Telfair Academy

The Telfair Academy stands out with its heavy, cast-iron fence and the two stone lions that flank its entrance. Originally the mansion of Alexander Telfair, the son of a Georgia governor, the building became the first public art museum in the American South in eighteen eighty-six. Mary Telfair, the last of the family line, left the home and her extensive art collection to the Georgia Historical Society with the condition that it become a place for the public to enjoy art.