The world is a looking-glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so, let all young persons take their choice.”

—William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair)

The Andrew Low House

It says something extra special about a fabulous house — and the wealthy Savannahian it was designed and built to house — when William Makepeace Thackeray, quite famous British author of Vanity Fair, claimed it as “…the most comfortable accommodations in America.”

Of course, Thackeray had another character in his long satirical tome advise: “Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.” So, perhaps he was merely following his advice in his kind comment about the Andrew Low House, where he stayed as a guest when a lecture tour brought him to Savannah in 1853.

Andrew Low II was born in Scotland in 1812. He arrived in Savannah when he was only seventeen years old in 1829. The ship that sailed him to Savannah was named Georgia and was conveniently owned by his uncle, who also happened to share his name: Andrew Low.

The first Andrew Low had come to Savannah 30-years before the second’s arrival. Andrew Low I immigrated to Savannah to work for a Glasgow shipping firm with several seaport outlets in the U.S. He soon managed to buy the Savannah store and formed Andrew Low & Company. He never married, and his search for an heir led him to bring his namesake nephew from Scotland to join him in Savannah.

Andrew Low & Company did well, particularly in the shipping of Georgia-grown cotton to the textile mills in Liverpool, England. In this business, Andrew Low II did particularly well financially, and by 1857 he was Savannah’s wealthiest man, with an annual income of around six-million in today’s dollars.

In 1847, Andrew Low II purchased the southwest trust lot on Lafayette Square to build this unique home.  He had married in 1844 and fathered three children, including a son the couple named Andrew Low III, by the time he started the building of this house for his growing family in 1849.

For its architect, Low hired the busy John Norris. I have already painted the Norris designed Cockspur Island Lighthouse (Postcard from Savannah #37), as well as the Mercer-Williams House (PFS #1).

Before and soon after the home’s completion, several tragedies befell Low. First, Andrew, his four-year-old namesake, died in the summer of 1848. His father died in Scotland the following Spring, and the tragedies continued in May 1849 with the death of Sarah, his beloved 31-year-old wife. That summer, his uncle, Andrew Low I died, as well. It had been a particularly bad year for the wealthy Andrew Low when he and his two daughters moved into their elegant new home around Christmas of 1849.

Low remarried in 1854 and fathered additional children. His son William was born in 1860 and would go on to marry Juliette Gordon Low, whose home and story I have painted and told (PFS #32), as well.

Then the Civil War began, and Low’s Savannah shipping business faced the Union coastal blockade.  Intrigue soon followed, and Low was busy smuggling cargos of guns and munitions for the Confederacy. Union agents arrested Low. He was later pardoned. Elizabeth, his second wife, died in 1863. Andrew Low II died in England in 1886 and is now buried beside both wives in Laurel Grove Cemetery.