9) Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters
124 Abercorn Street (Oglethorpe Square)
(912) 790-8800
The Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters is considered by architectural historians to be one of the finest examples of English Regency architecture in America. This most important and architecturally significant house was begun in 1816 and completed in 1819.
The Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters occupies a full block. The home features a columned entrance portico, handsome cast iron balcony, winding double stairway, and arched second story windows. The interior has a magnificent stairway of mahogany, cast iron and brass and elegant furnishings. The foundation of the home and garden walls is built of tabby, a regional material made of sand, shells and lime.
The Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters collection contains furnishings and decorative arts from the English Regency period; 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 courtyard features a small parterre garden.
The north half of the building contains the original slave quarters. The two-story building had three rooms on each level. Nine to fifteen people including children lived and worked on the site between 1819 and the end of the Civil War. After the war ended the space became the servants' quarters. The house-servant's quarters feature slave artifacts of the period.
Time to spend: 1 - 2 hours
Tours run every 20 minutes:
Duration of the tour is 45 minutes
Sunday - Monday 12:00p - 5:00p
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00a - 5:00p
Last tour is at 4:20p
