The Oliver Sturges House

Built in 1813 by the successful Savannah merchant Oliver Sturges, this house stands on the site of the parsonage of John Wesley, minister of the Church of England in Georgia in 1736-37 and founder of Methodism. Sturges was a two-fifths owner of the Steam Ship Savannah, the first steamship ever built and the first to cross the Atlantic, and the vessel's historic voyage was planned in this house. The residence was one of a pair of brick Federal-style houses on Trust Lot T in Reynolds Ward, while Sturges' partner Benjamin Burroughs lived in the other house, where the John Wesley Hotel now stands. Morris Newspaper Corporation, owner and operator of newspapers throughout the United States, purchased the house from Historic Savannah Foundation in 1971 for conversion into corporate headquarters, completed a careful restoration in 1973, and the house has been entered on the National Register of Historic Places.

Savannah, Georgia · United States