The Oliver Sturges House

This house, built in 1813 by Oliver Sturges, successful Savannah merchant, occupies the site of the parsonage of John Wesley, minister of the Church of England in Georgia 1736-37 and founder of Methodism. Mr. Sturges was a two-fifths owner of the Steam Ship Savannah, first steamship ever built and first to cross the Atlantic. The Savannah's historic voyage was planned in the Sturges House, which was one of a pair of brick Federal- style residences located on Trust Lot T, Reynolds Ward. Mr. Sturges' partner, Benjamin Burroughs, lived in the other residence, where the John Wesley Hotel is presently located. Morris Newspaper Corporation, owner and operator of newspapers throughout the United States, purchased the Sturges House from Historic Savannah Foundation in 1971 for conversion into corporate headquarters. The careful restoration of the house was completed in 1973. The Oliver Sturges House has been entered on the National Register of Historic Places.