Thomas–Levy House
The building in 2022
General information
LocationSavannah, Georgia, U.S.
Address12 East Taylor Street
Coordinates32°04′18″N 81°05′39″W / 32.071676°N 81.09408°W / 32.071676; -81.09408
Completed1869 (1869)
OwnerJohn Duncan
Ginger Duncan
Technical details
Floor count4

The Thomas–Levy House is a historic building in Savannah, Georgia, United States. It comprises the western half of a Second Empire baroque townhouse known as the Thomas–Purse Duplex,[1] located in the northeastern residential block of Monterey Square. It was built in 1869 for Daniel Remshart Thomas,[2][3] and is part of the Savannah Historic District.[2]

In a survey for Historic Savannah Foundation, Mary Lane Morrison found the building to be of significant status.[4]

Daniel Remshart Thomas (1843–1915) was a Savannah native. After the Civil War, he went into business with Captain Daniel Gugel Purse Sr. Three years later, the two men built a duplex, of which one half is now known as the Thomas–Levy House, with Purse owning number 14 next door. Thomas lived at number 12 with his wife Jeanne Manget. His family later moved to another duplex, the Abraham Smith & Herman Traub building at 210 East Gaston Street, where Thomas died in 1916.[5]

The Levy family purchased the property in the 1880s,[6] and it was renovated and added to in 1897 by department-store owner and Alsace, France, native Benjamin Hirsch Levy I.[3][7][8] Marion Levy Mendal died in 2019 at the age of 101.[9] She was married to Benjamin Hirsch Levy II, grandson of the earlier owner.

The building's basement level is the home of V & J Duncan Antique Maps, Prints and Books, established in 1983 by John and Virginia (Ginger) Duncan.[10][11] They purchased the property in 1977 for $36,000. They installed an elevator in 2008.[6]

Its courtyard features a reproduction of Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss sculpture that was on exhibition at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.[1]

John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, visited the Duncans in the early 1980s, during the early research for his non-fiction novel. Ginger is mentioned in the book, while both John and Ginger appear in Clint Eastwood's 1997 film adaptation.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Museum Next Door". Garden & Gun. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  2. 1 2 Historic Building Map: Savannah Historic District – Historic Preservation Department of the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission (November 17, 2011)
  3. 1 2 "Purse House (Savannah, Ga.)". dlg.usg.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  4. ↑ Historic Savannah: Survey of Significant Buildings in the Historic and Victorian Districts of Savannah, Georgia, Mary Lane Morrison (1979)
  5. ↑ Harden, William (1913). A History of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume 1. The Lewis Publishing Company.
  6. 1 2 "Jane Fishman: To John Duncan, history is life" – Savannah Morning News, March 23, 2019
  7. ↑ Beney, Peter (1992). The Majesty of Savannah. Pelican Publishing. p. 78. ISBN 9781455608188.
  8. ↑ Levy, Bernard-Henri (2007). American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville. Random House. ISBN 9780307430625.
  9. ↑ "MARION ABRAHAMS LEVY MENDEL". Gamble Funeral Service. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  10. ↑ "V & J Duncan". www.vjduncan.com. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  11. ↑ Garbarino, Steve (2002-10-13). "A World to the Wise". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
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