William Winston House
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; William Winston House; Deschler High School; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
Tuscumbia merchant Clark T. Barton began building what would become the William Winston House around 1835. Several years later, in 1840, planter Winston purchased the still-unfinished house and oversaw its completion. The house remained in the Winston family until 1948, when the estate of Mary Jackson Winston sold the building and surrounding property to the City of Tuscumbia. Today, the building is part of the Deschler High School campus.
The two-story Winston House is one of the few surviving antebellum brick homes in the Shoals area. A repeating bullseye pattern adorns the stone lintels of its exterior, while the interior of the home is renowned for its fine woodwork.
The William Winston House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, William Winston House, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #82002005.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-316, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0102 (accessed November 12, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 12, 2015
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Tuscumbia Historic District
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Tuscumbia Historic District; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
The Tuscumbia Historic District encompasses a substantial portion of the city's 1817 street plan, including Spring Park, the North Commons, and the entirety of the Colbert County Courthouse Square Historic District, which is itself listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The district and the city have served as the seat of Colbert County governance since the county's creation in February 1867 (excluding the two-year period between November 1867 and December 1869 when the county was abolished by the State Constitutional Convention). Significant political figures associated with the district include Scottish-born Alabama governor Robert Burns Lindsay and U.S. representative Edward B. Almon, the latter known for his role in establishing the Federal Highway System and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
In all, 461 of the district's 639 properties contribute to its historic character and significance. These include several examples of Tidewater cottages dating from the 1820s and 1830s, along with homes built in the Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Tudor and Bungalow styles. Most of the district's commercial properties, meanwhile, reflect architectural trends of the late Victorian period, with the Palace Drugstore being a particularly noteworthy example.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Tuscumbia Historic District, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #85001158.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-360, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0087 (accessed November 12, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 12, 2015
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Sheffield Residential Historic District
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Sheffield Residential Historic District; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places
Covering 160 acres and encompassing 678 properties, the Sheffield Residential Historic District reflects development in the city of Sheffield from its establishment in 1883 through the mid-20th-century. Like the Colbert County Courthouse Square District in neighboring Tuscumbia, significant properties in the Sheffield historic district include both commercial and residential buildings, as well as a number of churches.
Alfred Moses, a banker from Montgomery and founder of the Sheffield Land, Iron and Coal Company, designed the city's original street plan. This, along with the construction of docks and landings along the Tennessee River, opened the door for the entry of other businesses and industries into the area. After the Panic of 1893 devastated the Shoals economy, the Southern Railway Company established its headquarters in Sheffield, initiating a second wave of economic development. Following the construction of Wilson Dam and a pair of nitrate manufacturing plants in 1916, a number of apartment complexes sprung up in Sheffield, along with several Bungalow and Colonial-Revival-style houses.
The Sheffield Residential Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Sheffield Residential Historic District, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #02000481.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 12, 2015
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John Daniel Rather House / Locust Hill
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; John Daniel Rather House; Locust Hill; Civil War; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey; Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
One of the oldest surviving domestic structures in Tuscumbia, the John Daniel Rather House, or Locust Hill, was built in 1823 for planter William Hooe and his wife, Catherine Winter. It was occupied briefly during the Civil War by Union troops under the command of General Florence N. Cornyn, who used the building as a headquarters. After the war, in 1865, Capt. John Taylor Rather acquired the house, and it reverted to its prior function as a residence.
Among the earliest white settlers of Alabama, Rather had twice served as deputy sheriff of Madison County before being elected as a state representative for Morgan County. His son, General John Daniel Rather, also served in the state legislature, and was, for a time, president of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The two-story Federal-style brick house remained in the Rather family until the death of the general's granddaughter, Mary Wallace Kirk, in 1978.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, John Daniel Rather House, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #82001603.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-318, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0100 (accessed November 10, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 10, 2015
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Preuit Oaks
Colbert County, Alabama; Leighton, Alabama; Preuit Oaks; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage
Preuit Oaks is a plantation complex once owned and operated by W. Richard Preuit, one of the most successful cotton planters of the so-called "Town Creek Triangle" area during the mid-19th century. Family tradition holds that the central cottage was built in 1847 by Dr. John S. Napier and acquired by Preuit, a native of North Carolina, during the 1850s. In addition to the one-and-a-half-story cottage with gable roofs, the plantation encompasses ten supporting wood structures constructed between 1850 and 1890, along with a family cemetery and slave cemetery.
