InUSA Tour Guide
The History. The House was designed by architect
William Jay at the young age of 24. The stylish residence was built
from 1816 to 1819 for cotton merchant Richard Richardson and his wife
Francis Bolton, the sister-in-law of William Jay. Unfortunately the
Richardsons soon lost heir house in the financial depression of 1820.
During the next decade the House served as an elegant boarding house, and in 1825 the Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis de Layfayette, was a guest. According to Savannah's oral tradition, the celebrated Frenchman delivered his two Savannah addresses to thousands of adoring citizens from the ornate cast iron balcony on the south side of the house.
In 1830, George Welchman Owens, congressman, lawyer and one-time mayor of Savannah, purchased the House from the Bank of the United States for $10,000. The property remained in the Owens family until 1951 when Owens' granddaughter Margaret Thomas bequeathed it to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, now the Telfair Museum of Art.
The Carriage House. Your tour begins at the original Carriage House. This outbuilding includes one of the earliest intact urban slave quarters in the South and an education center, while the stable side of the building houses the Museum Shop and Regional Art Gallery. The Carriage House courtyard opens into a beautiful English-inspired par-terre garden.
The Main House. Today you enter the house from the
garden façade with its distinctive polygonal bays flanking a
lower porch and an 1830s wooden addition above. The front entrance has
the same delicate Ionic columns in a serpentine-shaped portico with an
alcove doorway.
The interior is Jay's unique interpretation of the Regency style. Unusual features include a brass inlaid staircase, with a unique bridge spanning the central stairwell, a Greek-key patterned window of amber glass in the dining room, and the magical effect of the drawing room ceiling.
Jay combined imported materials and the latest London technology with indigenous construction techniques. The House is largely made of tabby, a concrete-like mixture of lime, oyster shells and sand. The exterior is English stucco and the front garden balustrade is coadestone, an artificial stone made in London. An elaborate plumbing system was installed in 1819 with rain-fed cisterns, flushing water closets, sinks, bathtubs and a shower.
The Collection. Three rare built-in marble-top tables are among the only surviving objects from the original owners, the Richardsons. The Owens family furnishings form the nucleus of the decorative arts collection, which includes outstanding American and European objects dating from 1750 to 1830.
HOURS: Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM, Sunday 2 to 5 PM.
ADMISSION: $
DIRECTIONS: The House faces Oglethorpe Square between State and York Streets.