Green-Meldrim House

Description

The Green–Meldrim House is a historic house at 14 West Macon Street, on the northwest corner of Madison Square in Savannah, Georgia. Built in the 1850s, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976 as one of the American South's finest and most lavish examples of Gothic Revival architecture. The house is owned by the adjacent St. John's Episcopal Church, which offers tours and uses it as a meeting and reception space.DescriptionThe Green–Meldrim House is located on the west side of Madison Square in central Savannah, at the southwest corner of West Harris and Bull Streets. West Macon Street, the house's address, is a spur street off Whitaker Street, which runs behind the property. The house's principal facade faces south, with a porch and garden facing the square. The house is among the best-known examples of the Gothic Revival style in the South, with a stuccoed brick exterior, cast-iron porch, oriel windows, and an imposing front cast-iron fence. The main entrance has an iron portico believed to be unique in the United States, with octagonal posts supported a pair of arches. A crenellated parapet rings the roof. The interior of the house, following a center-hall plan, retains original woodwork, plaster, and ironwork, the latter featuring a freestanding staircase.HistoryThe house was designed and built between 1853 and 1861 at a cost of $93,000 by the architect John Norris. The property's first owner was Charles Green, a wealthy cotton merchant and grandfather o