Title
Cedarwood House, Hale County, 2009
Subject
Houses and Homes
Description
The Cedarwood House was built in 1818 by Joseph Blodgett Stickney. This house represents a typical Alabama house of the early nineteenth century with steeply pitched gable roof additions and flanking vernacular Greek Revival wings of New England origins. Stickney, who came from Boston, purchased the property in 1817 from General Desonette Le Gabre and farmed it until his death in 1846. The house is in deteriorated condition and is expected to be moved to a new location and restored by Edward P. Whatley, Jr., a descendant of Stickney.
Whatley told Tuscaloosa News reporter Tommy Stevenson in 2009, “Not only is this house one of the last of its kind, it is also the oldest house in Alabama to still be in the family of the original builder.” Whatley’s great-great-great-grandfather, one of the first plantation owners in the Black Belt, built the first part of the house in 1818. He had thirteen children, and Whatley said you could almost match the additions to the house to the additions in the family. Bob Gamble, of the Alabama Historical Commission, said the oldest documented house in Alabama dates back to 1814 and is located in Huntsville, near where the first settlers came down the Tennessee River on flatboats. “There are a handful of other brick houses in Huntsville that were built around 1818, but the oldest house in Tuscaloosa is from 1823. So Cedarwood is remarkable not only for its age, but for the part of the state it is in.”
Whatley told Tuscaloosa News reporter Tommy Stevenson in 2009, “Not only is this house one of the last of its kind, it is also the oldest house in Alabama to still be in the family of the original builder.” Whatley’s great-great-great-grandfather, one of the first plantation owners in the Black Belt, built the first part of the house in 1818. He had thirteen children, and Whatley said you could almost match the additions to the house to the additions in the family. Bob Gamble, of the Alabama Historical Commission, said the oldest documented house in Alabama dates back to 1814 and is located in Huntsville, near where the first settlers came down the Tennessee River on flatboats. “There are a handful of other brick houses in Huntsville that were built around 1818, but the oldest house in Tuscaloosa is from 1823. So Cedarwood is remarkable not only for its age, but for the part of the state it is in.”
Creator
Tommy Stevenson
Source
Tuscaloosa News
Publisher
The Tuscaloosa News
Date
November 1, 2009
Contributor
Betty Slowe (Description)
Type
Photograph
Identifier
2554
Coverage
Hale County (AL)
Original Format
Photograph