History
The 1820 Federal-style dwelling was built by upwardly mobile artisan Isaiah Davenport and his crew for his growing household, which included his wife, seven children, and nine enslaved workers. [3] It was his family home until his death in 1827 when his wife, Sarah Clark Davenport, converted it into a boarding house. She lived in the residence on Columbia Square until 1840 when she sold it to the Baynard family of South Carolina. The house remained in their hands for the next 109 years.
As time passed, the once stately home in a fashionable neighborhood became a rundown rooming house in a seedy part of town. Even in an advanced state of neglect, New Deal surveyors recognized the architectural significance of the home when they identified and measured it for the Historic American Buildings Survey in the 1930s. Threatened with demolition in 1955, a group of community-spirited citizens joined forces to purchase the Davenport House. This was the first act of the Historic Savannah Foundation, which has gone on to save hundreds buildings in the historic city through its renowned revolving loan fund and other historic preservation activities. In 1955, the Davenport House became the office for Historic Savannah Foundation as well as a family services agency. In 1957, Savannah Landscape Architect Clermont Huger Lee prepared a period-specific landscape plan and wall detail for the garden, later revised by others. [4] Sensing the potential for an historic site, the first floor of the house was restored and opened to the public as a museum on March 9, 1963.
Years later the second and third floors were opened and Historic Savannah Foundation moved its offices to another building. Beginning in the mid-1980s leaders of the museum began an effort to adhere to professional museum standards. In the mid-1990s the museum began another restoration process, with a funding drive headed by Cornelia Groves and Clare Ellis, [5] which resulted in a more authentic experience for museum visitors, including period wallpaper and period room furnishings which reflect the inventory taken at the time of Isaiah Davenport’s death in 1827. Groves also established the Friends of Davenport House in 2003. [5]
The city of Savannah, Province of Georgia, was laid out in 1733, in what was colonial America, around four open squares, each surrounded by four residential ("tything") blocks and four civic ("trust") blocks. The layout of a square and eight surrounding blocks was known as a "ward." The original plan was part of a larger regional plan that included gardens, farms, and "out-lying villages." Once the four wards were developed in the mid-1730s, two additional wards were laid. Oglethorpe's agrarian balance was abandoned after the Georgia Trustee period. Additional squares were added during the late 18th and 19th centuries, and by 1851 there were 24 squares in the city. In the 20th century, three of the squares were demolished or altered beyond recognition, leaving 21. In 2010, one of the three "lost" squares, Ellis, was reclaimed, bringing the total to today's 22.
The Savannah Historic District is a large urban U.S. historic district that roughly corresponds to the pre–Civil War city limits of Savannah, Georgia. The area was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1966, and is one of the largest urban, community-wide historic preservation districts in the United States. The district was made in recognition of the Oglethorpe Plan, a unique sort of urban planning begun by James Oglethorpe at the city's founding and propagated for the first century of its growth.
The Green–Meldrim House is a historic house at 14 West Macon Street, on the northwest corner of Madison Square, in Savannah, Georgia. Built in 1853, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as one of the American South's finest and most lavish examples of Gothic Revival architecture. The house is owned by the adjacent St. John's Episcopal Church, which offers tours and uses it as a meeting and reception space.
The Owens–Thomas House & Slave Quarters 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.
Grey Towers National Historic Site, also known as Gifford Pinchot House or The Pinchot Institute, is located just off US 6 west of Milford, Pennsylvania, in Milford Township. It is the ancestral summer home of Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the newly developed United States Forest Service (USFS) and twice elected governor of Pennsylvania.
The Gov. William Aiken House was built in 1820 at 48 Elizabeth Street, in the Wraggborough neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina. Despite being known for its association with Gov. William Aiken, the house was built by John Robinson after he bought several lots in Mazyck-Wraggborough in 1817. His house was originally configured as a Charleston double house with entrance to the house from the south side along Judith Street. The house is considered to be the best preserved complex of antebellum domestic structures in Charleston. It was the home of William Aiken, Jr., a governor of South Carolina, and before that the home of his father, the owner of South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company, William Aiken.
William Scarbrough House is a historic house in Savannah, Georgia. Built in 1819, and subjected to a number later alterations, it is nationally significant as an early example of Greek Revival architecture, and is one of the few surviving American works of architect William Jay. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973. It is now home to the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, and it has largely been restored to an early 19th-century appearance.
The Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home is a historic house museum in Savannah, Georgia where American author Flannery O'Connor lived during her childhood. The home, built in 1856, is located at 207 E. Charlton Street in Lafayette Square.
The Isaiah Wilson Snugs House, also known as the Isaiah Wilson Snugs House and the Marks House, are two historic homes located at Albemarle, Stanly County, North Carolina. The Marks House was built about 1847, and is a two-story, transitional Federal / Greek Revival style frame dwelling. It is the oldest surviving house in Albemarle. It was moved to its present site behind the Snuggs house in 1975. The Isaiah Wilson Snuggs House, the second oldest in Albemarle, was built about 1874, and is a two-story, three-bay, frame dwelling, with a two-room kitchen/dining room ell. The houses were restored in the 1980s and are operated as historic house museums by the Stanly County Museum.
Clermont Huger Lee was a landscape architect from Savannah, Georgia, most known for her work designing gardens and parks for historical landmarks in the state. Specifically, Lee is known for her designs such as the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, Isaiah Davenport House and Owens-Thomas House. Lee assisted in founding of the Georgia State Board of Landscape Architects which serves as a licensing board for landscape architects throughout Georgia. She is considered one of the first women to establish their own private architecture practice in Georgia and was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement in 2017 and Savannah College of Art and Design's Savannah Women of Vision on February 14, 2020. SCAD honors Lee with a gold relief in its Arnold hall.
Lucy Barrow McIntire, also called Miss Lucy, was an American suffragist, activist, preservationist, actor, and poet.
Columbia Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the second row of the city's five rows of squares, on Habersham Street and East President Street. It is south of Warren Square and between Oglethorpe Square to the west and Greene Square to the east. The oldest building on the square is at 307 East President Street, today's 17 Hundred 90 Inn, which, as its name suggests, dates to the 18th century.
Historic Savannah Foundation (HSF) is a preservation organization founded in 1955 and based in Savannah, Georgia, United States.
Isaiah Davenport was an American master builder, prominent in the American city of Savannah, Georgia, during the early 19th century.
City Market is a historic market complex in the Historic District of Savannah, Georgia. Originally centered on the site of today's Ellis Square from 1733, today it stretches west from Ellis Square to Franklin Square. Established in the 1700s with a wooden building, locals gathered here for their groceries and services. This building burned in 1820 and was replaced the following year with a single-storey structure that wrapped around the square. A brick building, the work of architects Augustus Schwaab and Martin Phillip Muller, was erected in 1876. They had submitted plans to the city six years earlier. The cost of the building's construction "vastly exceeded expectations" after excavations revealed weakened arches in the basement floor that required them to be replaced. It was an ornate structure with arches in the Romanesque style and large circular windows.
The Spencer–Woodbridge House is a home in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located in the northeastern civic block of Warren Square and was built in 1790, making it the oldest building on the square and one of the oldest in Savannah overall. It is part of the Savannah Historic District, and was built for George Basil Spencer, though he died in February 1791. It also became the homes of William H. Spencer until 1817 and William Woodbridge, who bought it from Spencer. It remained in the Woodbridge family until 1911.
Cornelia Rankin Groves was an American preservationist. She was one of the founders of Savannah Country Day School, in 1955, and was awarded the highest honor of the Historic Savannah Foundation, the Davenport Award, in 2008, for her efforts in support of the Isaiah Davenport House.
State Street is a prominent street in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Located between Broughton Street to the north and York Street to the south, it runs for about 0.70 miles (1.13 km) from Montgomery Street in the west to East Broad Street in the east.
The Hampton Lillibridge House is a historic home in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is located at 507 East St. Julian Street, in the southwestern civic/trust lot of Washington Square, and was built around 1797. One of the oldest extant buildings in Savannah, it is now part of the Savannah Historic District. In a survey for the Historic Savannah Foundation, Mary Lane Morrison found the building, constructed by Rhode Island native Hampton Lillibridge, to be of significant status.
William Richard Waring was a 19th-century American physician. He was described as one of the "most illustrious physicians" in Savannah, Georgia. The William Waring Property, the oldest extant building in that city's Wright Square, is now named for him.
