Glencairn (Greensboro, Alabama)

Last updated
John Erwin House
Glencairn House 002.jpg
Front facade of Glencairn in 2010, by Carol M. Highsmith
USA Alabama location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location705 Erwin Drive
Greensboro, Alabama
Coordinates 32°42′2″N87°35′45″W / 32.70056°N 87.59583°W / 32.70056; -87.59583 Coordinates: 32°42′2″N87°35′45″W / 32.70056°N 87.59583°W / 32.70056; -87.59583
Built1835
Architectural styleGreek Revival
NRHP reference No. 78000488 [1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 18, 1978

Glencairn, also known as the John Erwin House, is a historic house in Greensboro, Alabama, United States. The house and grounds were recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1935. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 18, 1978, due to its architectural and historical significance. [1]

Contents

History

Construction on Glencairn began in 1830 and was completed in 1837 by John Erwin. [1] Erwin was an influential attorney, slaveholder, and a Democratic politician. He was born on September 10, 1799, in Pendleton County, Virginia and had relocated to Alabama by 1821. He married Eliza Margaret Chadwick on October 5, 1822. [2] He was elected as Greene County's [n 1] representative in the Alabama Senate in 1831 and was chosen as president pro tempore the next year. He went on to also serve in the lower house in 1836, 1837, and 1842. He was a Congressional candidate in 1845 and 1851, but was defeated in both instances. [2] Erwin owned 169 slaves in 1860 and was a leader in the secession movement that led to the formation of the Confederate States of America. [3] He was heavily involved in the 1852 and 1860 Democratic National Conventions. [3] He died at Glencairn on December 10, 1860, and was interred in Greensboro Cemetery. His son, George Erwin, inherited Glencairn and owned it until his death in 1916. It then passed to George's son, Cadwallader Erwin, until his death in 1955. [2] The home remained in the hands of John Erwin's ancestors, being occupied after Cadwallader Erwin by his daughter, Ida Vernon Mahood and her husband Danner Lee Mahood, until the former's passing in 1987. The house then passed to daughter Katherine Rugg and husband Samuel Rugg before going to daughter Audrey McCulloh in 2015. After her death in August of that year, the house passed to her widower Mark McCulloh, who resides there now and is overseeing renovations to the interior.

Architecture

The two-story Greek Revival structure is frame construction. Some insist the style of the architecture is actually Georgian, a rarity among antebellum homes in the South. In any case, "Glencairn" features a five-bay main facade with a two-tiered portico over the central bay. The portico is supported by four Doric columns on each level, with Doric pilasters and elaborate wooden panels ornamenting the wall surface. The doorways on both levels are recessed and are surrounded by sidelights and a transom. A plain pediment crowns the portico. The exterior corners of the house have paneled pilasters, reaching up to a plain entablature above the second floor. The roof is hipped. [1]

Notes

  1. Greensboro was located in Greene County at this time, Hale County was formed from the eastern half of Greene in 1867.

Related Research Articles

Hale County, Alabama County in Alabama, United States

Hale County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,785. Its county seat is Greensboro. It is named in honor of Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale.

Greensboro, Alabama City in Alabama, United States

Greensboro is a city in Hale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 2,497, down from 2,731 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Hale County, Alabama, which was not organized until 1867. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Howell Cobb American politician

Howell Cobb was an American political figure and later a Confederate one. A southern Democrat, Cobb was a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives and the speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as the 40th governor of Georgia (1851–1853) and as a secretary of the treasury under President James Buchanan (1857–1860).

Alabama State Capitol State capitol building of the U.S. state of Alabama

The Alabama State Capitol, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. Located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery, it was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960. Unlike every other state capitol, the Alabama Legislature does not meet there, but at the Alabama State House. The Capitol has the governor's office and otherwise functions as a museum.

Thomas Seay

Thomas J. Seay was an American Democratic politician who was the 27th Governor of Alabama from 1886 to 1890.

Louisville Metro Hall United States historic place

The Louisville Metro Hall is the center of Louisville, Kentucky's government. It currently houses the Mayor's Office and the Jefferson County Clerk's Office for marriage licensing, delinquent tax filings, and the deeds room. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Construction began in 1837, and both the City of Louisville and Jefferson County governments starting using it in 1842.

Gaineswood United States historic place

Gaineswood is a plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama, United States. It is the grandest plantation house ever built in Marengo County and is one of the most significant remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama.

Cullen A. Battle

Cullen Andrews Battle was an American attorney, farmer, and politician. He was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He fought Congressional Reconstruction after the war in Alabama then North Carolina.

