41 E Broad St
Savannah, GA 31401, USA

William Scarbrough House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

I. 1819-1845; William Scarborough, President Monroe, Godfrey Barnsley. When President James Monroe, accompanied by his Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, arrived in Savannah on May 8, 1819, he was escorted by the Mayor and other leaders "to the new house of William Scarbrough, Esq. which was fitted up in a superb style for his reception." William Scarbrough (1776-1838) was a merchant prince whose name headed the list of incorporators of the company which was about to launch the S.S.Savannah on the first transatlantic voyage made by a steamship. Scarbrough's newly completed mansion became a focal point of four days of festivities celebrating the President's visit to Savannah to inspect the steamship before its impending history-making maiden voyage. At that point Scarbrough was at the pinnacle of his success and Scarbrough House was a domicile befitting his position in society. Unfortunately, on June 5, while the Savannah steamed in mid-Atlantic, Scarbrough was forced to mortgage the mansion and other property to friends who had endorsee, his notes. Soon thereafter in 1820, events forced him into bankruptcy. He conveyed the house to his brother-in-law Robert Isaac who permitted the Scarbroughs to remain in the house. Later, the mansion was again the setting of social success for a member of the family who built it. From 1835 to 1845 William's daughter, Julia, and her rich husband the English born cotton factor Godfrey Barnsley rented the mansion. Probably it was during these years that the house was remodeled and the third story added.

II. 1818-1819; The architect, William Jay (c..194-1837).
Scarbrough's architect was bom in Bath, Somersetshire, England and came to Savannah in 1817. It is often said that he studied under, or was strongly influenced by. Sir John Soane. According to Colvin's A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, London, 1952, William Jay "was articled to David Riddal Roper, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1809 to 1817. He designed the Albion Chapel, Moorgate Street London before going to Savannah, Georgia in 1817." Whatever further research may reveal, it may state that: Jay was a young man with more professional training and experience than the average American "architect" of that day and the quality of his work shows this to be a fact. Before he left Savannah, he had finished the Richards on Owens-Thomas House; the Scarbrough House; the Bulloch-Habersham House; most probably the Telfair and Wayne Gordon houses; and several other structures including a bank and a theatre. The high quality of this body of work led F.D. Nichols to praise Jay by writing; "William Jay was unquestionably one of the most important architects practicing anywhere in America in the early part of the nineteenth century." (Colvin states that "Jay returned to England in 1824. and in 1836 was appointed Assistant Chief Architect and Inspector of Works in the Colony of Mauritius, where he died on April 19, 1837.")

III. 1878-1962; 1966; 1969; George W.J. DeRenne and three foundations.
When DeRenne purchased the house in 1878, Jay's original design had been basically altered only once. A third story was added and the painted dome removed, possibly when Godfrey Barnsley and his wife Julia Scarbrough rented the house from 1835 to 1845. In 1878 DeRenne put the property in trust to, be used as "a school for children of African descent," with the provision that the house remains fundamentally unchanged. In 1962 the building was returned to the DeRenne Foundation which sold it to Historic Savannah Foundation in 1966. Three years later the Scarbrough House Foundation was formed to purchase the house and restore it for purposes which will continue to respect the basic character of this distinguished Jay version of English Regency architecture. The architect in charge of restoration is an authority on Jay's architecture and the furnishings appropriate to that period; Edward Vason Jones of Albany, Georgia.

William Scarborough House, 41 West Broad St Savannah, Chatham County, GA

An unusual Regency-Greek Revival house designed by Savannah architect William Jay. The house was built for a prominent merchant, planter, and inventor, William Scarbrough.