…the one with the unique built-in Gazebo, stands on Goldthwaite Street at the foot of Martha, another of those grand old homes that made up the once proud Cottage Hill District. I’m told that the structure dates to 1895, and that Walker was from Tuskegee (where his great uncle, Gen Thomas Woodward, was one of the founders). Walker was a planter, elected to the Alabama Senate, then appointed U S Marshall for the middle and southern districts of Alabama by President Benjamin Harrison. The latter post precipitated his move to Montgomery. Today the poor building stands in the shadow of the huge decaying hulk of the Hilltop Arms Apartment Building (visible on the left edge of the picture). For a few months of 1952, I worked in a ground floor office of the Hilltop Arms. I understand that a once-young man of much zeal has tried vainly to restore the old Walker house to former glory, but he appears to be in a losing fight.

-Charles Humphries