Pooler Town Hall

What if walls could talk? What secrets would the Pooler Town Hall whisper, if given a voice? Here, standing before this unassuming structure, we’re about to uncover some of those stories. Pooler Town Hall might not look like much from the outside, but within its walls reside echoes of a town’s journey, from a humble railway stop to a bustling city center. Pooler, named after Captain Robert William Pooler in 1838, owes its existence to the railroad. Captain Pooler, a Savannah resident involved with the Central of Georgia Railroad, diligently surveyed the land for a proposed railway line, setting the stage for the town’s birth. During the Civil War, Pooler’s Station, as it was then known, was a pivotal point. It was the last stop before Savannah, and in December 1864, served as the meeting place where Union General William Tecumseh Sherman negotiated Savannah’s peaceful surrender. Imagine the tension, the hushed discussions within these very grounds, as the fate of a city hung in the balance. Years later, in 1883, Mr. Ben Rothwell’s innovative community development approach, offering free lots to builders, breathed new life into Pooler. The first Baptist Church and a sawmill soon followed, marking the beginning of the town’s physical form. Pooler Town Hall itself arose in 1907, the year the town officially incorporated with a mere 337 residents. H.G. Beaufort served as the first mayor, presiding over town meetings within the newly built hall. Interestingly, one of the first women to vote in Georgia, Mrs. Gary Goggins, also served as Pooler’s only female alderman in the early 1900s. Pooler Town Hall has witnessed the town’s dramatic transformation over the past century, from its humble beginnings to a thriving center of commerce in west Chatham County. Today, Pooler boasts over 200 staff members managing a wide range of municipal services, a testament to the town’s remarkable growth. The Pooler Town Hall stands as a silent observer, its very foundations interwoven with the fabric of this town’s narrative.