The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Preuit Oaks, Leighton, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #86000997.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 10, 2015
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Old Brick Presbyterian Church
Colbert County, Alabama; Leighton, Alabama; Old Brick Presbyterian Church; Architecture; Churches; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
According to church tradition, Leighton's Old Brick Presbyterian Church building was constructed in 1828, although architectural evidence suggests a later date during the 1830s or 1840s. Its distinctive, kiln-fired exterior bricks and sun-dried interior bricks were drawn from a pit still visible today near the church's southwest corner, and may be the products of slave labor. The church's interior, meanwhile, retains its original plaster walls and hand-crafted pews, divided down the middle to establish separate seating for male and female congregants. The original slave gallery also remains intact, reflecting the further segregation of worshippers among racial lines.
In addition to its enforcement of race and gender norms through segregated seating, the church played "an important judicial role" in rural Bricksville by "policing... moral standards." Members accused of sins were called before the congregation and given a choice: confess or be "removed from the church."
The origins of the Old Brick church can be traced back to 1812, when traveling minister Carson P. Reed staged a two-week revival in the Brick community. 45 men baptized during the revival were inspired to establish a congregation of their own, with Reed as preacher, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was born. Nearly a century later, in the early 1900s, a split within the congregation led to the departure of one faction (which formed the nearby Mt. Pleasant Cumberland Presbyterian Church), and a switch to the "Old Brick" name still in use today.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Old Brick Presbyterian Church, Leighton, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #88003078.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 10, 2015
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The Oaks / Abraham Ricks House
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; The Oaks; Abraham Ricks House; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
The Oaks, also known as the Abraham Ricks Plantation, is actually two houses in one: a one-and-a-half story log building connected to a two-story late-Georgian plantation home by a one-story dining room. The log structure, which predates its Georgian counterpart by about ten years, is described as being among "the finest and best preserved... weatherboarded, story-and-a-half log structures" in North Alabama.
Planter Abraham Ricks moved to Tuscumbia with his family and slaves during the early 1820s, purchasing the log cabin and property which would become The Oaks in 1826. Over the course of the two decades which followed the completion of the house in 1832, Ricks became one of the wealthiest planters in the region, and The Oaks became a major center of social activity. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, The Oaks, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #76000319.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-362, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0077 (accessed November 9, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 9, 2015
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Felix Grundy Norman House
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Felix Grundy Norman House; Felix Grundy Norman; Architecture; Native American History; Barton Hall; Tuscumbia Historic District; National Register of Historic Places
Situated on the corner of North Main Street and Second Street in Tuscumbia, the Felix Grundy Norman House is one of the few single-story Greek-revival-style cottages remaining in a city where such structures were once commonplace. The house was constructed in 1851 as a home for Felix Grundy Norman, a prominent Tuscumbia attorney who became the city's mayor after serving in the state legislature during the 1840s.
The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Felix Grundy Norman House, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #84000749.
Carolyn Murray Greer, "One of Our Best, Most Respected Citizens," Remembering the Shoals, https://rememberingtheshoals.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/one-of-our-best-most-respected-citizens (accessed December 6, 2015).
"Felix Grundy Norman House," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Grundy_Norman_House (accessed November 9, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 9, 2015
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Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District; Woodrow Wilson; Franklin D. Roosevelt; New Deal; National Defense Act; Wilson Dam; Tennessee Valley Authority; National Register of Historic Places; Historical American Engineering Record
The Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District encompasses 112 family homes, two school buildings and one apartment complex, situated near the south bank of the Tennessee River in Sheffield, Alabama. The village was constructed in 1918 to house workers and their families after President Woodrow Wilson designated Sheffield as the site for a new nitrate plant, where the experimental German "Haber" process would be utilized in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to extract weapons-grade nitrate from the atmosphere.
