“Omnia reliquit servare rempublicam.” 

(“He left everything to save the republic.”) 

 —The Motto of the Society of the Cincinnati. 

The Harper Fowlkes House 

As I have mentioned in prior Postcards from Savannah, you cannot throw a stone in the Historic District of Savannah without hitting something that offers a fascinating story in American history.  

The Harper Fowlkes House on Orleans Square generously presents us with a unique story that begins with its designer, Charles Cluskey, who also built the beautiful Philbrick-Eastman House. (See PFS #60.) 

Irish architect Charles Cluskey worked at the McAlpin Plantation, located about two miles up the Savannah River. There, he was involved in manufacturing — employing slave labor — the building products used to construct his home designs. These included a foundry for the making of wrought iron and molding the popular Savannah grey-bricks for masonry.  

Construction of this Greek Revival styled home began in 1843 for a local Savannah shipping magnate. It would pass through several hands before its purchase by Miss Alida Harper for $9000 in 1939.  

Alida Harper was an early advocate for historic preservation and saved this beautiful Savannah home from demolition when she was a busy 31-year-old local entrepreneur. Alida ran the Georgia Tea Room out of the basement of the Pink House. She later married and added Fowlkes to her name, but was left a widow only a year later.  

Alida later went on to restore ten homes in Savannah. She also managed a successful antique business out of this house while making it her home for 45-years. 

Upon her death in 1985, the Harper Fowlkes House and all its fabulous furnishings were left to the Society of the Cincinnati to be used as the organization’s State Headquarters in Georgia. She also left a generous endowment to assure the house would be maintained for future generations of the Society. 

So, upon learning of this, the question to answer became: What is the Society of the Cincinnati?  

The Society of Cincinnati comes with historic intrigue reaching back to the American Revolutionary War. 

Henry Knox, the chief artillery officer for the Continental Army and later President George Washington’s Secretary of War, began his initial draft of this organization’s charter in April 1783. The Society was named after Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the legendary Roman military commander, who notably returned to his farm after his success in military campaigns instead of holding on to the reins of power. 

Knox intended the Society to be made of the main officer-core serving the American Continental Army during our War of Independence. Its members were quite interested in receiving the new Nation's gratitude — with some of their desired gratitude involving back-pay and making good on other debts owed to the men and their families who suffered so much during their long service to the new republic. 

Almost immediately, the idea of an organization set up by American military heroes who just overthrew rule by the British Monarch met with some suspicion and opposition. The current members in Georgia, numbering 155, are direct ancestors of the commissioned officers who fought for the Continental Army.