Yet, to the first-time visitor, Savannah has an air of neglect that was surprising to see. The downtown was ravaged by redevelopment in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and though there are brave restoration projects in the centre, there are still many inappropriate buildings in the downtown core.

City Hall, Savannah. Designed in 1901, and opened in 1906, the dome is covered with 23 carat gold leaf

However, it was still a pleasure to visit Savannah, which has established a large historic district, and to visit several of the historic houses now open to the public. Just a few blocks from the small downtown area are leafy squares, surrounded by historic houses, many of which are open to the public. Not all of the houses are on the ‘tourist’ maps, so be persistent; otherwise you may miss a special house or two!

Forsyth Fountain in Forsyth Park, Savannah. The Fountain was conceived as the focal point of the landscaped park and installed in 1858. It was restored extensively in 1988 to once again be the major landscape feature in Savannah.

The parks and squares of Savannah are heavily treed with live oaks draped with Spanish moss, giving an other-worldly atmosphere - especially for those from Northern climates.

The Green-Meldrim House - Savannah

The Green-Meldrim House on Madison Square features an exuberant Gothic-style porch, overlooking a small garden with a fountain.

Hard to find, but worth the search, is the Green-Meldrim house which is situated on Madison Square. The House was built in 1850 for cotton merchant Charles Green. In 1892 the home was purchased by Judge Peter Meldrim whose heirs later sold it to St. John’s Episcopal Church, who still use it for church functions today.

Volunteers give wonderful tours of this lavish Gothic-Revival style house which cost $90,000 to build in 1850. Richly decorated with oriels, filigree ironwork, black-walnut woodwork, marble mantles and wonderful Gothic cornices and other features, guests are often stunned by its magnificent style.

The home’s amazing past includes a brief residency by General Sherman after he occupied the city in 1864 during the Civil War. Upstairs in this house is the room where the proclamation supposedly promising “40 acres and a mule” to each freed slave was signed. Although the proclamation indeed promised land, the “mule” part seems to be a mythical addition.

The Entrance of the Green-Meldrim House is worth inspecting for its clever architectural detailing. The exterior Gothic-paneled doors fold back to create paneling on either side of the entrance, which is then closed from the Hall by sliding wood and glass doors.

The Owens Thomas House - Savannah

The Main façade of the Owens Thomas House on Oglethorpe Square in Savannah.

The Owens-Thomas House is a delightful surprise to find in Savannah, as it is a very English style of home, designed in the English Regency style of architecture. Inspired by classical antiquity, this style of architecture takes its name from England’s King George IV, who ruled as Prince Regent from 1811 to 1820.

The house was designed by the English architect William Jay (1792-1837), one of the first professionally trained architects practicing in the United States. The house was built for cotton merchant and banker Richard Richardson and his wife Francis Bolton. Mr. Richardson’s brother-in-law was married to Ann Jay, the architect’s sister.

Overlooking leafy Oglethorpe Square, the symmetrical façade has a portico supported by four columns with Ionic capitals, which shelters a double, curved entrance stair. The house was built over three years, beginning in November of 1816, and finishing in January of 1819.

The Owens-Thomas House, is a National Historic Landmark, and well worth a visit to see the splendidly-restored interiors, while visiting Savannah.

The rear façade of the Owens-Thomas House in Savannah.

The garden of the Owens Thomas House from the rear portico, looking toward the carriage house.

The unusual cast-iron side porch of the Owens Thomas House, overlooking the street, is supported by Acanthus brackets, painted green.

The Southern city of Charleston cherishes its history, and opens the doors of several outstanding historic house museums to visitors to both the city and nearby countryside.
From the amazing Drayton Hall near Charleston – a 1738 Plantation House being meticulously and carefully preserved by the National Trust for Historic Preservation – to several 1850’s and 1860’s historic house museums in Charleston – you will find places full of inspiration, education, and simple appreciation. These sites are all worth visiting.

Hopefully this overview of one of Charleston’s outstanding Historic House Museums will encourage you to visit Charleston.

Charleston

The skyline of Charleston – few buildings are over 4 stories tall

Charleston is a delightful city when visited on a delightfully warm day in February. After being in the frosty mountains of North Carolina at the 20th Annual Arts & Crafts Show in Asheville, it was a treat to be welcomed by the palm trees and tropical ambience of Charleston. Streets of white wooden houses with distinctive double-height side porches called ‘piazzas’ on narrow streets made strolling around the city delightful.

