Situated on a forested peninsula surrounded by coastal marshes, Wormsloe Plantation was established in 1737 by Noble Jones one of the first British colonists in the area. The site includes a plantation house built by Jones’ grandson in 1828, a detached library, the ruins of a fortified house, a mile-long drive bordered by large oaks, and Confederate earthworks. Wormsloe was Noble Jones’ country estate where he experimented with his grand passion—horticulture. He protected the cypress and oak forests of his property and never cultivated the land. The surviving ruins of the original house are one of the only remaining examples of fortified houses once common throughout coastal Georgia. It was named Wormsloe, possibly after an English estate but more probably due to the mulberry trees that were grown there, the worms of which, it was hoped, would form the basis for a silk industry. A Colonial-era fortified home made of tabby was built at the Skidaway Narrows and today can be visited as part of Wormsloe Historic Site.
