This map gives a glimpse of Isle of Hope just after the Civil War. Savannah mapmaker Charles Platen worked several years to create a topographical map of all of Chatham County, relying on 37 original deeds, maps, and surveys of portions of the county. He then spent seven months in Philadelphia with a printmaker ensuring that the produced lithographic maps, some nearly 4 feet by 6 feet in size, were perfectly printed. In December of 1876, The Savannah Morning News proclaimed Platen’s work “the handsomest lithographic map in America” and stated, “As a work of art, it is a magnificent specimen, and as an accurate and complete map of the county, its equal has never been seen, and its value cannot be overestimated.”
Platen’s map is the first map to show a railroad to Isle of Hope. The Savannah, Skidaway & Seaboard Railroad had reached the island in July of 1869, six years before. Strangely, on Platen’s map, the name of the railroad is printed in mirror-writing and “Skidaway” is misspelled “Scidaway.” The topography of the Isle of Hope is shown with lowlands and swamps colored in green and separated by dotted lines from higher ground colored in yellow. Property lines are shown with the nine “Wymberly Lots” and four “Church Lots” along Bluff Drive blocked off in black. Many of these riverfront lots are intact today. Fort Wimberly and the Jones family mansion are identified in Wormsloe. Skidaway Road is shown leading from the causeway to a bridge connecting Isle of Hope to Long Island, long gone today. LaRoche Avenue, not to be built for a quarter century, is nowhere to be seen. (Special Thanks to Forrest Willoughby)