historic registry


The home of John J Dowe and his progeny for a hundred years or more. It is noteworthy, not for what it is, but for what it once was. I had been told that this house was formerly a Victorian adorned Italianate design, which featured “Gorgas Home” curved steps leading […]

Dowe House





Yancey Law Office
located at the corner of Washington and Perry Streets, directly across from the old Courthouse. From here the firebrand, William Lowndes Yancey, trumpeted for States Rights, and became the South’s leading advocate for secession. Lincoln credited Yancey with starting the Civil War. Yancey wrote Alabama’s Ordinance of Secession. Standing on […]

Yancey Law Office















Bell Building
…has towered over Montgomery Street for 100 years now. Newton Bell, whose dream it was, died during the construction, but his son, N J Bell Jr, saw it to completion, and his son N J III managed the property until the late 1960s. The building was actually U-shaped, having had […]

Bell Building