in 1864.|left The house was designed and built in 1853 at a cost of $93,000 by the architect
John Norris. The property's first owner was Charles Green, a wealthy cotton merchant and grandfather of the writer
Julien Green. After the Union troops captured Savannah in 1864,
Gen. Sherman occupied the house and used it as a headquarters until the end of the
Civil War. It was in this house in December 1864 that Sherman composed his famous telegram to
President Lincoln, in which he communicated his desire to present to the President "as a Christmas Gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton"; the cotton belonged to Charles Green, the owner of the House. On January 12, 1865 Sherman and
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton met with 20 Black
Baptist and
Methodist ministers—including
Garrison Frazier,
Ulysses L. Houston, and
William Gaines—in what would later be called the "Savannah Colloquy" at the house. Their discussion directly led to Sherman's
Special Field Orders No. 15, which included the famous
forty acres and a mule land allotment.
James D. Lynch and
Alexander Harris were also among the ministers who participated. In 1892, local politician and judge
Peter Meldrim purchased the property and lived in it a number of decades. In 1943, his heirs sold the house to
St John's Church, which is located next door. In the 1950s, Savannah Landscape Architect
Clermont Huger Lee provided period appropriate designs and planting plans for the garden. Tours of the house are given during the day, and the church uses it for wedding receptions and after-church events. At this time, none of the original furniture is on display at the house. == Photos ==