Georgian Houses ot the Far South 
THE SCARBOROUGH HOUSE IN SAVANNAH, DESIGNED BY JAY 
Let us pause for a moment before the Hey¬ 
ward house, built in 1750. Though tenantless 
and gone to ruin, time has not wholly chilled 
it, for with its fine old gateway, its dilapi¬ 
dated slave quarters, it still presents a per¬ 
fect example ot the Georgian work of that 
period. Once it was a scene of seigniorial 
life, the atmosphere ot which still lingers in 
the old panelled drawing-room on the second 
floor overlooking the waters of the bay and 
Lorens house, just across the way, built by 
Henry Lorens, a friend of Washington’s. 
Another notable old Georgian house in 
Charleston is the Gibbes- 
Drayton house, built in 1780 
of black cypress, a wood which 
abounds in southern swamps 
and was greatly used by early 
builders because of its dura¬ 
bility, instances being known 
of its having retained strength 
and vitality for over a hun¬ 
dred years. 
The necessity of adopting 
a prevailing style to meet the 
necessities of climate is re¬ 
sponsible for many interest¬ 
ing phases of architecture. 
In Charleston and elsewhere 
in the Far South, notably in 
Savannah, admirers ot classi¬ 
cism in all its alluring forms 
had to solve the problem ot 
preserving the formal trout, 
always a necessary feature of 
a town house, and at the 
same time of providing them¬ 
selves with a veranda as a 
refuge during hot weather. 
This problem was solved in 
different ways, but most com¬ 
monly by adding the veranda 
to the side of the house where 
it was reached through long 
French windows opening 
from the rooms it adjoined. 
An example of this treatment 
is furnished by the Ancrum 
house which, with its adjacent 
yard-wall surmounted with a 
balustrade, is a most pictur¬ 
esque bit of old Charleston. 
Ancrum House was built 
about 1810 at a time when Greek styles, 
introduced by the Brothers Adam, were 
coming into vogue in the South, especially 
among a wealthy class of planters given to 
foreign travel. Ancrum house is an attempt 
to combine the ideas of the Georgian period 
with those of the Greek revival whose chief 
motif was the introduction of classic columns. 
In this house we have a European entrance 
on the street level leading into an ordinary 
English basement. The long drawing-room 
is on the second floor and opens through 
long windows upon an admirable portico 
THE GILMER HOUSE, SAVANNAH 
264 
