Telfair Academy, Savannah, Guía del visitante y qué hacer cerca

The Telfair Academy is a Regency-style mansion at 213 West State Street in Savannah, Georgia, now part of Telfair Museums, the oldest public art museum in the South. Designed by the English architect William Jay and completed in 1819 as a private home, it became a museum in the 1880s and still anchors Telfair Square.

The story behind it

The house was built for Alexander Telfair, son of a governor of Georgia, on ground once occupied by the royal governor's residence. The square around it was laid out in 1733 as St James Square and took the Telfair name in 1883. The family's wealth rested on slaveholding, and the labor of enslaved people built and ran the household. Telfair Museums now tells that part of the story as well.

After Alexander's death, his sister Mary Telfair lived on in the house. When she died in 1875 she left it to the Georgia Historical Society to serve as an art museum. It opened to the public as the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1886. The square has another claim on history. John Wesley came to Savannah in 1736 as a minister and left in December 1737 after a bruising dispute. Trinity Church, finished in 1848 on the north side of the square, is the oldest Methodist church building in the city.

What to look for

• The columned portico on the front of the house is a fine example of Jay's Regency design, and it looks best from across the square.
• The Octagon Room inside shows how the house was shaped for entertaining in the early nineteenth century.
• The Sculpture Gallery, added when the house became a museum, shows how Victorian Savannah thought about art and education.
• The spire and Gothic details of Trinity Church frame the north side of the square and make a good comparison with the mansion's calm lines.

Tips for your visit

• Allow about an hour inside the museum, or ten minutes if you only want to see the exterior and the square.
• Check current opening hours and ticket details before you go, as they change through the year.
• Morning light is kind to the front of the building, and the square is shaded and quiet before the midday crowds.
• The Jepson Center for the Arts, another Telfair Museums building, and Trinity Church are both a short walk away.

See it on a quest

Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Savannah is a good way to see the Telfair Academy as one stop on a longer walk through the historic squares. You reach each place on foot, the app tells you about it as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle in front of what you are looking at. One ticket covers the whole group.

The Haunting File: Savannah - Under the Squares suits anyone who likes the darker side of the city's past. It leads you between the squares, tells you the stories of each place as you get there, and sets a puzzle on the spot. You start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join, and one ticket covers everyone you are with.