Robert Toombs House Historic Site

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The Robert Toombs House Historic Site is a state historic site at 216 East Robert Toombs Avenue in Washington, Georgia. It was the home of Robert Toombs (1810–85), who was a pro-Union U.S. representative and U.S. senator, and then a Confederate general and Confederate secretary of state during the American Civil War. Operated as a state historic site, the 19th-century period historic house museum also features exhibits about the life of Toombs. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.Description and historyThe Toombs House is located on the east side of Washington, on the south side of East Robert Toombs Avenue. It is a two story wood frame structure, fronted by a two-story colonnade of fluted Doric columns. Its main entrance is flanked by sidelight windows and topped by a transom. The interior of the house has been decorated to reflect its mid-19th century occupation by Robert Toombs, and includes his private library. The house was built sometime between 1794 and 1801 by Doctor Joel Abbott, and was acquired in 1837 by Toombs. Toombs is credited with a number of alterations, including the front colonnade and the west wing.Robert Toombs was one of the American South's prominent pre-Civil War orators. Although he supported the extension of slavery into the territories, he also opposed the breakup of the country, and was a major supporter of the Compromise of 1850. When the American Civil War began in 1861, he became the Confederate States of America's Secretary of State, but resigned over differences with President Jefferson Davis, and entered the Confederate Army. He fled the country at the end of the war, eventually returning to a successful law practice.