Isle of Hope and Long Island, Savannah, Georgia. County/parish: Chatham.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places April 26, 1973. NRIS 73000615.
1 contributing building. 1 contributing site. 2 contributing structures.
The Wormsloe State Historic Site, originally known as Wormsloe Plantation, is a state historic site near Savannah, Georgia, in the southeastern United States. The site consists of 822 acres (3.33 km2), protecting part of what was once the Wormsloe Plantation, a large estate established by one of the founders of colonial Georgia, Noble Jones. The site includes a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) dirt road lined with southern live oaks, the ruins of a small house with fortified walls built of tabby, a museum, and an area with recreations of colonial structures such as a blacksmithing forge and a house similar to those first built in the colony of Georgia (or as housing for enslaved people).
In 1736, Jones obtained a grant for 500 acres (2.0 km2) of land on the Isle of Hope which would form the core of Wormsloe. He constructed a fortified house on the southeastern tip of the island overlooking the Skidaway Narrows, a strategic section of the Skidaway River, located along the Intracoastal Waterway roughly halfway between downtown Savannah and the Atlantic Ocean. The fortified house was part of a network of defensive structures established by James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, and early Georgia colonists to protect Savannah from a potential Spanish invasion. Jones subsequently developed Wormsloe into a small plantation, and his descendants eventually had a large house, a library, slave housing, and a family cemetery built on the property.
The State of Georgia acquired the bulk of the Wormsloe Plantation in 1973 after a lengthy court battle over taxes which eventually was heard by the supreme court of Georgia. The state opened the land to the public in 1979. The Barrow family (descendants of Noble Jones) retained a portion of the land including the historical house, slave quarters building, library, and family cemetery. According to the agreement with the state of Georgia, the descendants must reside on the premises as their primary residence otherwise the property rights will revert to the state.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207375