Savannah #3: The Owens-Thomas and Wilkes Houses

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Our last morning in Savannah. There were still a couple of things that we wanted to do, so instead of heading in the direction of Charleston, our next destination, we spent some time in Savannah seeing and eating what we hadn't been able to so far. To be honest, while I have liked Savannah, it didn't wow me like New Orleans did. It definitely grew on me, but the city just didn't captivate me in the way New Orleans did. Maybe if we had visited here first, I would feel differently. We were up pretty early and got the car packed up. We were back on the move again. At least for the rest of my trip, I will only move twice more before flying out. I am getting a little tired of being on the move. When we were exploring Savannah the other day we had bought a museum pass as it worked out a lot cheaper than paying for the exhibits individually and we had one place left to visit, the Owens-Thomas House, so we did the short drive over there.

Once we arrived and got told what time our tour would be. Why does everything have to be a tour in this country? Why no roaming free? We had a little bit of time so we headed to the coach house, which was next to the entrance. The coach house was also the slave quarters and is one of the earliest intact urban slave quarters in the South. It is interesting to see that slavery existed in the cities as well as on the plantations. It is not something I know much about, I really should do more research and reading about it. Our tour took us into the garden after the guide had gathered us in the slave quarters and explained a bit about the enslaved. The garden isn't huge, but it is very beautiful. the space had previously been used as a work area with the enslaved using the areas a place to do outside chores such as laundry. There would have also been a small kitchen garden and some livestock. The present garden was designed by Clermont Lee, a landscape architect for when the house opened as a museum. He designed the garden in the typical Regency style to compliment the house.

We then headed into the house. It had been designed by a young English architect named William Jay and was built from 1816-1819. It was built for the cotton merchant and banker Richard Richardson and his wife, Frances Bolton. Due to suffering financial losses, Richardson had to sell the house. It became a boarding house under the supervision of Mary Maxwell for eight years and the Revolutionary War hero, Marquis de Lafayette stayed there in 1825. In 1830, George Welshman Owens, the mayor of Savannah, purchased the property for $10,000 and it remained in the Owen family until 1951. The tour around the inside of the house was interesting. It was cool to see how the rich lived back then. The house was the first in the United States to have running water, even beating the White House to it. I'm pretty sure that we weren't allowed to take photos of the house's interior and that would explain why I have none. After the tour, we headed round to the front of the house to try and get a photo of it in all its glory. It truly is a beautiful building. However, the money shot did not happen. There was a bloody big FedEx van parked right by the doorway. Cheers FedEx!

There are a host of good restaurants in Savannah, but unfortunately our budget didn't stretch to trying all of them. How nice it would be not to be restricted by a budget. We had picked one popular place to get our final meal in Savannah at.This place was Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room. We got there pretty early and already there was a massive queue at 107 West Jones Street, where the restaurant is situated. It was pretty hot outside and I was definitely melting in the heat. The restaurant staff come out with water and/or there was a dispenser near the door to stop you getting dehydrated (I can't remember which). The queue didn't move quick enough for my liking but it was definitely moving. My friends went to browse some shops while I kept our places, I was too hot to be bothered with shopping so just had some kindle time in the queue. Finally, it was our turn to enter the restaurant. I think we must have been in the queue for about an hour and a half, we certainly waited well over an hour.

Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room does not have individual tabled for each party, but you and your party join a communal table that seats 10 people. The restaurant seemed quite small, I suppose it was built back in the day and Mrs. Wilkes probably didn't envisage that her place would take off as it did. We were sitting in what I felt was the main room, I think there may have been another room further round to accommodate more diners. In 1943, Sema Wilkes took over the running of a boardinghouse in Savannah's historic downtown. Boardinghouses in Southern towns were places that people could find a simple, quiet room with a communal dining room offering two hearty meals a day. Therefore boardinghouse food was the normal everyday food for a wide range of working class and middle class people. Mrs. Wilkes simply wanted to offer people somewhere comfortable to live/stay with traditional home style Southern cooking. She more than succeeded and was a pioneer for women in the restaurant business.

Not long after we sat down the food started to arrive. The table began to fill with white bowls filled with all kinds of goodies for us to try. The annoying thing about sitting with strangers was that some of the people had no method to what hey were doing, passing bowls here and there. Me and one of my friends were trying to be methodical so that we could try everything. I din't want to miss out on anything. We piled our plates high with everything that was on offer. There was so much food and I was determined to try it all. We ha beef stew and the Southern classic of fried chicken. I am not a big fan of eating meat on the bone, but I really did enjoy the chicken. I think it must be the batter they use. The jambalaya was good, but not as good as the one we learnt to make at the cookery school in New Orleans. There were also lots of vegetable dishes; we had cabbage, buttered beans, mashed potato, candied yams, collard greens, baked beans, coleslaw and probably a few others that I have forgotten. One of my favourite parts of the meal was the cornbread. It was utterly delish and, of course topped with a good helping of butter even better. It was definitely the best one I have had on this trip. The meal was accompanied by lots of iced and you could choose from sweetened or unsweetened. One thing I really liked about Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room was that it is still a family business. Her granddaughter, Marcia Thompson, runs the place. She was really nice checking in on everyone to make sure they were happy and satisfied. The meal cost about $22 per person and the restaurant is cash only. It was a perfect last meal to end our time in Savannah. Now fed and watered, on to Charleston.

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Photos

Owens-Thomas House
Trying and failing to get the money shot.

Lunch
Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room

Lunch
Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room

Lunch
Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room