Still imbued with the history of the Civil War, Charleston today features hidden gardens, narrow streets, and wonderful architecture from many historic periods. They make Charleston a “must-see” city for architectural enthusiasts.

A typical Charleston House with a ‘front’ door actually leading to a side-facing open porch called a ‘piazza’

The historic house museums in Charleston are presented as either fully furnished or as ‘preserved’ where the wear of the ages is in full view for your enjoyment.

The Aiken-Rhett House - Charleston

The Aiken-Rhett House in Charleston is an example of a Historic House with remarkable ‘preserved’ interiors.

One of the most interesting houses to see in Charleston is the Aiken-Rhett House. Built in 1817 for merchant John Robinson, this twelve-room mansion (four on each floor) also has a distinctive “piazza” - a Charleston term for a double verandah. Carefully preserved, the exterior features examples of recreated sanded paint finishes, to simulate stone construction, and graining, which is a method of painting that simulates more expensive woods.

The house gets its name from William and Harriet Aiken Jr. who moved to the house in 1833, and their daughter’s husband’s name Major. A.B. Rhett.

The Aiken and Rhett families lived in the house, making few changes, until 1975, when it was donated to the Charleston Museum, who owned the property until 1995, when the Historic Charleston Foundation purchased it.

The main floor ‘piazza’ of the Aiken-Rhett House overlooking the garden, with special triple-hung windows providing access to the outside from the Drawing Room.

Sanded paint and Grained woodwork at the Aiken-Rhett house

The interior of the Aiken-Rhett house is special to visit. It retains original painted finishes, worn furniture and an air of real, and not recreated, history.

The rear garden of the Aiken-Rhett House still retains its Slave quarters, Carriage House, and this Gothic-style outdoor privy in a brick structure at the rear corner of the garden.

Carriages on display at the Aiken-Rhett house in Charleston – preserved, not restored.

City Directories are full of research information

Owners almost always want to know who lived in your old house before they arrived. Who built this house? Who closed in the porch? When did the garage get built, and why?

Perhaps you are lucky enough to know the immediately previous owners. Perhaps even the owners before them. But good old houses tend to have long-term residents, and old houses tend to have long histories, and the trail starts to get murky after a while…

There are many ways of researching previous residents of an old house – and not all residents are owners. Owners names show up on the official documents of your local Land Titles office, where you can, usually for a fee, search the title documents for all the owners of your property back to when it was built.

But not all owners lived in the houses they owned. Frequently, older homes were leased or rented, sometimes for years at a time. How to find out information about those residents? Look in City Directories or Street Directories.

In North America, they are called City Directories, and contain an alphabetical listing of all residents, and sometimes also contain a geographic listing of residents – as a cross reference – by the street that they lived on. In Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, they are called “Street Directories” and list residents by the roads and streets they lived on. Canada often has both types of listing in one volume.

A City Directory from Worcester dated 1889

Most cities and towns had City Directories from around the 1860’s through to the 1990’s. With the advent of the Internet, these large, cumbersome, but informative volumes have largely disappeared, but they survive – if you are lucky – at your local libraries and archives.

City Directories contain a wealth of information between their covers. They usually were updated once a year, and they list alphabetically, all the residents of a town, with their addresses and frequently, their occupations as well. They also have a separate cross-reference by Street or Road, listing every occupied house, with all of the people that lived there, with their occupations and where they worked.

They also list local organizations, churches, post offices, Town officers, libraries, and more. A treasure trove of information!

Common abbreviations found in Directories have been summarized in this example from Cleveland in 1900

There are also added bonuses of information. Sometimes, there will be lists of House Names and the addresses of those houses. Who lived at “Maple Bank”? Where was “Garrison Cottage”? Were there two houses called “Springfield”? Was that old mansion called “Avalon”?

Advertisements of sponsoring businesses are often included at the front or the back of a City Directory as well, and these make fascinating reading about products and services that your early homeowners may have used.

A 1917 Advertisement from the Andover City Directory. Modern bathrooms were now common.

There are some useful tips to consider while you are looking through City Directories. While most of the information is accurate, and probably the best you will find, beware of the possibility that the information may be out of date. Directories were supposed to have been updated each year, but if residents were not there to answer questions the day the directory representative called, then last years information may be printed again.

Sometimes the Street addresses were corrected, but the Alphabetical listings were not updated, or vice versa. Sometimes not all the family members were home when the listing was made, so someone may be missing one year, then back the next. Were they traveling? Visiting? Away for work? Sometimes research calls up more questions!

