Five Doors Into the Southern Past: A Traveler's Guide to Savannah's House Museums

Savannah's Historic District contains one of the largest collections of intact 18th- and 19th-century architecture in the United States, and a handful of its most significant residences have been preserved as house museums. But choosing among them can bewilder the first-time visitor. Each home tells a different story — of wealth and its sources, of craftsmanship, of domestic life, and of the city's tangled relationship with its own history. Consider this a guide to picking your lens.

The Mercer Williams House: Architecture, Art, and a Bestseller

Designed by New York architect John S. Norris for Savannah merchant Hugh Mercer — though completed by the Mercer family's descendants after the Civil War — the Italianate mansion at 429 Bull Street is now inseparable from John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the 1994 bestseller that made the house, and its former owner Jim Williams, internationally famous. Tours run daily, generally on the hour, and last about 30 to 45 minutes; admission typically runs around $15 to $20 for adults.

Choose this home if you want the full Savannah mythology: antiques collected on European buying trips, a restored interior of unusual richness, and the ghost of a story that put the city on the modern literary map.

The Davenport House: The Federal Era in Miniature

Built in 1820 by master builder Isaiah Davenport, this Federal-style home on Columbia Square is widely credited as the property that launched Savannah's historic preservation movement — the organization that saved it in 1955 became the Historic Savannah Foundation. Tours run roughly 45 minutes, with admission generally under $15.

Choose this home if you are drawn to the everyday texture of early 19th-century life: the hierarchy of the household, the urban enslaved people whose labor sustained it, and the architectural restraint of the Federal period. It is the most historically disciplined of Savannah's house tours.

The Owens-Thomas House: The Full, Unvarnished Story

Regency architecture is rare in America, and the Owens-Thomas House on Oglethorpe Square is its finest Southern example. Designed by English architect William Jay around 1819, the house is now operated by the Telfair Museums — but its most significant feature may be the preserved slave quarters, among the earliest and most thoughtfully interpreted urban slave spaces open to the public. Tours last about an hour, with tickets around $20.

Choose this home if you want history without varnish. The museum's interpretation addresses the enslaved people who built and maintained the property alongside the families who owned it, and the result is one of the most honest house tours in the American South.

The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace: The Story of an American Institution

The Regency-Italianate home where Juliette Gordon Low was born in 1860 is a pilgrimage site for the millions of American women who have passed through Girl Scouts since Low founded the organization in Savannah in 1912. Tours run frequently throughout the day, last about 45 minutes, and cost roughly $15, with discounts for scouts.

Choose this home if you are traveling with family, or if you want a story of American ingenuity and women's history told through the rooms where it began.

The Andrew Low House: Cotton, Commerce, and Quiet Grandeur

Lafayette Square's Andrew Low House, completed in 1849 for a wealthy cotton merchant, pairs Greek Revival elegance with the story of the economy that built it — and the city it transformed. Juliette Gordon Low lived here after her marriage, linking it to the birthplace nearby. Tours run about 45 minutes, with admission in the $15 range.

Choose this home if you want to understand how cotton made Savannah — and how the house's parlors, gardens, and dependencies reveal the machinery of that wealth.

Planning Your Visits

Most of these homes sit within a ten-minute walk of one another, and none requires a full morning. A sensible pairing: the Owens-Thomas House for context, the Davenport House for craft, and the Mercer Williams House for the story everyone asks about. Book ahead in spring and fall, wear comfortable shoes for the hard floors and narrow stairs, and expect that every guide will have a story the brochure leaves out — in Savannah, the houses always keep a few secrets.