William Scarbrough House facts for kids
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William Scarbrough House
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The house in 2020
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 Location in Georgia (U.S. state)
Location in the United States
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| Location | 41 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, Savannah, Georgia |
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| Built | 1819 |
| Architect | William Jay |
| Architectural style | Early Republic |
| Part of | Savannah Historic District (Savannah, Georgia) (ID66000277) |
| NRHP reference No. | 70000201 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | June 22, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | November 7, 1973 |
The William Scarbrough House is a very old and important house in Savannah, Georgia. It was built in 1819 and has been changed a few times since then. This house is special because it's an early example of Greek Revival architecture, which was a popular style back then. It's also one of the few buildings still standing that was designed by the famous architect William Jay.
In 1973, the house was named a National Historic Landmark. This means it's a place that's important to the history of the whole country. Today, the house is home to the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. Most of the house has been carefully restored to look like it did in the early 1800s.
The house was built for a man named William Scarbrough. He was one of the main owners of the SS Savannah. This ship made history in 1819 by being the first steamship in the world to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
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What Does the House Look Like?
The Scarbrough House is in the western part of central Savannah. It's a two-story building made of brick. The bricks are covered with a special plaster called stucco, which is carved to look like big stone blocks. The house sits on a raised basement, which means the first floor is a bit higher off the ground.
At the front, there's a large porch area called a portico. It has four smooth, round columns that hold up the roof of the porch. Above the portico, there's a big, round opening with two French doors. These doors lead to a balcony on top of the portico. The inside of the house has many original decorations that have been fixed up or rebuilt to look like they did when the house was first built.
A Look at the House's History
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The William Scarbrough House was finished in 1819. It was built for William Scarbrough, who was a very successful merchant and ship owner in Savannah. The house was designed by William Jay. He was an English architect who moved to Savannah in 1817. He designed many important buildings in the city, and this house is one of only three that are still standing today.
Over the years, the house changed quite a bit. At one point, a third floor was added, but it was later removed during restoration work. From 1873 to 1962, the city of Savannah owned the house. During this time, it was used as the West Broad Street Colored School, providing education for African American children.
After that, the Historic Savannah Foundation bought the house. They updated its systems and started some repairs. In 1990, the house was given to the Telfair Museums. In the early 1990s, it was fixed up even more to become a museum. Finally, in 1994, it became the home of the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum.
A cool historical fact: In 1819, the Scarbrough family hosted James Monroe, who was the fifth United States president at the time!
Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum
The Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum opened in 1966. It has nine different rooms, or galleries, filled with amazing things. You can see models of ships, paintings about the sea, and other items that show Savannah's long history with ships and the ocean.
Some of the ship models you can see include:
- The SS Savannah, which was owned by William Scarbrough himself.
- The HMS Anne, the ship that brought James Oglethorpe and the first settlers to Georgia in 1732.
- The famous RMS Titanic.
The museum also has beautiful gardens that cover about 2 acres. These gardens are designed to look like the fancy gardens people had in the 1800s. In 1974, a landscape architect named Clermont Huger Lee helped design these lovely gardens.
See also