In the early days of the twentieth century, many cities took the opportunity to renumber all of their streets and roads into a more sensible system for a growing community. A researcher has to be aware of this possibility, and know that the same house could go from: Cairn Cottage in 1890; to #3 Main Street in 1900; to 1211 Main Street in 1910. Same house, same location, but a different numbering system. Be careful and methodical, and the history and stories will reveal themselves.

Tracking down where people worked is an added bonus for house history. Occupations are frequently listed beside the owner’s name: John Stephenson – Manager, Acme Brick Works. Looking up Acme Brick Works in either an alphabetical part of the City Directory, or in the Business Directory in larger Directories, will often add further information to your search. Where the business was located, how many employees were at the company, and what products the business may have made. Is there an ad for that business? Were those bricks used in your house?

How big was the family that lived in your house? Sometimes younger children were not mentioned. Only census information will have the full details for all members of the family, but City Directories will often include older children, and certainly any that are employed. So families with children in their late teens and twenties often provide an overview of period jobs, with sons working as clerks, or coach drivers and daughters as stenographers or millinery assistants.

Some Directories also have listings of businesses by category. You can check how many Wagon Makers, Feed merchants, or even breweries there were in your town.

An advertisement from the 1898 Andover City Directory

Page 108 from the 1898 Andover Directory, with a cross reference to Samuel Thomes, Carpenter, whose advertisement on page 10 is seen above.

A typical page from a City Directory. Hutchison City, Kansas, 1900.
As an example of how to read a Directory page, we can see that Neal L. Harrah was a brakeman for the Santa Fe Railway, and he “roomed” at 400½ North Main Street. John P. Harsha was the Mayor of Hutchison, and treasurer of the HWG Company. His residence was at 306 Avenue B c – probably a better area of town in 1900.

Another example of a City Directory page from Halifax, Canada from 1886.
Thomas Hessian is interesting. He seems to operate Hessian & Devine, apparently a grocery wholesaler, and he lives at 82 Brunswick Street.
The Hesslien family operates the Halifax Hotel, with at least two family members, Louis and Alexander living at the Hotel.

A page from the 1907 Southampton, England Street Directory. The names of Streets are listed alphabetically, the location of the street is described, and the cross streets are also indicated. Each resident is listed where on the street they lived, by number and which side of street their house was on. By noting where the intersecting streets are, then one can determine where a certain house was located and who lived there. The Street Index is sometimes found as a companion to the more common City Directories, which list residents and businesses alphabetically only.

With the information found in City Directories and Street Directories, finding out who lived in your house in the past is possible!

A very few directories are now available online, but can often still be found in your local library or archives. Ask where the directories might be found. As common as these books once were, sometimes they are hard to track down. In some cities, the library will have some of the books by year, and the local or regional archives will have the others.

Good luck with your research!

Communities have heritage house tours every year. They raise money for worthwhile causes within the community, and allowing your home to be included on a tour is a way of making a big donation to that cause.

Our house has been on three Heritage House Tours, and we have been happy to be involved. We have speeded up some redecoration that we were planning to do anyway, and cleaned the house thoroughly, and sent some items off for recycling, but the event itself, in each case, went smoothly. Visitors were happy, nothing has ever gone wrong, and we feel that we had contributed to the community, and its appreciation of history.

A peek into “how-the-other-half-lives” (people with old houses!) is part of the attraction of Heritage House Tours. This is an opportunity not to disappoint the visitors who have new homes!

Being organized can allay any fears that may arise when faced with the question of a few hundred (or more) visitors walking through your home. It is still your home, and you have several choices in how visitors may enter your house, and also where they will be allowed to go.

Here are some tips for homeowners asked to be included on a tour:

