Regency-style brick townhouse where Girl Scouts founder Juliette 'Daisy' Gordon Low was born in 1860 — Savannah's first National Historic Landmark, museum since 1956, owned and operated by the Girl Scouts of the USA.
10 East Oglethorpe Avenue, Savannah, GA 31401
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Admission charged for guided tours; discounts for active Girl Scouts. Check museum website for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic Regency-style townhouse with multiple levels; the first floor is partially accessible but upper floors require stairs.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1821 · Savannah's first National Historic Landmark (1965) · Birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (October 31, 1860) · Founding location-of-record for Girl Scouts of the USA · Regency-style townhouse attributed to William Jay · Operating museum since 1956 · Documented on Library of Congress HABS
Construction of the Regency-style brick townhouse at 10 East Oglethorpe Avenue began in 1818 for James Moore Wayne (1790-1867), a future Savannah mayor and U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The home, attributed to English architect William Jay (who also designed the Owens-Thomas House), was completed in 1821, with brick covered in stucco scored to look like ashlar stone.
In 1831, Sarah Stites Gordon and her husband William Washington Gordon purchased the home from the Wayne family. Their son William Washington Gordon II later inherited the property and lived there with his wife Eleanor 'Nellie' Kinzie Gordon. On October 31, 1860, the couple's daughter Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon — known throughout her life as 'Daisy' — was born in the home.
Daisy Gordon Low married William Mackay Low in 1886 and relocated to the United Kingdom in 1887. The family made significant renovations to the home in 1886, including adding a third story; the museum is restored and interpreted to this 1886 configuration. Following her separation and Low's death, Daisy returned to Savannah and to the home periodically. In 1911, while in Scotland, she met Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement. On March 12, 1912, back in Savannah, Daisy organized the first meeting of what would become the Girl Scouts of the USA — gathering eighteen girls on the grounds of her cousin's home a few blocks away.
Juliette Gordon Low died of breast cancer in 1927. In 1953, Girl Scouts of the USA purchased her birthplace from the Gordon family; in 1956 the property opened as a historic house museum. In 1965 it was designated Savannah's first National Historic Landmark. The museum holds original Gordon family furnishings and artwork created by Low herself, and remains a major destination for Girl Scout troops nationwide.
Sources
The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace is operated by Girl Scouts of the USA as a biographical and women's-history museum and does not market itself as a haunted attraction. Paranormal accounts come through Savannah ghost-tour operators and visitor anecdote.
The two recurring figures in the lore are both real, documented residents of the home. Sarah Stites Gordon (1780-1882) was Juliette's paternal grandmother, who with her husband William Washington Gordon purchased the home in 1831 and lived there until her death. Per Ghost City Tours, visitors and staff report seeing a woman in a long, dark, nineteenth-century-style dress during daytime hours, particularly on the staircase and in the dining room, identified by tour-operator tradition as Sarah Gordon.
The second figure, Eleanor 'Nellie' Kinzie Gordon (1835-1917), was Juliette's mother. According to ghost-tour and museum-tradition sources, after-hours staff and overnight Girl Scout encampments have reported the sound of furniture being moved on the second floor, the piano playing in the parlor when no one is at the keyboard, and a swooshing sound on the second-floor banister consistent with Nellie's lifelong reputation in family papers for sliding down banisters as an adult.
Hauntbound notes that both figures are independently documented as residents of the home, and the lore aligns with documented biographical detail rather than fabricating events. The banister-sliding tradition is particularly grounded — Nellie Kinzie Gordon's habit of sliding down banisters into her 70s is referenced in surviving Gordon family memoirs and is part of the museum's interpretive program as documented family lore.
All paranormal accounts come through ghost-tour operators and visitor anecdote rather than independent investigation. The Girl Scouts of the USA do not promote the home as a haunted attraction.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Guided tour of the Regency-style townhouse where Juliette Magill Kinzie 'Daisy' Gordon was born on October 31, 1860. The museum interprets Low's life, the founding of Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912, and the Gordon family's long residence in the home. Restored to the 1886 family-renovation period.
The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace appears on some Savannah ghost-tour walking itineraries, which discuss the Gordon family's tradition of paranormal accounts from the public sidewalk on Oglethorpe Avenue. The museum itself does not market the home as a haunted attraction.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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