Old Mansion on Forsyth Park

I LOVE walking around this old red brick mansion and taking pictures! I love the architecture and I love the history.

The old mansion sits across the street from the park and the Forsyth Fountain we visited yesterday.

Formerly a funeral home!--the Romanesque
 mansion has well over 100 rooms. We did not stay here, we stayed elsewhere, but I WOULD stay here if given the opportunity! LOL It's around $300.00 a night, I think. I hear it's quite a luxury place and has a spa and a big pretty pool. The fancy parlours there now USED to be viewing rooms for the deceased.

Isn't this delicate carving pretty?

The mansion was built in 1888 for the Lewis Kayton family. Mr Kayton (born 1843) was in the meat packing business and I think he came to Savannah from Maryland. Hard to believe, but back then the price to build this huge almost 18,000 square foot home was under $50,000! Mr. Kayton's wife was Jennie, and she was from Manhattan, New York. I think they both passed away in the early 1920s.
Jennie and Mr. Kayton only had one son, Herbert Lester, and one little granddaughter, Margaret. She was born in 1911. She was known as "Peggy".
When she grew up, she was a member of Temple Mickve Isreal,  active in the National Council of Jewish Women, and a Chariman of the United Jewish Appeal
It appears the whole family lived their entire lives in Savannah, they lived and died there.

After the Kayton family were no longer in the house, it changed hands several times, to the Graingers and the Hugers.
A Mr. Weeks purchased the huge home in the early 1950s, and made it into Savannah's finest and most well known funeral home, which it remained for over 50 years. Mr. Weeks and his two sons based their undertaking headquarters here in the elegant brick and terra cotta home. The Weeks family had been  in the funeral business since the late 1800s, I believe.

....and check out those big tall  airy windows, to let in the breezes! Much needed on sultry Savannah summer days. I hear the inside decor is full of velvet, beautiful antique furniture, rich mahogany wood, sculptures and paintings, and ornate chandeliers.

Hope  y'all enjoyed this little visit walking around Forsyth Fountain and park, and seeing this big old elegant mansion!