Savannah ยท Oglethorpe Avenue
The Douglas
An 1853 house beside the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, long the Ballastone Inn, reopened in 2025 as a 22-room hotel. Adults 21+.
- Built
- 1853built 1853 as a private residence and enlarged in the 1880s-1890s; the Ballastone Inn from 1986, reopened 2025 as The Douglas
- Type
- Boutique hotel
- Rooms
- 22
- Area
- Oglethorpe Avenue
- Credentials
- Inside a National Register historic district
The story
The house was built in 1853 on Oglethorpe Avenue; banker and Confederate officer Captain Henry Blun bought it in 1881 and expanded it. It later housed the City Progressive Club (1925), the Lester House boarding house (1932), the postwar Troy Apartments (1947) and, from 1970, Girl Scouts offices serving the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace next door. Attorney Morton Gold bought it in 1985, and it opened as the Ballastone Inn in 1986. Obstinate Hospitality, the Charleston group behind The Obstinate Daughter and Wild Olive, began a two-year restoration in 2023 and reopened it in 2025 as The Douglas with 16 rooms, adding six more and the restaurant Lester’s in 2026.
Good to know
- Breakfast: included
- Parking: on-site paid
- Elevator
- No pets
- Adults only
- Address: 14 E Oglethorpe Ave, Savannah, GA 31401
Things to do
Tours in Savannah
Tours are sold by GetYourGuide and run by local operators. If you book one through these links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Ratings and prices are GetYourGuide’s.
Sources (6)
- https://thedouglas.com/our-story
- https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/66000277
- https://www.sleepermagazine.com/stories/projects/the-douglas-reopens-in-savannah-following-restoration
- https://hoteldesigns.net/industry-news/the-douglas-honouring-the-past-while-savouring-the-present/
- https://lubalowry.com/postcardsfromsavannah/42
- https://www.thempc.org/docs/lit/hist/maps/supplement.pdf
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.