1. Make sure that the tour organizers have insurance in case of a visitor tripping on your steps. Sometimes the homeowners insurance will cover such things, but it is best to ask well in advance.
2. Plan a visitor route for the guests. It is generally good to welcome people at the front door, and have a set path through the house so everyone sees all the rooms, and there are no ‘bottlenecks’ with people backtracking.
3. Sometimes people allow visitors to roam the open rooms looking at their leisure. Other times, it is a good idea to arrange things a little more like an historic house museum, with stanchions and ropes, to guide visitors, and also allow them to see the rooms not clogged by other guests. Using roped areas also allows better peace of mind for the safety of knick-knacks left out, so they will not be handled. Stanchions can be made or rented, or borrowed from local banks that are often closed on weekends when house tours are held. Often only a ribbon is required to indicate to House Tour visitors where they can go in a house.
4. Each and every open room should have a volunteer steward standing in it, keeping a gentle eye on the visitors. It is very helpful if each volunteer is provided with an information sheet, so they can answer basic questions. The information sheet should have two kinds of information – general information on the house (age; who built it; how high are the ceilings? [an amazingly popular question, especially in grand Victorian houses]; what kind of wood is used in the trim?; etc.) A second kind of information is also useful – and that is particular to the room hat the volunteer is standing in: (what type of tiles are in the fireplace; who is in that portrait?; are those light fixtures original to the house?)
5. Close off rooms if you do not feel like having everything open. Teenagers’ rooms often do not fit the gracious atmosphere of a heritage house tour. An attractive “Private – Please DO NOT ENTER” sign will dissuade visitors from peeking.
6. A place for visitors to take off their shoes is always welcome. It is common procedure to ask visitors to take off their shoes at the door. The tour tickets should make this clear. Visitors may bring slippers or wear clean socks. All shoes will be removed. No bare feet are allowed. A couple of chairs on a porch will assist folks in taking off their shoes and putting them on again.
7. Local florists may be asked to provide arrangements for each house. With an ad for the florists on each ticket, along with a sign (Provided by “Blooms” florist) by each arrangement, the arrangements can also be a gift to the homeowner from the organizing committee.


Seasonal flowers from either florists or the garden are a good addition to a house tour

8. Share the history of the house with the visitors. Make a special panel with early photographs, or have pictures showing the restoration work you have done. Use the opportunity to showcase the local history, and take pride in preserving the early architecture of your town.
9. If possible, set up a special display in the house. Set the dining table for a Victorian dinner, with all of grandmother’s china and Aunt Betty’s best crystal. How about a small display of the early light bulbs that were still in the house – or some of the wallpaper that you found at the back of the closet? Make the visit special for your guests.


A display in a house still under restoration attracts attention from visitors. Every project does not have to be finished! Visitors are doubly appreciative when they see the work involved in restoration projects.

10. Enjoy the house after the visitors have left. With proper planning, it will seem as if all those people were never there! Invite some friends for a take out meal and a bottle of wine sitting around your Victorian Dining table in your spotlessly clean house. It will be a memorable evening!


A Dining Room set up for a house tour – showing how the owners live “all the time” (not true in most cases!). The room was ribboned off so it was viewed from the end only, with a volunteer steward in the room at all times

The follow-up from a House Tour can also be fun and rewarding. For some time after, you will be stopped on the street and thanked for your generosity, which is a very pleasant feeling. You may have an occasional phone call asking about “that great colour in your Dining Room” or “who refinished your floors?” This gentle interaction supports the preservation of heritage in your community, and increases dialogue between residents about their town, and the character of where people want to live.

If you like your Old House, it is very probable that others also appreciate it! It feels good to occasionally share it with others through a Heritage House Tour.

Keeping a Chronology of your house is an easy but important way of organizing all your old house history and information. It makes it easier to find references, check when rooms were added, or the house renovated, and gives you a framework to work out puzzling questions about your house history.

Using your computer makes compiling a Chronology easy.

Simply start with the date of construction of your house:

1892 – house built

Keep adding information as you find it.

1892 – house built for Herbert Bainbridge. (Source: Times newspaper Jan 1, 1893 Building News p.2)

Keeping note of all your sources means all your hard work has been noted for correctness, and means you do not have to rely on your memory for these facts in the future.

Add any information that you might find in Chronological order. Examples of information that you might add would include entries like these:

1893 – House contents sold at Auction. (Source: Times newspaper, July 1, 1893 Notice of Sale)

1904 – first photograph of house found. Shows Mr. Henderson and niece in front of house (Source: City archives photo # 42306) Maple tree newly planted in front garden.

1921 – house connected to electricity. Wiring permit from Smith & Chester, electricians (Source: City Hall Building department – electrical permit # 466)

1928 ??– small kitchen fire judging by scorch marks in wall above stove. Found when we took vent out for replacement. Estimated date by wallpaper pattern found behind old vent.

1936 – 50th Anniversary party held at house for Mr. and Mrs. Alder. (Source: local Times newspaper Social column October 15, 1936, p.B2)
(See Xeroxed guest list in file – 50 people were invited, including the mayor!)

