---
title: "Visit the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters"
url: https://stacklist.com/card/4d11e5fb-9f04-40f5-9f0b-0eb33fadba61
source_url: "https://www.telfair.org/visit/owens-thomas/"
stack: https://stacklist.com/stack/70b7b2dd-2b35-40fb-8da7-1a36ea3808e7
summary: "The Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters is a historic site in Savannah, Georgia, originally commissioned by enslaver Richard Richardson around 1816 and later owned by the Owens family for 121 years before becoming a house museum in 1954. The site preserves the main mansion, carriage house, slave quarters, and parterre garden, interpreting the lives of both the wealthy families and the enslaved people who labored there."
tags: "slavery, historic-house, savannah, antebellum, museum, enslaved-labor, neoclassical-architecture"
key_entities: "Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters (location), Richard Richardson (person), William Jay (person), George Welshman Owens (person), Margaret Gray Thomas (person), Marquis de Lafayette (person), Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (organization), Savannah (location), John Retan (person), Panic of 1819 (event), enslaved labor (concept)"
classification: "reference"
content_hash: "sha256:c092c6368dc06dd864493f61767ad582c62e77bdc820c288fbe5335ced7ad213"
acp_version: "0.2"
token_counts_approximate: 2307
visibility: public
agent_accessible: true
status: "final"
---

# Visit the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters

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. View image 1 in lightbox: View image 2 in lightbox: View image 3 in lightbox: View image 4 in lightbox: 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. View image 1 in lightbox: Originally, this space was a work yard. In 1956 it was transformed into an English parterre garden. View image 2 in lightbox: View image 3 in lightbox: View image 4 in lightbox: 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 neoclassical 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. However, these public entertainment spaces were upheld due to the use of enslaved labor. Individuals such as the enslaved butler and maids spent countless hours preparing and cleaning to ensure gatherings ran smoothly, and rooms were presentable. 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. View image 1 in lightbox: Second-floor bridge inside the house View image 2 in lightbox: View image 3 in lightbox: View image 4 in lightbox: View image 5 in lightbox: The formal dining room View image 6 in lightbox: View image 7 in lightbox: View image 8 in lightbox: 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. View image 1 in lightbox: View image 2 in lightbox: View image 3 in lightbox: View image 4 in lightbox: View image 5 in lightbox: Bathing Chamber at the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters View image 6 in lightbox: View image 7 in lightbox: View image 8 in lightbox: Name Wall at the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters 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. View image 1 in lightbox: View image 2 in lightbox: View image 3 in lightbox: View image 4 in lightbox: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Can we book a tour for a future day or time? Yes! Our Online Ticket Portal allows visitors to select in advance the day and time of their tour of the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters (space permitting). Tours may be scheduled up to 4 weeks in advance. If we already purchased a ticket/have a membership, do we have to wait in line? Yes, all visitors must first check in at the ticket booth. The line ensures that scheduled tours remain timely and organized. Can we purchase a ticket just for this site instead of all three? 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. After we’ve purchased our ticket, where can we wait? 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 I see you’re sold out, but can I still come in and get on a tour if I already have a pre-purchased ticket/3-site pass? 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. How long does the tour take? Guided tours typically last somewhere between 45-60 minutes. Can we walk ourselves through without a tour? Due to our buildings’ capacity limits and other logistical challenges, we currently only offer guided tours through the property which begin every 15 minutes. However, the other two Telfair Museum sites do not require a tour, so if you prefer a self-paced experience, we recommend visiting the Telfair Academy and Jepson Center! Are pets allowed? While some of us would love to accommodate all kinds of furry friends, our sites only allow service dogs required for a disability. Are translation services available? 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. Is this site handicap accessible? 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!