Designed by the Ewing and Allen architectural firm, and constructed by New York's J.G. White Engineering Corporation, the village street plan has a distinctive "liberty bell" shape, and the unifying architectural aesthetic is similarly distinctive. The village is typical of government-sponsored "planned communities" of the period in that all materials used in its construction were standardized and prefabricated to minimize costs and construction time. Likewise, all of the village's buildings share the same Bungalow-style architecture, with stuccoed walls and terracotta roofs.
Nitrate Village No. 1 was deeded to the city of Sheffield in 1949, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #84000603.
Historic American Engineering Record, HAER AL-46, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al1051 (accessed November 9, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 9, 2015
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Johnson's Woods
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Johnson's Woods; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
Johnson's Woods in Tuscumbia is one of the earliest surviving examples of Classical Revival-style architecture in the Tennessee Valley, and is among "the best preserved collections of mid-nineteenth-century agricultural architecture" in the state of Alabama. It was commissioned by one of Colbert County's earliest and most successful large-scale planters, Maryland-born George W. Carroll, and constructed between 1835 and 1837. Two decades later, Carroll relocated to Arkansas and sold the plantation to William Mahoon. Upon Mahoon's death in 1869, the estate passed to Colonel William A. Johnson, who had operated a steamboat along the Tennessee River before enlisting in the Confederate army and serving as an aide to General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
In addition to the main house, the 160-acre plantation complex includes eight outbuildings, all of which survive and contribute to the property's historic significance: a smokehouse, a plantation office, a cotton shed, a barn, a corn crib, a carriage house, a commissary, and an animal shelter.
Johnson's Woods was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Johnson's Woods, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #88000511.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-322, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0086 (accessed November 9, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 9, 2015
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Colbert County Courthouse Square Historic District
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Colbert County Courthouse Square Historic District; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places
The 22 buildings which comprise Tuscumbia's Colbert County Courthouse Square Historic District reflect a broad range of architectural styles, including Victorian, Gothic, and Greek Revival. The most distinctive architectural example is the courthouse itself, a Greek Revival structure designed by Nashville architect Edward Laurent, and built by William Dowling of Chattanooga in 1881. <br /><br />The seven buildings known collectively as Commercial Row date from the 1840s, and have been utilized by a wide variety of businesses over the years. One notable example was the <em>North Alabamian</em> newspaper, published by Captain A.H. Keller, father of Helen Keller, from an office on the corner of Main and Fifth Streets. <br /><br />In addition to the courthouse and seven commercial buildings, the Courthouse Square district encompasses four churches, eight historic homes, Spring Park and the Tuscumbia Railroad Depot. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Colbert County Courthouse Square Historic District, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #73000338.
"Colbert County Courthouse Square Historic District," Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Colbert_County_Courthouse_Square_Historic_District (accessed November 9, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 9, 2015
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Fort Harker
Jackson County, Stevenson, Military Fortification, Civil War, National Register of Historic Places, Alabama Historical Commission Markers
Constructed by the Union Army in the summer of 1862 and expanded in 1864, using soldiers and freed slaves, Ft. Harker was built on a broad hill a quarter-mile east of town. It overlooked Crow Creek and was well within firing range of Stevenson’s strategic railroad lines, supply depots and warehouses.
Ft. Harker was an earthen redoubt, 150 feet square, with walls 14 feet high, surrounded by an 8 foot deep dry moat. It contained 7 cannon platforms, a bomb-proof powder magazine, a draw-bridge entrance and an 8-sided wooden blockhouse at its center. Soldiers building the fort reported that “the soil is very hard, requiring the continual use of a pick.” Despite that, Ft. Harker was critical to Union plans. The officer in charge was ordered by his commanding general “to work night and day” to complete the fort “as rapidly as possible.”
