There was a hipped roof with four dormers (two in front and two at the rear) concealed by a parapet and molded cornice before addition of the top floor. The parapet formed the base of the top floor addition reducing the visual mass of the top floor. The formal portico, flanked by brownstone steps, projects from the front of the house. Modified Tuscan columns screen the recessed double doors. A small balcony, used by the Gordon family servants, is hidden behind the parapet surmounting the portico.

The parlor floor consisted of an entrance hall, reception room, two parlors, dining room, and butler's pantry. The contained four bedrooms with dressing rooms, a trunk room, a hall, and possibly, two small bedroom passages. Servants may have been housed in two to four garret rooms in the attic and in two rooms in the raised basement. The basement also contained the household offices which included a kitchen, laundry, and three pantries. Original outbuildings included the stable, three one-room servant's houses and a privy. The servant houses and privy were located between the pierced brick garden wall and York Lane where the carriage house now stands.

Mayor Wayne and his wife evidently intended for their residence to be among the most fashionable in Savannah. The prominent location and stately exterior of the house expressed the social position of the Wayne family. The interior details were personally supervised by both Mr. and Mrs. Wayne. Letters indicate that Mrs. Wayne was constantly on the site even to the extent of sitting in the parlor and "instructing" the plasterers as to the exact motives and designs to be used in each location. One can only imagine the discomfiture of the workman as Mrs. Wayne sat and rocked, watching as each molding was run and each acanthus leaf installed. Given such close attention to detail it is no surprise that the interior of the house was not completed during their tenancy.

The classally proportioned rooms of the house were embellished with the Greek, Roman and Egyptian details that were the hallmarks of the neoclassical period. Elements common to all the rooms include high ceilings, large windows, decorative cornices, ceiling medallions and decorative casework. Regency Style is also reflected in the elaborate mill work surrounding the doors and windows through out the house. Stock moldings were combined to form the high profiles of the door and window casings. The carved wood Egyptian heads and oil lamps, found over the parlor windows and doors, were ordered from catalogs (a common practice from the eighteenth century to the present).

The entrance hall sets the decorative theme of the house. The acanthus leaf cornice leads the eye to a ceiling spangled with rosettes, centered with a circlet of bellflowers encompassing a larger rosette of acanthus leaves. Acanthus leaves are repeated on the corner blocks of the door casings. The solid mahogany doors that were used throughout the parlor floor attest to the rich ambiance to which the Waynes aspired. To the left of the entrance hall was a rectangular reception room for business callers and strangers to the household. The Wayne family also used the room as a school room for their children. There was at one time a trap door in the floor to the left of the doorway. The room was converted into a library by the Gordon Family.

Opposite the library are the formal double parlors of the house. The larger rectangular front parlor is divided from the smaller rear parlor and its curved bay by mahogany pocket doors framed by an Ionic entablature. The Ionic entablature between the two parlors was the focal point of these rooms. Stylized floral patera, used to decorate the area between the top molding of the entablature and the ceiling cornice, further emphasized the importance of this architectural feature. Paint analysis of these rooms suggests that the Waynes may have intended to gild the engaged columns flanking the mahogany pocket doors. These rooms were treated as a pair so that they could be used as one room or separated by the doors into intimate spaces easily heated by wood fires. The Egyptian marble mantels echo the Ionic motif of the entablature.

The rear hall of the house was a stair hall, service area, and ventilation shaft. The simpler decorative details and the doors which separate this area from the front hall indicate that the space was most used as a private area the house not generally seen by visitors. The lack of second stair for the use of the servants reinforces this conclusion. Across the rear hall from the back parlor is the dining room which probably also served as a morning room and family parlor. Since the dining room was originally smaller than its present dimensions and treated in a simpler style than the parlors, this room even if not exclusively used by the family, was not suitable for large entertainments. Room use in the early nineteenth century was not as rigidly defined as today. Dining rooms frequently doubled as sitting rooms, sewing rooms schoolrooms etc. depending on the needs of the family.

The butler's pantry, used for the storage of china, crystal, silver and linen, was originally located on the south side of the dining room and contained a dumb waiter that descended to the kitchen below.

The second floor was strictly for the use of the family. Four large and airy bed chambers housed the six members of the Wayne family. Children shared rooms and dressing rooms served each bedroom. Guests were accommodated on this floor as well. Servants, like the children's nurse and body servants, may have shared the bedrooms and dressing rooms, a customary procedure in the South.

The Gordon Family Purchases the House in 1831

In 1831, James Moore Wayne sold the house to his niece, Sarah Stites Anderson Gordon, and her husband, William Washington Gordon I and moved permanently to Washington, D.C. The Gordons freshened or completed the original finishes of the house. Their lifestyle was similar to that of the Waynes. The house was furnished adequately for family life yet easily rearranged for large or small entertainments.

William Washington Gordon I died in 1842 during the construction of the Central of Georgia Railroad. The house was inherited by his estate and closed for ten years. During this period, Sarah Stites Gordon, lived in New Jersey, near her husband's relatives while the children were educated under the terms of Mr. Gordon's will. He did not believe that adequate educational opportunities existed in the South at that time. The estate and the residence were held in trust for the children, with a stipend for Sarah Gordon and the children's living expenses until her death, when the estate would be divided between their children.

