Built 1794 Designated NHL December 21, 1981 Area 1,600 m² Added to NRHP 19 July 1976 | NRHP Reference # 76000646 Opened 1794 Phone +1 706-724-4174 | |
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Location 1320 Independence Drive, Augusta, Georgia, 30901 Address 1320 Independence Dr, Augusta, GA 30901, USA Hours Closed now Thursday10AM–4PMFriday10AM–4PMSaturday10AM–3:15PMSundayClosedMonday10AM–4PMTuesday10AM–4PMWednesday10AM–4PM Similar Woodrow Wilson Boyhood, Lucy Craft Laney Museum, Signers Monument, Sacred Heart Catholic, Gertrude Herbert Art Institute | ||
Meadow Garden is a historic house museum at 1320 Independence Drive in Augusta, Georgia. It was a home of George Walton (1749–1804), one of Georgia's three signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and later a governor of Georgia and a United States Senator. Meadow Garden was saved and established as a museum by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1901. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1981.
Description and history
Meadow Garden is located on the west side of downtown Augusta, separated from the Augusta Canal by the Augusta Canal Historic Walking Trail, and just east of the Sutherland Mill. It is a 1-1/2 story wood frame structure, set on a high brick basement. It was built in stages, originally three bays in width, but is now six, with three gabled dormers and two chimneys projecting from the gabled roof. A shed-roof porch extends across the front, supported by slender Doric columns. The facade is irregularly arranged, with two doors and four windows.
The oldest portion of the house, its right three bays, was built in 1791. The left three bays were added sometime after 1800, and the front porch was also probably added at a later date. Although the property was never owned by him, it was from 1791 to his death in 1804 the home of George Walton, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Trained as a lawyer, he served in the Continental Congress (1776–81) and in the Georgia militia, in whose service he was captured by the British during the 1778 Capture of Savannah. Exchanged and released, he was soon afterward elected Governor of Georgia, an office he held from November 1779 to January 1780. He also served as the state's Chief Justice, and in a second term as Governor 1789-80. He died at College Hill, his country house, in 1804. The house passed out of the Walton family in 1812, and is now owned and operated as a museum by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.