Built by James Eppinger (1790-1871) with the forced labor of enslaved craftsmen between 1821-23, this Federal style home was moved to its present location on Warren Square from West Perry Street and retains its original appearance, except for the replacement of a curved brick entry stairway. Eppinger later left Savannah for Pike County, in west central Georgia, and served as an attorney, Georgia legislator, and judge. He was the son of John P. Eppinger (1765-1823) and, per Carol Todd, the grandson of John Eppinger (1730-1776), a brickmaker and bricklayer who built what may have been the first brick house in Savannah (a public house at 110 Oglethorpe Avenue built before 1764).
Peter Meldrim (1848-1933), who later became a judge, lived in this house as a youth during the Civil War. Judge Meldrim was later the owner of the iconic Green-Meldrim House, which served as General Sherman’s Savannah headquarters.
Savannah Historic District, National Historic Landmark
There was a still more senior John Eppinger, bricklayer, who was born in 1730 in Germany and died in Savannah in 1776. It was he who built the ca. 1765 public house.