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View of the front of the Owens-Thomas House

Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters

Hours
Open 10am–5pm today
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Built in 1819, this mansion exemplifies the neoclassical styles popular in England during the Regency period. The Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters allows visitors to explore the complicated relationships between the most and least powerful people in the city of Savannah in the early 19th century.

Our tours focus on the art, architecture, and history of the home through the lens of slavery. Visitors will experience an inclusive interpretation of not only the wealthy families that inhabited this home for a span of over 100 years, but of also the enslaved people who lived and labored here.

Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters Tours

  • Tours are given at 15-minute intervals. The last tour begins at 4:15 pm.
  • Guided tours are available from 10am-3:00pm with self-guided audio tours available from 3:30-4:15pm every day.
  • Tour groups consist of up to 12 people.
  • Headphones are not provided for audio tours.
  • Please check in onsite to get a tour time even if you’ve purchased tickets at our other two sites.
  • Daily tours at the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters fill up fast on a first-come, first-served basis.

*Due to the historic nature of the site, the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters contain the original staircases of the site with no elevator access.

Guided tours are available from 10am-3:00pm with self-guided audio tours available from 3:30-4:15pm every day. Tours typically last around 45 minutes to an hour.

Tips for our self-guided audio tour:

  • Bring a well-charged smart phone with QR Code Reader.
  • We recommend bringing earphones for listening.

Audio Tour

Address 124 Abercorn St.
Savannah, GA 31401(external link)
Proximity

 

History of the Richardson-Owens-Thomas House

Shipping merchant and enslaver Richard Richardson commissioned this house around 1816, and his family moved in upon its completion in 1819. The home was designed by English architect (and relative to Richardson by marriage) William Jay but was constructed by builder John Retan and likely a team of free and enslaved men in his charge. The property also included a two-sided privy and a building located on the east end of the lot, which was divided into a carriage house and slave quarters.

The Richardsons only lived in the home for a few years before they saw a steady decrease in their prosperity. After the combination of the financial Panic of 1819, a yellow fever epidemic, a fire that destroyed half the city, and the death of Frances and two of the children, Richardson decided to sell the house and move to Louisiana, where he had family and business interests.

By 1824, the Bank of the United States owned the home, which they leased to Mary Maxwell as a boarding house. The Marquis de Lafayette was a guest of Mrs. Maxwell when he visited Savannah in March 1825 as part of his whirlwind tour of the United States for the 50th anniversary of the American Revolution.

In 1830, lawyer, landholder, and enslaver George Welshman Owens purchased the property at auction for $10,000. He lived here with his wife, Sarah, their six children, and up to fourteen enslaved laborers. Over the next 121 years, the home would continue to be owned by the Owens family until the last descendent, Margaret Gray Thomas, George Owens’s granddaughter, bequeathed the property upon her death in 1951 to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences to be run as a house museum in honor of her grandfather, George Owens, and her father, Dr. James Gray Thomas. The site opened to the public in 1954.

Carriage House

 

Orientation Gallery

The south half of this building originally housed horses and carriages on the first floor with a hay loft on the floor above.

 

Slave Quarters

The north half of the building contains the original slave quarters for the site. This two-story structure was composed of three rooms on each level. About five to fourteen enslaved people, most of which were female and children or teenagers, lived and worked on the site at any given time. These individuals worked in domestic labor duties like cooking, cleaning, washing laundry, and raising children.

Parterre Garden

The parterre style garden occupies the space between the main house and the carriage house. This area originally functioned as a work yard, which likely included a small kitchen garden, areas to dry laundry and clean rugs, and perhaps pens and coops for small livestock and chickens. It even contained a two-sided privy, or outhouse, in the northeast corner.

The Mansion

 

Public Spaces

When the Richardson or Owens families entertained, they did so in the public spaces of their home: the drawing room, front hall, and dining room. These spaces, designed in the finest Regency style and filled with American and English furniture and decorative arts, were intended to impress. They feature elaborate molding, faux finishes, curved walls, and decorative sidelights.

Entertaining spaces also allowed for transfers of information, both intentionally and circumstantially. Peter, the Owens family’s enslaved butler, doubtlessly listened closely as George Owens debated politics and policies that would affect the lives of himself and his family and friends.

