How do we learn who owned and lived in the building?
With a house as grand as the Noble Hardee House, there was already some general knowledge about the building’s owners and tenants provided by previous researchers and historians. We set out to confirm the ownership, occupants, and use of the building over time. Three main types of documents were used:
Tax Digests
Tax Digests can tell you if the ownership or tax assessment of a property changed in any given year. They are organized by either ward or property owner and are held at the Savannah Municipal Archives. Tax Digests can indicate when a building was completed or when major alterations were made to a building.
City Directories
From City Directories, the tenants, those actually living in the house, can be identified. City Directories are books that were published every year indicating who lived in the city, where they lived, and the location of businesses. Early City directories are generally organized by resident or business name. Later City directories began to include a street directory, listing resident by address. Luckily, many City Directories for Savannah are digitized and available online.
Census Records
Census data captures the name, age, and occupation of anyone living on the property, including servants and boarders, who may not be listed in the City Directory. While the census can only capture a single point in time once every decade, it gives us a more well-rounded picture of social history related to the house.
Construction Timeline
We began by reviewing Tax Digests for the property, starting from the time that Noble Hardee purchased the land and going forward. The tax value of the Noble Hardee property increased substantially in 1869, indicating the building’s date of completion.
Ownership vs. Occupancy
While ownership of a property is important, it does not tell the whole story. Despite being called the Noble Hardee House, the Hardee family never lived in the house. In fact, its second owner, A.S. Hartridge, never lived in the house either.
Using City Directories, we were able to find that the earliest tenants, identified in the late 1870s and early 1880s, were the Fullarton and Palmer families. They were listed at the addresses 125 and 127 Gordon Street. By confirming these addresses with other sources, we learned that the house was divided into two tenements during this period.
Functional Evolution
Tracing the City Directories by year also helped us identify when the building switched from residential to institutional use in the early 1940s.
In the case of Noble Hardee House, we found that even City Directories did not provide a complete picture of those living in the house. Census records helped us identify residents that would not have been listed in a City Directory. The 1900 census revealed that the Weil family had three Black servants (Betsy, Jemie, and a male servant with an illegible name). The 1910 and 1920 census records showed that the house was packed with boarders.
Tax Digest from 1869 showing the properties owned by N.A. Hardee, including the 34 Monterey, the lot identifier for the corner of Bull and Gordon streets.
City directory from 1910 indicating Amelia F Dixon as the primary resident of 3 West Gordon St. Sanborn Maps and census records tell us that she was running a boarding house with 22 boarders.
Federal census from 1900 showing the Weil family residing at 3 West Gordon and three Black servants with the last name Elmore (Betsy, Jemie, and a male servant with an illegible name).