This Savannah GA Plantation Has Operated For Nearly Three Centuries

Lebanon Plantation and House, Savannah Georgia

Date added: April 08, 2025

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Lebanon Plantation has been a continuously operating plantation/farm complex for nearly 3 centuries and was the site of the development of the Savannah Satsuma orange. It is a plantation known to have been operational since the 1750s, but was also the site of a Federal troop headquarters during the Civil War, reflecting after the war in its own destruction and rebirth, and the South's revival.

The land that comprises the core of Lebanon is a 500-acre tract which was granted to James Deveaux in 1756 and was allegedly named for the many cedar trees on the property. An additional 500 acres were granted to Phillip Delegal in 1758 and eventually became a part of the plantation. Both tracts changed hands several times before 1802, when Joseph Habersham purchased it from an absentee owner. When he sold it two years later to George W. Anderson, a considerable plantation was located on it since the deed refers to the houses, outbuildings, grounds, and waterways that were a part of the transaction.

The waters of the Little Ogeechee River provided irrigation for rice fields and a number of other crops were planted on the uplands. When the Union Army invaded the area in December of 1864, Brigadier General Kilpatrick wrote to General Sherman: "I find over here many rich plantations and can subsist my command for a month." Sherman, however, in his report on the capture of Savannah, pointed out the hazards of the countryside to his army: "These streams were singularly favorable to the enemy as a cover, being very marshy and bordered by rice fields which were flooded either by the tide water or by inland ponds, the gates to which were controlled and covered by his heavy artillery." At the time of the occupation of southern Chatham County, Major George W. Anderson was in command of less than 300 men defending Fort McAllister, which fell on the 13^th of December. Union correspondence frequently mentions "Anderson's Plantation," which became the headquarters for the Federal Fifteenth Army Corps.

After the occupation, the house at Lebanon was at least partially destroyed. This was only the beginning of difficulties for Anderson, however, for the property, which had been mortgaged in 1863, faced foreclosure in 1868. The estate was duly sold by the sheriff to Francis A. Parland, from whom Major Anderson recovered it in 1871.

The extent of damage to the original house is not known and whether the house was totally rebuilt or merely repaired and restored is not clear.

The Savannah [Georgia] Morning News for April 23^rd, 1873, reported that "the old family mansion at Lebanon has been rebuilt," and pointed out that "the dwelling houses, negro quarters, farm buildings, fencing etc. were destroyed by General Kilpatrick of the Federal army, during the investment of Savannah and the place was seemingly a hopeless wreck." The same article, however, gave an account of Anderson's attempt to "counteract [the] baleful effects" of "the radical change in the labor system of the South …"

Anderson instituted a system whereby Lebanon was divided into small farms and a number of French immigrants formed a colony there called L'Esperance and proceeded to cultivate vineyards. The result of this experiment is unknown, but it must be assumed that it was not totally successful as there is no further mention of it.

In 1916, Mills B. Lane of Savannah purchased the plantation from the Anderson heirs. Mr. Lane, founder and later president of the Citizens and Southern National Bank of Georgia, continued the agricultural progressiveness of Lebanon Plantation by growing a new variety of orange, the Savannah Satsuma. Lane, a noted banker as well as a money-making farmer, was a believer in diversification, having learned farming at an early age from his father while growing up near Valdosta, Georgia. The orange trees were originally suggested by personnel of the Seaboard Airline Railway. The version of the Satsuma that was grown at Lebanon was slightly different from those in Florida and eventually, in 1932-33, the oranges were marketed under the name Savannah Satsuma.

The Lanes lived at Lebanon from May through August each year, spending the rest of the year at their townhouse in Savannah. After Lane's death, his widow sold the plantation in 1961 to their only daughter, Mary Lane Morrison, who continues to use the plantation on a seasonal basis. The plantation remains a working plantation much in the same manner as it has for over two centuries.

Lebanon Plantation reflects the organic architectural growth of a plantation house continuously occupied through several generations. From its antebellum origins through virtual destruction during the Civil War and Reconstruction shortly thereafter to early-twentieth-century remodeling, the main house has retained its identity as the Lebanon Plantation while accommodating itself to new circumstances and needs. Not the least notable feature of the house is the persistence of classically-inspired architectural design throughout the major periods of building, rebuilding, and remodeling, so that the Neo-Classical veranda of the twentieth century coexists harmoniously with the core of a house built in the Greek Revival era of the nineteenth century. As the "Big House" for a living, working plantation, it reflects almost two centuries of ownership and lifestyles, yet has remained viable, whereas other such structures have fallen into ruin.

Building Description

The plantation house at Lebanon is illustrative of several different historical periods and architectural styles. The original house, which forms the core of the present structure, was probably rebuilt after the Civil War from the original plan and possibly remnants of the early nineteenth-century building.

A raised Plantation Plain, this original dwelling has a two-story, two-room center-hall plan with two shed rooms tn the rear. The staircase, located in the hall, is a dog-leg variation with bare wood treads and white-painted risers, a stained-wood handrail and simple, four-sided, convex newel post.

The entrance has a recent, glass-paned door with a plain, rectangular transom. The interior walls are plastered and wallpapered in some rooms. The mantelpiece in the dining room is almost identical to, although slightly larger than, the one in the east "shed" room, now an extension of the parlor. Here, two engaged Tuscan columns support vertical end blocks on the frieze, which are separated from the plain, recessed center block by two identical strips of hollow molding. The mantelpiece in the parlor is more simple in design and features fluted pilasters that support a narrow, unadorned frieze and shelf.

The brick foundation of the house was enclosed in the early twentieth century to form a two-room basement. The pegged beams of the first floor are visible here, along with the arched brick foundation that supports the fireplace. The house has a hip roof and the three chimneys which serve it are enclosed.

Additions began being made to the house in 1919 when the two-story veranda was built onto the front of the house and extended around the sides soon thereafter. Now partially screened, this double veranda features paired Tuscan columns. At about this same time, a porte-cochere, detailed similarly to the veranda, was erected over the driveway in front of the front doorway. A two-story wing was added to the north side of the house, c. 1927, to provide additional living space. Although connected by the veranda, it is in effect a separate house.

The outbuildings are all twentieth-century additions and include a caretaker's house, a servants' house (occupied) and a large, high-vaulted "family room," separate from the house built in the 1920s. The house is situated near the river, surrounded by expansive lawns, and is reached by a 1-1/4-mile drive, paved with shell.

A tornado touched-down at Lebanon Plantation on April 9^th, 1979, and destroyed the upper story of the veranda as well as part of the roof.