Owen Thomas House Gates

Title

Owen Thomas House Gates

Artist

Merana Cadorette

Medium

Painting - Watercolor

Description

This information was kindly provided for me by Cyndi Sommers, Administrator, Telfair's Owens-Thomas House


“The Owens-Thomas House was designed by the young English Architect William Jay for merchant and banker Richard Richardson and his wife Frances Bolton. Begun 1816, finished1819.

The architecture of classical Greece and Rome and Regency England (1811-1820) influenced Jay's design. Richardson imported building materials and furnishings from England, and Jay brought with him the latest English technology as evidenced by the sophisticated plumbing system installed in the house and the cast iron balcony on the south facade.

Richardson lost his new home after the financial panic of 1819. The House was rented to Mrs. Mary Maxwell, who ran it as a boarding house. Her most famous guest was the Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis de Lafayette, in 1825.

In 1830, lawyer George Welshman Owens and his wife Sarah bought the property for $10,000. Owens added three rooms to the upper story overlooking the garden. The property remained in the Owens family for 121 years. In 1951, Owens' granddaughter Miss Margaret Thomas bequeathed the site, which included the original 1819 urban slave quarters, to the Telfair Museum of Art. She requested it to be operated as a museum named for her grandfather and her father, Dr. James G. Thomas. On October 27, 1954, the Owens-Thomas House opened to the public.

*********

These cast iron gates, inscribed D & W Rose_______________Makers, were
added to the property in the late 1800s. Probably manufactured for cemetery plots, the space at the top was left blank for the family name to be inserted.”

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January 2nd, 2021

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