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| History | ||
| Oglethorpe Square sits on Abercorn Street between State and York Streets in Savannah's Historic District. It was laid out in 1742, one of the last of the original six squares platted during James Edward Oglethorpe's time in the Georgia colony, and was named in his honor as the colony's founder. In its earliest days it was known as "Upper New Square." Unlike most of Savannah's 22 squares, Oglethorpe Square has never held a monument or fountain at its center, which makes its wide, tree-shaded lawn unusual among the city's squares. | ||
| The Owens-Thomas House | ||
| On the square's east side stands the Owens-Thomas House, widely considered one of the finest examples of English Regency architecture in the United States. Completed in 1819 for shipping merchant and bank president Richard Richardson, it was designed by architect William Jay and was the first house in the country built with running water. George Welshman Owens bought the house in 1830, and it stayed in the Owens family until his granddaughter, Margaret Gray Thomas, donated it to the Telfair Museums in 1951. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and is open today as the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters museum. Also on the square, what was originally the Unitarian Church later became a Baptist Center, and on the southwest corner stands the Urban Health Center, originally built in 1907 as the Marine Hospital. |
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| The Moravian Marker | ||
 In 1933, a granite marker about four feet tall, shaped like a fluted column with an inscribed bronze tablet, was erected in the square's northeastern section. It reads: "In Memory of the Moravian Colonists in Savannah 1735-1740 who Maintained a mission to the Indians. This memorial is presented to the City of Savannah by the Wachovia Historical Society of Winston-Salem, NC."The Moravians were members of a Protestant sect founded in Saxony, in what was then southeastern Germany. They arrived in Savannah in 1735 to establish a mission to the Native Americans, based at a site on what is now Broughton and Habersham Streets. When war broke out with Spain in 1740, the Moravians left Savannah; many of them went on to found a new settlement in Pennsylvania. |
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