Pitts Folly United States historic place

Pitts' Folly is a historic antebellum Greek Revival residence located in Uniontown, Alabama. The house was built by Philip Henry Pitts as his main house. It was designed by architect B. F. Parsons, who also designed the nearby Perry County Courthouse in Marion. Many local legends detail how the house gained its name, but they all center on the people of Uniontown believing it to be folly, or foolishness, that Pitts was building such a large house.

First White House of the Confederacy United States historic place

The White House of the Confederacy was the executive residence of President Jefferson Davis and family while the capital of the Confederate States of America was in Montgomery, Alabama. Completely furnished with original period pieces from the 1850s and 1860s, the 1835 Italianate-style house is open to the public. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974 and the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage since 2012.

Rosemount (Forkland, Alabama) United States historic place

Rosemount is a historic plantation house near Forkland, Alabama. The Greek Revival style house was built in stages between 1832 and the 1850s by the Glover family. The house has been called the "Grand Mansion of Alabama." The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 27, 1971. The Glover family enslaved over 300 people from 1830 until 1860.

Magnolia Grove (Greensboro, Alabama) United States historic place

Magnolia Grove is a historic Greek Revival mansion in Greensboro, Alabama. The house was named for the 15-acre (6.1 ha) grove of Southern magnolias in which it stands. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 1973, due to its architectural and historical significance. It now serves as a historic house museum and is operated by the Alabama Historical Commission.

Alfred Hatch Place at Arcola United States historic place

The Alfred Hatch Place at Arcola, also known as the Arcola Plantation and locally as the Half-house, is a historic plantation house and historic district on the Black Warrior River several miles northwest of Gallion, Alabama.

William Perkins House United States historic place

The William Perkins House, now known as the Freemount, is a historic Greek Revival style house in Eutaw, Alabama, United States. The house is a two-story wood-framed building on a raised brick foundation. Four monumental Ionic columns span the front portico. It was built in 1850 by William Perkins on the Eutaw Town Square. According to the 1850 U. S. Federal Census Slave Schedule, William Perkins' household in Greene County included eleven enslaved people, four women and seven men. Their ages ranged from 2-45 years old, and Mr. Perkins is listed as the slave owner. The house was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1934. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a part of the Antebellum Homes in Eutaw Thematic Resource on April 2, 1982, due to its architectural significance. It is also listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Catlin Wilson House United States historic place

The Catlin Wilson House, also known as the Murphy Dunlap House, is a historic Greek Revival style house in Eutaw, Alabama, United States. The one-story wood-framed building was built in 1844. A pedimented front portico with four Doric columns covers the three central bays of the front facade. The house was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1936. It was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on November 5, 1976. It was subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places as a part of the Antebellum Homes in Eutaw Thematic Resource on April 2, 1982, due to its architectural significance.

Stone Plantation United States historic place

The Stone Plantation, also known as the Young Plantation and the Barton Warren Stone House, is a historic Greek Revival-style plantation house and one surviving outbuilding along the Old Selma Road on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on September 28, 2000, and to the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 2001.

Woodlands (Gosport, Alabama) United States historic place

Woodlands, also known as the Frederick Blount Plantation, is a historic plantation house in Gosport, Alabama. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1980, due to its architectural significance.

Dr. John R. Drish House United States historic place

The Dr. John R. Drish House, also known simply as the Drish House, is a historic plantation house in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. It is considered by state preservationists to be one of the most distinctive mixes of the Greek Revival and Italianate styles in Alabama. First recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1934, it was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on July 31, 1975, and subsequently to the state's "Places in Peril" listing in 2006. It was listed as Jemison School-Drish House on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

Johnsons Woods United States historic place

Johnson's Woods is a historic plantation house in Tuscumbia, Alabama. The house was built in 1837 on land purchased by George W. Carroll in 1828. A settler from Maryland, Carroll became the county's wealthiest planter by 1850. Between 1855 and 1860, he moved to Arkansas, selling his plantation to William Mhoon. Upon Mhoon's death in 1869, the plantation passed to William A. Johnson, a former Tennessee River steamboat operator and Confederate Army soldier. In addition to farming, Johnson also revived his steamboat business, traded cotton in Memphis, and opened a mercantile business in Tuscumbia. After his death in 1891 and his wife's in 1905, the land passed to his son, John W. Johnson.

Kilby House United States historic place

Kilby House, at 1301 Woodstock Ave. in Anniston, Alabama, was built in 1914. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 Owen, Thomas McAdory; Owen, Marie Bankhead (1921). History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company. p.  547. OCLC   1872130.
  3. 1 2 Hubbs, G. Ward (2003). Guarding Greensboro: A Confederate Company in the Making of a Southern Community. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. pp. 44–46, 88–89, 252. ISBN   0-8203-2505-8.