Listening Station 4: Garden Telfair Museums Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters Audio Tour

The formal garden on view today was designed by landscape architect Clermont Lee and installed in the 1950s when the house became a museum. This area originally functioned as a work yard. Oyster shell paths led through the space, which probably included a small kitchen garden, areas to dry laundry and clean rugs, and perhaps pens or coops for small livestock and chickens. We do know that Richard Richardson kept a cow on the property at one time, because he was cited by the city when it escaped and blocked traffic. A two-stall brick privy, likely intended for enslaved laborers’ use, stood in a rear corner of the yard until the 1950s garden installation.

From here, you also can see the spaces over the back porch that George Owens added when he purchased the home. The linear patterns incised in the stucco and painted on the siding mimic smooth stonework. The remainder of the house has been restored to the stucco treatment in place during the Richardsons’ occupation.

Please proceed to the back porch via the right staircase and watch for other groups exiting the house.