Visiting the Robert Toombs House in Washington, GA
Do you like historic homes and/or 19th-century American history? Then consider a trip to Washington, GA to visit the Robert Toombs House!
This majestic house was built in 1797 by Dr. Joel Abbott. Two stories sit on top of a raised basement. When Robert Toombs acquired the house a few decades later, he renovated it in accord with Greek Revival architecture.
The most striking feature is the temple-style portico on the front porch. Four white columns rise up to support the roof. The portico and the sweeping front staircase ensure that the house is both beautiful and imposing at the same time.
Now let’s talk about the house’s most famous owner, Toombs, before we move on to details of how to visit and what you will see.
Who was Robert Toombs?
Robert Augustus Toombs (1810-1885) was an American politician who served as the US Senator from Georgia in the years leading up to the American Civil War. He was passionately pro-Georgia and pro-slavery, which ultimately led him to advocate for secession.
But don’t worry – this historic site isn’t a shrine to the Confederacy. In fact, as I will describe in detail below, various exhibits highlight the experience of the enslaved people who worked for Toombs.
Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Toombs was the first Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America (CSA). His best friend was Alexander Stephens, the Vice President of the CSA. But Toombs soon got into an argument with President Jefferson Davis and resigned his appointment.
After leaving CSA politics, Toombs served as a general for the Confederate army. He fought to the end and barely escaped capture after the fall of the CSA. Apparently his wife stood on the front steps of the Robert Toombs House and distracted the Union soldiers while Toombs snuck out the back.
Toombs fled to Paris, but he eventually returned to Georgia. He refused a pardon from the US government and never regretted his support for the Confederacy. In his final years, he practiced law and was instrumental in the creation of the new Georgia constitution in 1877.
The Robert Toombs House Historic Site is worth a visit from history buffs. But before you head out to Washington, there are definitely some things you should know.
Robert Toombs House: Quick Facts
- Location: Washington, Georgia (about an hour from Augusta and just under 2 hours from Atlanta)
- Hours: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Friday and Saturday
- Entrance Fee: $7 (adults 13 and up), $5 (youth 5-12)
- Parking: free parking available onsite
- Time needed: 1 to 2 hours
- Website: gastateparks.org
First of all, I want to clear one thing up. This is not a Georgia state historic site, despite the confusing terminology on the GA State Parks website. Wilkes County manages the house and it counts as a “partner site”.
This matters because it means you can’t use your Historic Site Annual Pass here. Furthermore, the Toombs House doesn’t receive as much funding as other historic sites. One result is that they don’t have a credit card reader and only accept cash and checks.
The GA State Parks website says guided tours are available, but when we visited (January 2022) a guided tour was not an option. This may be due to staff shortages during the pandemic.
In any case, the lady at the desk was extremely knowledgeable and was happy to tell us interesting tidbits about the house and its former owners. Plus there are very detailed visitor guides and exhibitions, so information is readily available.
Now that we have the logistics out of the way, let’s talk about the fun part: what there is to see!
Exploring the Robert Toombs House
You enter and purchase your tickets on the ground floor (the raised basement). Tip: Make sure you borrow one of the spiral-bound visitor’s guides to help you on your tour.
I should note that the visitor’s guide is very confusing. My husband and I spent quite a bit of time trying to work out how it was organized. But once you get past that issue, there is a wealth of information in there. It is definitely worth making the effort to figure it out!
(Basically, the guide sends you on a specific path through the historic house. So often the information about a single floor is spread over multiple, non-consecutive pages. I would recommend flipping through the guide first to figure out which rooms are listed on which pages.)
Museum Exhibits (Basement)
Your first stop is the mini-museum, which is right next door to the entry room (on the basement level). There are exhibits on the life and career of Robert Toombs as well as on the history of the house. If you love history, you could be here for a long time, reading every single detail.
The exhibits are displayed in historic rooms, so pay attention to your surroundings, too. Be sure you pop into the old pantry to see the scarily deep dry well, and definitely don’t miss Abbott’s original medical workroom. The original brick floor preserves a blood drain – yikes! This makes me very glad I wasn’t one of Abbott’s patients.