One other large fort, two smaller redoubts and at least seven blockhouses were constructed along the railroad lines at Stevenson during the Civil War. No major fighting occurred here, but skirmishes and sniper attacks were common as territory traded hands between Union and Confederate forces.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places 5/2/77
(From the historical marker erected at the site by the Alabama Historical Commission)
Blake Wilhelm
Historical marker erected at the site by the Alabama Historical Commission
http://focus.nps.gov/nrhp/AssetDetail?assetID=95bdb8b3-ef52-477c-851f-ae8cb34f821d
http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/nrhp/text/78000491.pdf
http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/ppmsca.23042/
Northeast Alabama Community College Archives and Special Collections
1862-1865
Bridgeport Railroad Depot
Jackson County, Bridgeport, Transportation, Railroad, National Register of Historic Places
Constructed in 1918, the Bridgeport Train Depot operated through the late 1960s and today is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It houses the Bridgeport Area Historical Association Museum. (Encyclopedia of Alabama)
Blake Wilhelm
http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/nrhp/text/02000479.pdf
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3072
Carmichael, Flossie, and Ronald Lee. In and Around Bridgeport. Collegedale, TN: The College Press, 1969.
Northeast Alabama Community College Archives and Special Collections
1917-present
Photograph by Jimmy Emerson
E.L. Newman Lustron House
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; E.L. Newman Lustron House; Lustron Corporation; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places
The E.L. Newman Lustron House is a prefabricated one-story home in Sheffield built in 1949 by the Lustron Corporation. The house is one of eleven surviving Lustron homes in the state of Alabama, and one of five in the Shoals area, for which it once served as the "model" Lustron home. Its most distinctive exterior feature is its enamelized metal siding, comprised of two-foot square porcelain panels, which to this day show no signs of rusting or other deterioration.
Lustron houses were popularized in the immediate aftermath of World War II, when a housing shortage in the United States had created a considerable market for prefabricated dwellings. The Newman house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, at which time it was still occupied by the original residents.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, E.L. Newman Lustron House, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #00000134.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Muscle Shoals Sound Studio; Performing Arts; Music; National Register of Historic Places
The modest exterior of the one-story concrete structure at 3614 North Jackson Highway stands in deceptively stark contrast to the majesty of the music produced therein. The building once housed the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, where some of the most influential popular music of the 20th century was recorded and produced. Between 1969 and 1978, the studio and its versatile Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, affectionately known as "the Swampers," turned out "over 50 gold and platinum hits and hundreds of albums for pop, rock, blues, funk, soul, reggae, and even country music superstars," and in the process made the Shoals area famous the world over. <br /><br />Having played on some of the biggest pop, rock and soul hits of the 1960s as the house band for Rick Hall's FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, the four-man MSRS struck out on their own in 1969 and, with the financial backing of Atlantic Records president Jerry Wexler, opened their own studio in the neighboring town of Sheffield. After an inauspicious start, a number-one single recorded with R.B. Greaves ("Take a Letter Maria") and a visit from the Rolling Stones (immortalized in the documentary film <em>Gimme Shelter</em>) inaugurated the studio's decade-long gold and platinum winning streak. <br /><br />The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #06000437.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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John Johnson House / The Green Onion
Colbert County, Alabama; Leighton, Alabama; John Johnson House; The Green Onion; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places
The John Johnson House, commonly referred to as "The Green Onion," is a 19th-century Tidewater-style cottage near Leighton in Colbert County. It is one of four double-square Tidewater cottages in the state of Alabama, and one of three among those built using single-pile brick construction.
Original owner and namesake John Johnson, who had moved to Alabama from Virigina (by way of Tennessee), purchased the 80-acre property on which the house sits for $600 in 1829. After Johnson's death, it became part of the Leonard Preuitt estate. Though one of its walls has since collapsed, and its paneled wainscoting has been vandalized, the Johnson house "remains to a surprising degree structurally sound," and continues to showcase "some of the finest brickwork to be found anywhere in early Alabama."
The John Johnson House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and is also listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Places.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, John Johnson House, Leighton, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #86001537.