1948 – house covered with stucco on bottom half; side porch enclosed
(Source: building permits City Hall. Contractor Mr. Wishart)

1957 – Penner family buys house – rents it to Alfred De Goutiere family for five years (Source: Diana De Goutiere – granddaughter of Alfred. She dropped in for tea in 2006 unexpectedly)

1966 – pictures of house behind Centennial parade photos in local history book: “100 years of Town History”. Shows house painted in dark colours and the maple tree in garden had been cut down and replaced by three birch trees

1986 – Stucco removed from lower half by Lunds– house repainted

1999 – We buy the house from David and Alma Lund, who owned it for 18 years. (See file for photos of their pictures, and them removing the stucco in 1986!)

2002 – We repaint the house in heritage colors, and replace missing trim on porch.

2005 – House designated Heritage by Landmarks Commission. We have giant summer party on August 15, and invite previous owners and neighbours. Plant maple tree in front garden.

A Chronology such as this example is never finished. It is amazing where new information comes from – appearing sometimes in the most unexpected places. And remember, you are part of the history of the house – you keep adding to the Chronology - for some distant, future owner, who will want to enjoy and maintain your old house into the future!

The cover of the Sanborn map for Victoria B.C. for 1885

The Sanborn Map Publishing Company produced amazing fire Insurance maps across North America from 1867 to 1969. Surveyor D.A. Sanborn designed these specialized maps to assist fire insurance agents in determining the degree of hazard with particular properties.

They were terribly expensive to buy at the time – with a price of $ 50. in 1885 – so companies must have thought hard before agreeing to purchase them. However, these maps were the cutting edge information of their day, and they made it possible for fire insurance agents to assess potential danger to a structure without leaving their offices, simple by consulting the appropriate map.

Daniel Alfred Sanborn 1827-1883 Surveyor, founder of Sanborn Map Company

Carefully surveyed, and meticulously hand-drawn and coloured, the maps showed outlines of all the buildings, both commercial and residential, in an accurate manner, with appended notes as to the height of the building, observations on odd construction, and the use of specialized structures, such as theatres, churches and hospitals. Notes such as “steep hill” or “Cooperage” (a barrel making building) added to the insurance agent’s information.

By using colour, the maps indicated which material was used to construct the building. Pink for brick buildings, yellow for wood structures and blue for stone. Iron buildings were grey, and, for regional variation, adobe buildings were coloured olive.

For owners of old houses, and other interested researchers, these maps are invaluable, as they sometimes are the only record of what the buildings looked like in their early years – at least before Google maps happened on the scene!

Found today at archives and map libraries, and sometimes at old time insurance offices still, where they might be kept as curiosities, these treasuries of information can answer all sorts of questions about your house and surrounding structures.

The maps were regularly updated by pasting new drawings over redeveloped properties. Sometimes, shining a flashlight up through the paper can reveal the underlying drawings and the former configuration of the building in question.

This example shows the Episcopal Cathedral in Victoria, B.C. – a wood structure (yellow) – at top left. Three houses are just below. To the right is the brick (pink) Angela College, with wood (yellow) porches.

This section of a page of a Sanborn map shows St. Ann’s Academy prior to 1886, in Victoria B.C. St. Ann’s was a Catholic convent and boarding school for girls. The original 1871 building is shown in brick (pink) with a wooden recreation wing in yellow to the left. A small “4” on the brick wing indicates four stories in height, while the wooden recreation wing has a “1”, denoting a single storey structure. Three houses are to the south, across the street.

This example shows a street of several houses (marked “D” for Dwelling) Pasted updates can be seen by the lighter squares of paper. The small numbers (1; 1 1/2; or 2) indicate the number of stories. The small blue square is a stone garage on the street. A surprise is the note for a “Private Observatory” which a local resident remembered as being there in the 1930’s. The shape of each house indicates porches and bay windows.

This stone house (“D” for dwelling) is set on a “steep hill” as noted on the fire insurance map. The blue colouring indicates a stone building, with “wdws all sides” (windows all sides). It is 2 stories tall. A summer house was down the slope overlooking a tennis court at top right on the map. An ‘update square’ can be seen at lower left.

A number of wooden (yellow) buildings surrounding one brick (pink) building on a block. A fire insurance agent would look at the susceptibility of these wooden buildings so close together, in case a fire broke out. The building in the center of the block is marked “Cooperage”(barrel making).

We all owe a great debt to the historic Sanborn Company for recording the buildings of North America so meticulously. Sometimes the only record of changes or alterations to our Old Houses and their neighborhoods are found in these masterpieces of observation.

The terms “Sanborn” and “Sanborn Maps” are registered trademarks owned by The
Sanborn Library, LLC.