Arguably the most fascinating thing on this floor, though, is the exhibit on the lives of the enslaved people who worked on site. Toombs owned a lot of property and scholars believe he had over 300 slaves in all.
The old dining room contains a display case with slave artefacts and testimonials. But the really cool part is the filing cabinet in the corner. Each drawer is labeled with the name of one of the slaves, and if you open the drawer you will find a binder with information about their life.
This project was the brainchild of the former curator and it is amazing how much information she was able to amass. Apparently several families have even come and discovered that their ancestors were enslaved by Toombs! I especially recommend reading the stories of Adeline Wade and Aunt Betty.
First & Second Stories
Once you have explored the exhibits to your heart’s content, head upstairs to the first floor. This is where your visitor’s guide will really come in handy. The guide explains exactly what all the rooms were used for and it tells you which items belonged to Toombs and his family.
What makes this historical house truly unique is that many of the items on display – furniture, books, accessories – actually belonged to Toombs. This is because the family occupied the house until the 1970s, at which point the county took over the site.
Since there was no unoccupied phase, the house never fell into disrepair and historians were able to preserve many of Toombs’ possessions. Cool, right?
The first story features a ladies’ parlor, a gentlemen’s parlor, the Alexander Stephens room, the dining room, and Toombs’ (new) office. Make sure you check out the butler’s pantry next to the dining room: it has a dumb waiter!
The smaller second story includes the daughters’ room and the bedrooms of Toombs and his wife Julia. The visitor’s guide offers helpful details about the children’s lives. Tragically, both of Toombs’ daughters died in childbirth – a testament to the dangers of the time period.
Outbuildings
There are also several buildings of interest outside: a well, a dovecote, a barn, and a washhouse. The washhouse also doubled as a living space for several enslaved people, and you can read more about the slave experience on an informational sign outside.
Toombs seems to have treated those he enslaved better than many of his contemporaries did, but the quality of life would still have been poor. Toombs is quoted as saying some abominable things about race. He definitely believed that whites were superior and he was very against emancipation.
The visitor’s guide provides information on all the outbuildings. Archaeological work has shown that most of them date back to the late 18th century.
Should you visit the Robert Toombs House?
If you are a history buff, you will find this site fascinating. It definitely suffers from under-funding, which is evident in the confusing visitor’s guides and other small details. But there is so much information here and so much potential for active research.
This house shines light on a tragic, yet critical, point of American history. Learning about Toombs and his household helped me to put faces on the Civil War and the ante-bellum South. We need to preserve precious local history, and those at the Robert Toombs House are engaged in exactly this.
One last thing. I am always a bit hesitant to visit sites associated with the Confederacy, since I do not want to contribute to glorification of the Confederate past. But that is not what this site is about.
I do think that some of the exhibits present Toombs in a better light than I personally would. But there is no attempt to conceal his role as a slaveholder, and, as I have described above, there are important exhibits on the enslaved people. There is also no attempt to glorify the Confederacy or its aims.
The Robert Toombs House seeks to present history impartially, without either blaming or praising anyone. Overall, I think they succeeded. And this is why I recommend this historic site to history lovers.
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I live in Washington, have for 25 years . It’s still to this day a racist town , they only keep the history around to scare everyone.
I don’t know about Washington, since I just visited the Toombs house. The house, as a historic site, can give us an opportunity to learn about the past and try to do better in the future. Georgia and the South as a whole have an extremely problematic past – we can’t change that, but we CAN change the narrative around historic sites and make sure that we give space to marginalized voices and communities.
Washington Ga. is my hometown. It’s a beautiful place. I go home every year. My family is still there. I’ve heard that there’s racism still there but that’s anywhere you go.
Oh I love Washington ga. I been living in Lincolnton for the past 6 months. I am from South Carolina. I love to ride on that road where the Toombs house is and look at all those beautiful old houses. So much history. I am definitely going to visit the Toombs house. Let you all know about my visit after I go.
Hi Donna, yes, so many beautiful houses! I hope you enjoy your visit and please do let us know what you think. The site isn’t perfect but I think history lovers will appreciate it!