You've arrived at the Telfair Museums, the first public art museum in the Southern United States. It exists thanks to Mary Telfair, a prominent local citizen who lived from 1791 to 1875 and left her family's home to the city. Operated by the Georgia Historical Society until 1920, the museum opened in 1886 inside the Telfairs' renovated Regency-style mansion, now the Telfair Academy.
Today its collection holds more than 4,500 American and European works across three buildings: the 1818 Telfair Academy; the 1816 Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters, both National Historic Landmarks designed by British architect William Jay; and the contemporary Jepson Center for the Arts, designed by Moshe Safdie and completed in 2006.