Alabama Department of Archives and History, "Alabama Photographs and Pictures Collection," http://digital.archives.alabama.gov/cdm/landingpage/collection/photo (accessed November 7, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Ivy Green
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Ivy Green; Helen Keller; Social History; Education; Communications; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
A one-and-a-half-story "Southern Viriginian" frame cottage located at 300 West North Commons in Tuscumbia, Ivy Green is significant for being the birthplace and childhood home of Helen Keller. It was during her infancy at Ivy Green that illness rendered Keller's blind and deaf; and it was there, in 1887, that Anne Sullivan taught the seven-year-old Keller to read, write, and speak, using a "finger language" devised by Samuel Gridley Howe of Boston's Perkins School for the Blind.
The Ivy Green complex consists of the main house and two additional structures of historical significance: another, smaller frame cottage built as an office for the Keller family plantation; and the still smaller structure housing the water well and pump which facilitated Keller's famous "communication breakthrough." The property was acquired by the City of Tuscumbia in 1954, and has been open to the public as a museum ever since.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Ivy Green, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #70000101.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-317, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/al0093 (accessed November 7, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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John and Archibald Christian House
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; John and Archibald Christian House; Tennessee Valley Country Club; Robert Lindsay; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
The John and Archibald Christian House in Tuscumbia was built during the 1830s as a residence for two brothers from Virgina, who, like many natives of the Piedmont region during the mid-19th-century, relocated to North Alabama. It is particularly significant for its role, during the Reconstruction era, as the home of Robert Lindsay, the only foreign-born governor of the state of Alabama.
The Christian house has been part of the Tennessee Valley Country Club since 1923, and the fifty-acre property surrounding the home has been converted into a nine-hole golf course. Photographers for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documented the house in 1934, and the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, John and Archibald Christian House, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #82002004.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-312, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/al0094.photos.001745p (accessed November 7, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Chambers-Robinson House
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Chambers Robinson House; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places
The Chambers-Robinson House at 910 Montgomery Avenue in Sheffield is a two-story, Queen-Anne-style frame house, built in 1890 as a residence for Judson G. Chambers and his wife Mary. In 1898, the couple sold the home to Charles and Dora Robinson, whose descendents occupied the house for the next 64 years. The two-story frame house has a steeply pitched hipped roof supported by decorative brackets and pierced by several dormers. Another notable exterior feature is the wraparound porch, complete with elaborate posts, brackets, and latticework. Inside, a grand Eastlake staircase leads to the second story from a first-floor entry hall.
The property was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Places in 1992, and added to the National Register of Historic Places the following year.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Chambers-Robinson House, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #93000419.
"Chambers-Robinson House," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chambers-Robinson_House (accessed November 7, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Clyde Carter House
Colbert County, Alabama; Ford City, Alabama; Clyde Carter House; Clyde Carter; Henry Ford; Wilson Dam; Rural Electrification Act; Agriculture; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places
Built between 1924 and 1930, the Clyde Carter House is a Spanish-Eclectic-style cottage located in what was (briefly) the Bernard Subdivision of Ford City. With its "fanciful," European-influenced design and stuccoed walls, the house stands out amongst the Bungalow-style dwellings which otherwise dominate its rural setting.
The Carter residence was the first, and only, home built for the proposed Bernard Subdivision, envisioned as a planned community for nitrate-plant workers and their families after Henry Ford announced his intention to buy Wilson Dam from the federal government and remake the agricultural Shoals into "a modern industrial landscape." When Ford's plans fell through, development of a planned community at Ford City was scrapped, and construction of the Spanish Eclectic cottage was abandoned until Clyde Carter purchased the property in 1930.
For a decade and a half, beginning in 1930, Carter and his family grew cotton and corn on the surrounding farmland, and the same two crops were still being farmed on the property as recently as 2004, when the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Clyde Carter House, Ford City, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #04000559.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Buzzard Roost
Colbert County, Alabama; Cherokee, Alabama; Buzzard Roost; Natchez Trace Parkway; Levi Colbert; Native American History; National Register of Historic Places
Buzzard Roost is a site along the Natchez Trace Parkway near Cherokee, where farmer, trader, and Chickasaw tribal spokesman Levi Colbert is thought to have lived and operated a "stand," or inn, for travelers during the early years of the 19th century. The site shares its name with Buzzard Roost Creek, which originates from a spring below the spot where Colbert's home is thought to have stood.