 

Private Spaces

The bedrooms, library, and family dining room of the home were considered more private spaces utilized by the family and close friends, rather than entertaining spaces for formal events. These rooms allow for an in-depth exploration of how the economic elite and their enslaved servants interacted on a daily basis.

Butler’s Pantry

Enslaved butlers managed not just the daily operations of upper-class homes, but also the enslaved staff that serviced them. In addition, enslaved butlers maintained the fine silver, china, and glassware used in entertaining. They would have stored valuable items in this space, which is complete with original cabinetry’s faux finishes, reproduced according to the results of paint analysis.

Basement

The basement, which retains many original components, contains the kitchen, scullery, a large cistern, and other workspaces. These wonderfully preserved spaces offer more interpretive text and material to help visitors understand the day-to-day lives of the enslaved people who lived and worked here.

Decorative Arts

The furniture and decorative objects from Telfair’s collection that are displayed at the Owens-Thomas House date largely from the early to mid-19th century. Most were produced in England or America. About one third of the objects descended in the Owens family, and many others were owned by wealthy Savannahians of the same period.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

When we open the site each day, tour slots are available for visitors on a first-come, first-serve basis. You must book a tour in-person at the ticket booth. If you would like to book a tour for later in the day, you are more than welcome to choose a later timeslot as long as we have enough available capacity for your group! We recommend showing up as early as possible if you have a large party or would like to reserve a particular tour time that day.

Unfortunately, we only reserve tour slots for the current day. However, if you have a large group consisting of 12 people or more (i.e., a Girl Scout Troop, school groups, a large family/travelling tour group, etc.), visit telfair.org/group-tours/ for more information and advanced booking options. Keeping in mind our limited capacity and staffing requirements, we request you make your reservation at least four weeks in advance.

We currently do not have an online booking system, and tours may only be booked in-person at the ticket booth. We apologize for any inconvenience!

Yes, all visitors must reserve their tour times in-person at the ticket booth. The line ensures that tour times are made available to all our visitors on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Telfair Museums only offers a three-site pass to ensure that our visitors have the opportunity to experience all the museum has to offer at one combined price.

Our interior waiting area has limited capacity, so keep in mind that we are only able to allow one group in at a time. Approximately 5-10 minutes before your tour begins, a Historical Interpreter will welcome all visitors in the tour group to spend the remainder of their waiting time in the Orientation Gallery. This space houses displays of introductory information available to read while you wait, as well as benches that visitors may rest on indoors before their tour starts.

If your waiting time is 20 minutes or more, we have additional benches in the Courtyard and Garden on the property. You are more than welcome to visit another location during your waiting time, just be sure to return 5-10 minutes prior to your tour start time

We put out the sold-out notices as soon as we reach our capacity for the day, so if you haven’t already checked in at the ticket booth to receive your tour time, we unfortunately don’t have the capacity to accommodate you today. While we’d love to allow as many visitors as possible to experience this site, we have limited visitor entries each day to help preserve the historic integrity of the buildings themselves.

Guided tours typically last somewhere between 45-60 minutes while self-guided audio tours take about 40 minutes on average. The audio tour allows visitors to explore the property at their own pace, so if you have a limited or specific time frame, we recommend that option as it allows for a bit more flexibility.

Due to our buildings’ capacity limits and other logistical challenges, we unfortunately cannot let visitors to self-guide at the same time as the guided tours. However, our self-guided audio tour slots are available every 15 minutes beginning at 2 pm each day. If you arrive while we are offering guided tours (10:00 am – 3 pm), you’re welcome to book your tour time and return later in the day to self-guide at your own pace.

While some of us would love to accommodate all kinds of furry friends, our sites only allow service dogs required for a disability.

We have paper transcripts of the audio tour available in Spanish, so just ask a Historical Interpreter and we’ll be happy to assist you! We are currently working on developing translations in additional languages, and we appreciate your patience while we expand our language accessibility.

The Orientation Gallery and Slave Quarters have ramped entrances, but the main building is unfortunately not ADA accessible. There are several flights of stairs within the house itself, but there are benches and chairs throughout where visitors who would like to opt out may sit and wait for their group. We apologize for the inconvenience!

Telfair Museums