New Englanders Samuel Palmer and Henry Dresser built adjoining townhouses on this Savannah lot in 1876, each man having moved south chasing opportunity after the Civil War. Palmer’s family, descended from Mayflower passengers, ran a hardware store called Palmer and Sons that became one of the city’s largest. Dresser worked as a cotton factor, reinvesting in plantations around Savannah before eventually moving his family back north.
The two Italianate townhouses, built in the High Victorian style with tall crowned windows and deep bracketed cornices, share what’s said to be the longest continuous porch in the city. They stayed in residential use for well over a century before a 2020 restoration converted them into a 16-room boutique hotel. Bellwether House joined Historic Hotels of America in 2021 and won a Michelin Key in 2024.