The picturesque Buzzard Roost interpretive site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Buzzard Roost, Cherokee, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #76000157.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Belmont / Belle Mont
Colbert County, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Belmont; Belle Mont; Thomas Jefferson; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
A rare Southern example of architectural "Jeffersonian Classicism," the Belmont plantation house was completed in 1835 as a residence for Isaac Winston, a successful and wealthy planter who would, in his sixties, volunteer for service in the Confederate army. Together with the Brandon, Battersea, and Randolph-Semple manions of Winston's native Virginia, and other regional examples like Saunders Hall in Lawrence County, Belmont demonstrates the scope and extent of Thomas Jefferson's influence on early-to-mid-19th-century domestic architecture.
During the 1930s, the Historic American Buildings Survey documented the Belmont complex in a series of photographs and measured drawings, and the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Belmont, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #82002003.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-388, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al0081 (accessed November 7, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Barton Hall / Cunningham Plantation
Colbert County, Alabama; Cherokee, Alabama; Barton Hall; Cunningham Plantation; National Register of Historic Places; Historic American Buildings Survey
Barton Hall, or Cunningham Plantation, is a two-story, Greek-Revival-style, wood-frame house near Cherokee in Colbert County. Its construction was initiated during the 1840s by Armstead Barton, whose father, Dr. Hugh Barton, had left Virginia during the late 18th century and settled with his young family in East Tennessee. At the time of its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, in 1969, it was owned by Taylor Bodkin, a descendant of the Barton family.
The home's most distinctive feature is its stairwell, which "ascends in a series of double flights and bridge-like landings to an observatory on the rooftop that offers views of the plantation." The staircase was documented, along with other interior and exterior features, by the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) during the 1930s, and Barton Hall was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Barton Hall, Cherokee, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #73000337.
Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS AL-337, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/al0075.photos.001619p (accessed November 7, 2015).
"Barton Hall (Alabama)," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barton_Hall_(Alabama) (accessed November 7, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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Stevenson Railroad Depot and Hotel
Jackson County, Stevenson, Transportation, Railroads, Civil War, National Register of Historic Places
Stevenson's importance as the junction of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and the Memphis and Charleston Railroad predates the Civil War. The town and its railroad junction were of strategic importance during the war for both sides. Stevenson was occupied by the Union army for much of the war and was a particularly vital location in the Chickamauga campaign. The original depot building was destroyed by fire during or shortly after the Civil War. The depot and hotel structures that stand today are indicative of many similar structures that were built in Appalachia in the late 19th century. The hotel and depot were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Blake Wilhelm
Secrist, Philip L.. "Stevenson Historic District." <em>National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination Form</em>. Southern Tech, Marietta, GA, September 13, 1978.<br /><br />West, Carroll Van. "Stevenson Depot and Hotel." <em>Encyclopedia of Appalachia</em>. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2006.
Northeast Alabama Community College Archives and Special Collections
circa 1872-present
photo by Jimmy Emerson
text and photograph
Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens
Historic Homes; Birmingham, AL; Jefferson County, AL; Greek Revival Style; National Register of Historic Places; Hall, Stephen; Mudd, William S.; Mudd, Florence Earle; Wilson, Gen. James H.; Debardeleben, Henry F.; Munger, Robert S.; Montgomery, Ruby; Montgomery, Alex; Lee, Gen. Robert E.; Moore, Gov. Andrew Barry; Bibb, Gov. Thomas; Belle Mina
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2417
Taylor McGaughy
Image Sources: Satterfield, Carolyn Green, "Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens," Encyclopedia of Alabama, http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-6678
Satterfield, Carolyn Green, "Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens," Encyclopedia of Alabama, http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/m-6682
Text Sources: Satterfield, Carolyn Green, "Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens," Encyclopedia of Alabama, http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2417
Satterfield, Carolyn Green. Historic Sites of Jefferson County, Alabama (Birmingham, Ala.: Jefferson County Historical Commission, 1976). 46-49.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2015-7-23
Carolyn Green Satterfield
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Goode-Hall House
Historic Houses; Town Creek, AL; Lawrence County, AL
The Goode-Hall House is located in Town Creek Alabama. After several tours of Lawrence County, the home is constructed in 1824 by Reverend Turner Saunders. Saunders had been a Methodist minister and planter from Brunswick County, Virginia. Saunders had sold the home in 1844 to Freeman Goode. The Hall family acquires the home at a later time.
