Built 1816 Designated NHL May 11, 1976 Phone +1 912-790-8889 Added to NRHP 11 May 1976 | NRHP Reference # 76000611 Opened 1816 Architectural style Regency architecture Architect William Jay | |
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Location 124 Abercorn Street, Savannah, Georgia Part of Savannah Historic District (Savannah, Georgia) (#66000277) Address 124 Abercorn St, Savannah, GA 31401, USA Hours Open today · 10AM–5PMTuesday10AM–5PMWednesday10AM–5PMThursday10AM–5PMFriday10AM–5PMSaturday10AM–5PMSunday12–5PMMonday12–5PMSuggest an edit Similar Juliette Gordon Low Histo, Savannah Theatre, Cathedral of St John the Baptist, Savannah Historic District, Bonaventure Cemetery | ||
A note of history owens thomas house
The Owens-Thomas House is a historic home in Savannah, Georgia that is operated as a historic house museum by Telfair Museums. It is located at 124 Abercorn Street, on the northeast corner of Oglethorpe Square. The Owens-Thomas House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, as one of the nation's finest examples of English Regency architecture.
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Owens thomas house savannah ga
Architectural style and house history
This most important and architecturally significant house was begun in 1816 and completed in 1819. Designed by the English architect William Jay of Bath, the house plans were drawn while Jay was still in England. He sent architectural elevations to local workers before his arrival in Savannah sometime after foundations were laid. According to Jay's letters, the house was to be aesthetically compatible to Bath, England. This is evident in the Bath stone of the house's construction as well as its sophisticated architectural detail. It was a gentrifying physical ornament to the newly successful Southern port. The Richardson House, as it was originally known after its first owner and builder, is North America's preeminent example of period English Regency architecture. The mansion was purchased in 1830 by local attorney and politician George Welshman Owens for $10,000. The family maintained it for several decades until Owens' granddaughter, Margaret Thomas, bequeathed the house to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (established in 1885) as the South's oldest art museum, in 1951. The house is notable for its early cast iron side veranda with elaborate acanthus scroll supports on which the Marquis de Lafayette addressed the citizens of Savannah on his visit in 1825. William Jay was architect to other Savannah landmarks such as the Scarborough house, the Telfair House as mentioned above, and an attribution to the Gordon-Low House.
Museum
The Owens-Thomas House collection contains furnishings and decorative arts from the English Regency period; containing effects of the Owens family, most pieces dating from the years 1790 to 1840. Collections include English Georgian and American Federal period furniture, early Savannah textiles, silver, Chinese Export porcelain, and 18th- and 19th-century art. The house-servant's quarters feature slave artifacts of the period. The courtyard features a small parterre garden.