Young "Willie" Gordon, the second son of Sarah and W. W. Gordon I, after his graduation from Yale, entered the cotton brokerage firm of Reed and Tison. In 1857, he married Eleanor ("Nellie") Kinzie of Chicago. The young couple moved into the Wayne-Gordon House to live with the elder Mrs. Gordon. By 1861, William Washington Gordon, II and Eleanor Kinzie Gordon had two children - Eleanor born in 1858 and Juliette (nicknamed "Daisy") born in 1860. They were followed by, Alice in 1863, William Washington III in 1866, Mabel in 1870, and George Arthur in 1872.

The younger Mr. and Mrs. Gordon and their growing family moved just down the street into another house owned by the estate shortly after the Civil War. During that period, this house cared for by the trustees of the estate remained much the same. Routine maintenance was performed, however, other than the installation of gas lighting, an indoor bathroom and kitchen plumbing in the early 1850s no major decorative renovations were made.

The decade of the 1880's was one of enormous change for the house. It had grown shabby in the forty years of management by the estate. Mrs. Gordon kept the house virtually unchanged until her death in 1882. At that time, the house was purchased from the estate for $10,000 by William Washington Gordon II (1834-1912), and his wife Eleanor Kinzie Gordon (1835-1917). Willie and Nellie, spurred by social and political obligations, immediately began to improve the appearance of the house.

In 1885, plans were made to enlarge the house to accommodate the large family, guests, and possible grandchildren. As a member of the governing board of the Georgia Historical Society, Gordon had access to the important New York Architect, Detlief Lienau, who was enlarging and remodeling the Telfair house into an art museum for the Historical Society. Construction began in January of 1886. Lienau plans included removing the existing hipped roof and dormers and replacing them with a full third floor containing five bedrooms, two bathrooms and several cupboards (closets). Lienau's plans modernized the existing bathroom, created a second bathroom on the west side of the house, and modified the dressing rooms. On the parlor floor, Lienau enlarged the dining room by removing the wall between the old butler's pantry and dining room. A new butler's pantry was constructed on the eastern side of the house adjacent to the newly built piazza. The piazza and the top floor with its galvanized tin cornice and molded window quoins in the fashionable French Second Empire Style contrasted with the simpler English Regency facades.

Like most renovation projects, the construction was fraught with difficulty. Shortly after the roof had been removed and construction begun, the contractor in charge of the project died. This resulted in considerable construction delays as well as considerable inconvenience for the Gordon family. Contractors were reluctant to take over a job begun by someone else and guarantee the results. Shortly after construction recommenced, Daisy announced her engagement to Willy Low expressing her wish to hold the wedding reception at home. Construction continued apace until August when Charleston and Savannah were hit by a devastating earthquake followed by several weeks of severe aftershocks. The earthquake damaged both the new construction and the original house as well. According to letters written to Daisy by her mother, the family was forced to live in three rooms of the house while repairs were made to the damaged plaster and structure.

During this difficult period, Nellie Gordon supervised the renovation of the Andrew Low House which Willy Low had recently inherited from his father for Daisy and Billow's (as Daisy called him) Savannah residence. The Low House had faired considerably better in the earthquake than the older Gordon home. As Nellie put it, "since there was nothing she could do in her own home she might as well make herself useful on Daisy's behalf." Meanwhile, Daisy was in New York purchasing furniture for the Andrew Low House and carrying out commissions for her mother.

Nellie Gordon, an accomplished artist, became an early proponent of the Aesthetic Movement or as it was called in this country, the Arts and Crafts Movement. The decoration of the house was guided by the writings of Clarence Cook. Cook's essays were published serially in Scribner's Magazine and later published under the title of The House Beautiful, Essays on Beds and Tables, Stools and Candlesticks. These essays had a profound influence on the decoration of the house in 1886. Cook's influence can be seen in Nellie Gordon's choices of textiles, paint colors, furniture makers, dealers, and designs.

The house was well maintained in the years following the renovation. In 1887, the first phone was installed in the rear hall. During this period central heating was installed in the house although it was still necessary to use the fireplaces as well. Electric light was installed in 1903 and a new carriage house was built against the pierced brick garden wall on the site of the former privy and servant houses. As Willie and Nellie Gordon grew older, brass tubing was used to provide higher railings to assist them in climbing the steps. With the advent of the automobile the carriage house was converted into a garage.

In 1918, following the death of General Gordon in 1912, and that of Mrs. Gordon in 1917, the house fell into a period of decline. William Washington Gordon III, a founder of the local Red Cross chapter allowed the house to serve as their first office during World War I. This action was typical of an individual brought up in a family committed to duty and service.

Mr. & Mrs. George Arthur Gordon

George Arthur Gordon and his family moved into the house during the early 1920's. They enclosed the piazza with screening. Later the stable was converted into a commercial rental space. Eventually, the formal par terre garden was replaced with a play ground for the students in the Sunshine Day School operated by his daughter, Mary Stuart Gordon Platt in the 1930s.

The Second World War brought changes to the house as well. In 1942, the house was converted into apartments under one of the war worker housing acts passed at that time. The parlor floor and first bedroom floor were converted into four apartments by architect, Mark Sheridan.

In December of 1953, the house was purchased from the Gordon family by Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. 1954 was spent on a number of fund raising campaigns, including the famous "Dimes for Daisy" and making plans for restoration of the structure. Many Girl Scout volunteers, board members, and professional staff served on the Birthplace Committee to oversee the restoration of the site. The house was opened to the public in 1956.