the building reopened after restoration as the Unitarian Universalist Church.
-
"Church on Taylor & Habersham March 30, 1966 9:15 AM [First Congregational Church]," watercolor, 1966
First Congregational Church’s original steeple was destroyed by a storm in 1940. It was replaced in 1992, with a shorter version.
-
"5.P.M. Randolph Street at Hull Sept 1956 [New Moon Baptist Church]," watercolor, 1956
New Moon Baptist Church was located in the Old Fort Neighborhood, east of East Broad Street, which was demolished to build Hitch Village public housing. To the left of the church was the Randolph Street branch of the Savannah Pharmacy, the second oldest continuously operating African American business in Savannah when it closed its Martin Luther King, Jr. branch in 2007. New Moon Baptist Church relocated to West Broad Street, near 51st Street, and was renamed New Hope Baptist Church.
-
"Street in Winter [500 Block of East Charlton Street]," watercolor and conte, undated
In 1860, Samuel Garey built 509 East Charlton Street, the two story frame house in the right-center of this street view. It was later owned by Simon and Elizabeth Mirault. Simon was a brickmason who was instrumental in the formation of the Savannah Republican party. Elizabeth’s daughter, Lucy Garey Sabattie, a seamstress, lived in the adjacent two story brick and stucco house at 511 East Charlton Street. This building is attributed to Simon Mirault, as both designer and mason.
-
"Church Tower, Taylor & Habersham [First Congregational Church]," gouache, undated
First Congregational Church on Whitfield Square was organized in 1869 as an outgrowth of the Beach Institute nearby. Encouraged by the missionary teachers and the Central Congregational Church of Charleston, South Carolina, the congregation was formed in April 1869 and initially met at the Beach Institute. A small frame meeting house was erected at the corner of Taylor and Habersham streets in 1878, replaced by the current brick Gothic Revival structure in 1895.