The newest old house in Savannah

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The Hills-Galloway House looks like a perfect fit here in Savannah.

“Pretty much the original building is completely intact,” says the home’s owner Peter Galloway.

It’s a home full of history.

“The rafters are original...you have huge HL hinges they’re from about 1720...the beams in here are 1693 beams...the staircase, this is all original, so 1740s...you have a 1693 bake oven.”

Of course, if you’re know your history you may have realized this home, “predates Savannah by 40 years, the front two rooms,” and the addition was built just seven years after Savannah was founded.

Which may leave you wondering, how is there a home in Savannah that’s older than Savannah itself and why haven’t we heard of it before?

Well, because as it turns out, it’s not from Savannah.

“The house is originally from East Hartford Connecticut,” explains Galloway.

That’s where it had stayed since it was built in 1693, until about four years ago when Galloway came across it.

“I just literally Googled, ‘house for free that can be moved,’ like more or less.”

What he found, was a home on the verge of being torn down, unless he was willing to move it roughly 900 miles to a vacant lot in Savannah.

“It is hard, but it’s not as hard as you would think. It is pretty much like Lincoln logs, especially for these older timber frame buildings.”

So, they took it apart, made the trip and began the process of putting it back together again.

Which to the surprise of many was fairly easy.

“Especially all the woodwork, all of it was made by hand and it went right back up. We really didn’t have to do too much. There was some finagling to get it to fit right, but it’s amazing the quality this stuff is that we could take it apart, reassemble it and it was still perfectly functioning,” Galloway said.

Of course, they did add some modern-day amenities, like toilets and they also had to raise the home up, but for the most part walking in this home today would be the same as it was more than 300 years ago, including paint color.

“We did paint color analysis to find out what colors they used,” says Galloway.

In one room, even finding and preserving the actual paint from the 1700s.

“We got to the original paint and we were like, ‘okay we’re going to leave it, we’re not going to keep going,’ because it was intact everywhere, which is super rare.”

For Peter the Hills-Galloway home is a dream come true.

“To me it’s just fascinating. Just all the history I think, just thinking about what happened when the house was around and what’s happened since, it’s just fascinating to me.”

What he hopes most for it’s future, is that it will take people back to the past.

“Hopefully getting people to appreciate the history the architecture. We’re not going to have TVs in the house, we’ll have internet. We just want people to be able to read a book, play chess, play card games, just kind of go 18th Century.”

Galloway says they plan on hosting their first guests soon.

They also plan on using the bottom floor for event space.

To find out how to book a room click here.

To follow along on the progress check out their Instagram @printmakersinn

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