Ellis Square replaced a car park after fifty-six years

James Oglethorpe laid out this square in 1733 as one of the first four in the city. It took its name from Sir Henry Ellis, who served as the second Royal Governor of Georgia. For more than two centuries, the site functioned as the primary public market for Savannah, with a succession of market buildings occupying the space.

The city demolished the final market building in 1954 to clear the ground for a multi-storey car park. This structure covered the entire square, effectively ending its existence as a public space. The loss of Ellis Square served as the catalyst for the preservation movement in Savannah. The anger surrounding the demolition led directly to the formation of the Historic Savannah Foundation, an organization dedicated to preventing the destruction of the city's remaining historic fabric. This was not the only instance of such loss, as Liberty Square and Elbert Square had already been destroyed in the 1930s to make way for a highway scheme. Neither of those squares has ever been rebuilt.

The car park that replaced the market was named for Robert E. Robinson, a local lawyer and alderman. Robinson died on 18 December 1989 after a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody detonated in his office on Abercorn Street. The city honored Robinson by naming both the parking garage and a set of apartments after him.

By January 2006, the city demolished the car park to restore the square. The parking infrastructure moved underground into a new four-storey garage built beneath Whitaker Street. After being gone for 56 years, the square reopened to the public on 11 March 2010.

The current design features flat paving and live oaks rather than the grass lawns found in the other squares of the city.