The Wayne-Gordon House was built for Savannah’s Mayor, James Moore Wayne between 1818 and 1821 on the site of an 18th-century large wood frame house. At this time, Savannah had become a prosperous port city and a number of wealthy families were building elaborate mansions or townhouses. A talented young British architect, William Jay, designed several of these homes including the Richardson Owens-Thomas House, the Telfair Mansion and the Scarborough House

William Jay, whose name has been traditionally associated with the Wayne-Gordon House, was fined for blocking the corner of Bull and South Broad (now Oglethorpe Ave.) with rubble in 1818. Although the architect for the Wayne-Gordon House is undocumented, the house itself is in the Regency style as were the other elegant houses completed at this period. The Waynes lavished considerable care on the construction of the house and consequently, after ten years of residency, the interior of the house was still not completed.

The Waynes remained in the house for approximately a decade. During this time, Mayor Wayne realized some of his political aspirations and was appointed by President Andrew Jackson to an unexpired term in the United States House of Representatives and later to a position on the Supreme Court. Although Wayne was opposed to slavery, he felt that it had to be tolerated in order to preserve the Union. Wayne had several children by one of the slaves in his household and taught them to read in spite of the fact that teaching slaves to read was illegal in the South.

After James Moore Wayne was appointed to the Supreme Court, he sold the house to his law clerk William Washington Gordon I, who was married to Moore’s niece, Sarah Stites Gordon. The Gordon family moved into the house in 1831 and made no major changes to the house, but continued work on the interior. William Washington Gordon I founder of the Central of Georgia Railroad, became involved in the actual construction of the rail lines. During one of his inspection trips to a construction site, he contracted a fever and died suddenly.

After William Washington Gordon I died, the house was closed up. Sarah Gordon moved to New Jersey with the children so that they could be educated in northern schools which Mr. Gordon considered superior to the schools in Georgia. Sarah and the children remained in New Jersey for about ten years until the children had completed their education. During this time, they had an indoor bathroom added to the house in 1855 and also installed gas lighting.

When Sarah and the children returned to the house in the 1850s, little had been done other than standard maintenance and some small additions. Since Sarah had limited means for maintaining the house, her son. William Washington Gordon, II, and his wife, Eleanor Kinzie Gordon, moved into the house to help Mrs. Gordon, Sr. with the expenses.

When Sarah Gordon died in 1882, William Washington Gordon, II, purchased the house from the estate. In 1885, he undertook some major modifications which included the addition of another floor with four bedrooms, the addition of a piazza, the enlargement of the dining room, in short a total interior redecoration of the house from new vibrant color scheme to stylish room arrangements and new furnishings. Detlief Lienau, noted New York Architect, was engaged to design the changes and additions. The construction project was delayed by the death of the contractor.  In August 1886, a major earthquake centered outside Charleston South Carolina did considerable damage to the building. Since Willie Gordon’s daughter Daisy was engaged to be married in December 1886, work had to be expedited in order to be ready for this event.

After the death of Willie Gordon in 1912, and his wife Nelly in 1917, George Arthur Gordon, their youngest son, decided that he would like to live in the house. With permission from his other siblings, George Arthur and his family moved in. They lived in the house for a number of years. In 1942, during World War II, housing was needed for military workers in the Savannah area. For patriotic and financial reasons, the Gordons converted the house into four apartments, one of which was occupied by the Gordon family. Mark Sheridan, the architect who oversaw the conversion into apartments, tried to make minimal changes to the structure so that it could be returned to a single family home at a future date. He was especially sensitive to maintaining the original decorative details as the house had been designated a significant American building in the Historic American Building Survey of the Library of Congress in 1932.

Mrs. George Arthur Gordon, a widow, lived in one of the apartments until 1953 when the property was purchased by the Girl Scouts of the USA. As the large house aged, it had become increasingly difficult for her to maintain. The house had deteriorated significantly and was about to be demolished so that another structure could be erected in its place. Considering the historical and architectural importance of the building, several concerned Girl Scouts approached Girl Scouts of the USA and convinced them to purchase the property to be used as a national Girl Scout program center, an educational facility for youth and an historic house museum for the public.

After three years of careful restoration, the house was officially dedicated on October 19, 1956. The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace has welcomed more than two million visitors from around the world since its opening. Over the past 50 years, restoration has continued on the house and outbuildings so that we can better serve our visitors.