124 Abercorn St
Savannah, GA 31401, USA

Owens-Thomas House (House Histree)

Completed in 1819, for Richard Richardson (1765-1833), Cotton Trader and Banker. Situated on the northeast corner of Oglethorpe Square, it was designed by William Jay of Bath and is built with highly prized English Bath stone first made famous with the construction of Prior Park. The Owens-Thomas House is considered to be the finest example of English Regency architecture in the United States and it was here on the wrought iron verandah in 1825 that the Marquis de Lafayette famously addressed the people of Savannah. In 1830, it was purchased by George Welshman Owens and it remained in his family until 1951 when his grand-daughter, Margaret Owens Thomas, bequeathed it to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences. Open to the public today as a house museum, it also possesses the best preserved slave quarters in the country.

Owens-Thomas House (Richardson-Owens-Thomas House) - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

Architectural historians have called the Owens-Thomas house one of the most beautiful English Regency homes in America. Designed by the young English architect, William Jay for the prosperous Savannah merchant, Richard Richardson, Jay, who was original and gifted with refined taste, added immeasurably to Savannah's beauty and deserves his reputation as one of America's finest architects, although he returned to England in 1824.

There are a number of unique architectural features about the house—indirect lighting in the drawing room, curved walls and doors, the superb plaster work throughout the house and the bridge in the upstairs hall. The main central stair is one of the most elegant in the South.

The residence was completed in 1819 for Richard Richardson, president of the Savannah Branch of the Bank of the United States. After Mrs. Richardson's untimely death in 1822, the house was sold, then acquired by the bank and leased for a brief time as a boardinghouse. It was during this period that accommodations were obtained here for the Marquis de Lafayette and his son when they were guests of the city in 1825.

George Welshman Owens purchased it in 1830, and it was bequeathed to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1951 by his grand-daughter. Miss Margaret Gray Thomas. The family had occupied the home continuously for 121 years. It is now maintained by Telfair as a house museum, containing furnishings unexcelled in quality.

William Jay was born in Bath in 1792 and arrived in Savannah after studying with a British architect^ with his designs for Richardson's house, his earliest commission in America. In this architectural masterpiece he demonstrated originality, a thorough knowledge of the classic Greek style, a sense of proportion, and dignified restraint in the use of ornament. In the designs for this and his other dwelling houses he introduced to Savannah the architectural vocabulary of the English Regency style; and though he returned to England in 1824, his academic and closely reasoned architectural style strongly influenced a whole generation of housebuilders in antebellum Savannah.

Richard Richardson was a prominent citizen and president of the Savannah branch of the Bank of the United States. In 1811, he married Frances Lewis Bolton, whose older brother, Robert Bolton, had married Anne Jay, the architect's sister, in Bath in 1810. Through the influence of the Boltons, no doubt. Jay had received the commission to design a house for the Richardson’s, and it was to complete the drawings and supervise its construction that he came to Savannah. John Retan was selected by the Richardson’s as the builder of their house and construction had been in progress for well over a year at the time of Jay's arrival. This fact was conclusively established by the discovery some time ago of an inscription crudely incised on the masonry foundation under the portico; Began house A.D. 1816—Finished June A.D. 1819—J. Retan. These dates, coupled with the date of Jay's arrival (announced in the Savannah Gazette for December 30, 1817) are acceptable evidence that Jay did at least part of the designs for the house before he left London.

Many of Jay's buildings in Savannah have been destroyed or disfigured through the years, but the Richardson house, a superlative memorial to his unquestioned genius, has been preserved as a house museum.

Richardson-Maxwell-Owen-Thomas House, 124 Abercorn St Savannah, Chatham County, GA

The Owens-Thomas House is considered by architectural historians to be one of the finest examples of English Regency architecture in America.

The house was designed by the English architect William Jay (1792-1837), one of the first professionally trained architects practicing in the United States. The elegant residence was built from 1816-1819 for cotton merchant and banker Richard Richardson and his wife Francis Bolton. Mr. Richardson`s brother-in-law was married to Ann Jay, the architect`s sister.

Three years after the house`s completion, Richardson suffered financial losses and sold his house, which later came under possession of the Bank of the United States. For eight years, Mrs. Mary Maxwell ran a lodging house in the structure. Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette was a guest of the city in 1825 and stayed at the house.

In 1830, planter, congressman, lawyer, and mayor of Savannah, George Welshman Owens, purchased the property for $10,000. It remained in the Owens family until 1951 when Miss Margaret Thomas, George Owens` granddaughter, bequeathed it to the Telfair Museum of Art.

A National Historic Landmark, the stately former residence is now a historic house museum. It boasts a decorative arts collection comprised primarily of Owens family furnishings, along with American and European objects dating from 1750-1830. The site also includes an English-inspired parterre garden and an original carriage house-which contains one of the earliest intact urban slave quarters in the South.