Telfair Academy & Art and Jepson Center, Savannah, Georgia, USA

Dec 22, 2022 | Museum, USA: Georgia

The Telfair Academy houses nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European art. The Jepson Center has modern art.

Telfair Academy & Art: 121 Barnard St, Savannah, Georgia, USA
Jepson Center: 207 W York St, Savannah, Georgia, USA

The house was designed by William Jay and built in 1818 for Alexander Telfair, son of Edward Telfair, one of Georgia’s early post-independence governors.

The site on which it was built previously housed the official residence of Georgia’s colonial royal governors.

In 1875 Alexander’s sister, Mary, bequeathed the house, including its furnishings and family collections, to the Georgia Historical Society, which opened the first art museum in the southeastern United States here in 1886.

The Bird Girl Statue. This statue was originally located in the Bonaventure Cemetery but was moved here because too many visitors trampled the cemetery to see this statue.