The Goode-Hall House is an excellent example of Classic Revival with late Georgian trim and detail. It resembles Belle Mina and the State Bank in Decatur except for the Federal double chimney gable parapet walls on the side. The Government Land Office has purchased the land in 1820.
Dylan Tucker, University of North Alabama
"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Accessed March 27, 2015.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
1820s
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George W. Andrews Federal Building
Lee County, AL; Opelika, AL; Government; National Register of Historic Places
Keith S. Hebert
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2015-4-28
Keith S. Hebert
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Franklin Yarborough, Jr. Store
Lee County, AL; Beulah, AL; National Register of Historic Places; Commerce
Franklin Yarborough, Jr. Store was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 1989.
Keith S. Hebert
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2015-4-28
Keith S. Hebert
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Lowther House Complex
Lee County, AL; Smiths Station, AL; National Register of Historic Places
The Lowther House Complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 16, 1993. The Lowther House Complex is located in Smiths Station, Lee County.
Keith S. Hebert
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2015-4-28
Keith S. Hebert, Rivers A. Langley, Photographer
Rivers A. Langley, Photographer
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Jenkins Farm House
Lee County, AL; Dupree. AL; Agriculture; National Register of Historic Places
The Jenkins Farm House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 15, 2008. The house is located in Dupree, Lee County, Alabama.
Keith S. Hebert
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2015-4-28
Keith S. Hebert, Rivers A. Langley, Photographer
Rivers A. Langley, Photographer
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Auburn Masonic Female College
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn Masonic Female College; Auburn, AL; Freemasons; Scott, Nathaniel; Antebellum Era; Auburn Bank; Masons; Yancey, William Lowndes; Stephens, Alexander; Hill, Benjamin Harvey; Toombs, Robert; Auburn University Archives and Special Collections; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College; Civil War; New South; William J. Samford Hall; Langdon, Charles; Langdon Hall; Historic American Buildings Survey; National Register of Historic Buildings; Secession
In the early 1850s, Colonel Nathaniel Scott petitioned Auburn’s local Masonic lodge (Auburn Lodge #76) to sponsor a female educational center in town. In 1853, Auburn Masonic Female College became the town’s first women’s educational institution. Colonel Scott served as president of the college’s board of directors. A spacious, two-story frame building located on the corner of North Gay Street and East Magnolia Avenue housed the female college. A plaque on a boulder a few yards west of Auburn Bank, 100 North Gay Street, Auburn, marks the original site of Auburn Masonic Female College. In its first year, the college enrolled 106 students, some of whom boarded. The Masons subsequently built a huge chapel adjacent to the school for the sum of $2,500. The chapel sat eight hundred people and was used by the female college for commencement ceremonies, plays, and concerts.
In 1860, the chapel hosted a famous secession debate involving prominent fire-eaters William Lowndes Yancey, Alexander Stephens, Benjamin Harvey Hill, and Robert Toombs. A plaque commemorating the debate now resides in Auburn University’s Archives and Special Collections on the bottom floor of Ralph Brown Draughon Library. Auburn Masonic Female College closed during the Civil War, and in 1883 Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College purchased the building and moved it to its present location next to William J. Samford Hall. In 1892, the college remodeled the building and named it after trustee Charles Langdon.
The college used Langdon Hall in many ways over the course of the next century, including classroom, theater, and student recreation center. Langdon Hall, which actually has no physical address, is located about a hundred feet north of William J. Samford Hall at 182 South College Street, Auburn University. The building is listed on the Historic American Buildings Survey and the National Register of Historic Places, and is the second oldest public building in Auburn.
Taylor McGaughy
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langdon_Hall
Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 48-49.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
2014-11-26
Taylor McGaughy
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