Exploring Montgomery

The storytelling continues… a collection of stories and photos from Exploring Montgomery!

Residential

Yost Res — For almost a half century this imposing house at 3191 Thomas Avenue was the Yost Residence. Back 70 years ago the property was so big it took two yardmen to keep it up (of course you didn’t have blow & go machines then). Mr Walter Yost was in the lumber […]

Yost Residence

March 24, 2017 in Residential tagged dragon / playhouse / yost

Eagles Nest — Back 60 to 70 years ago this house at 3541 Thomas Avenue was the Eagle’s Nest, but today its picture is interesting because of the arbor formed by the trees lining the short entrance drive. It makes you feel like you are entering a special place. But back 60+ years […]

Eagle’s Nest

March 17, 2017 in Residential tagged aronov / eagle / nest

Thigpen House — The very impressive Thigpen House. . . at 1412 South Perry, situated at the head of Clanton Avenue. This was probably built around the turn of the previous century and seems to be a blend of Greek Revival and Italianate. The Thigpen Family lived here for neigh onto a half-century, […]

Thigpen House

March 6, 2017 in Residential tagged greek revival / italianate / thigpen

Louis Whitfield House — Louis B Whitfield Jr’s modern style residence at 2080 Allendale Road was built circa 1930, about the time the road was opened. As a young man, Junior faced the daunting task of following in his father’s footsteps. The Senior Whitfield had started the ALAGA Syrup Company in 1906, and subsequently […]

Louis B Whitfield Jr. House

February 20, 2017 in Residential tagged louis / whitfield

Doctor Blue House — The Doctors Blue House . . . That’s what I named it, because Dr John H Blue and Dr George Blue both lived here in the early part of the 1900s, descendants of the Henry Blue family, subjects of Ms Neeley’s recent publication, “The Works of Matthew Blue”. I could […]

Doctors Blue House

February 17, 2017 in Residential tagged blair / blue / colonial georgian / doctor / patterson

Officers Quarters — This is a 3-star general’s housing in the Senior Officer’s Quarters Section at Maxwell. It represents one of several designs that were employed when some 100 such units were built at the Base in the early 1930s, funded during the Depression as one of many such appropriations FDR used in […]

Senior Officer’s Quarters

February 10, 2017 in Places and Things / Residential tagged french provincial / maxwell / officer / quarters

Goldwater Sweep — This Frank Lockwood design at 3230 Thomas Avenue was built ca 1930 by Alphonse Levy, who was founder and president of the highly regarded Al Levy’s, a ladies apparel store on Montgomery Street downtown. The house is a good example of Lockwood’s penchant for “drunken brickwork”, and lends veracity to […]

Goldwater Sweep

February 6, 2017 in Residential tagged goldwater / lockwood / sweep

Samuel Schloss House — at 3233 Thomas Avenue was built circa 1938 by Sam Schloss Sr and his wife Amelia. Sam so admired the house across the street (built about 8 years previously) that he hired Frank Lockwood (who had designed the other house) to draw up its mirror image for him. This is […]

Samuel Schloss House

February 3, 2017 in Residential tagged kahn / lockwood / samuel / schloss

Lewis House — This house has been cited as one of Montgomery’s finest examples of the California Bungalow/ Craftsman Style residence. Sadly, the present owners are allowing the lines and details to be obscured by vegetation. Nonetheless, behind the distinctive triple gable, the house boasts 11-foot ceilings, a basement, decorative rafter ends, and […]

Lewis House

January 30, 2017 in Residential tagged bungalow / lewis

Prado — Oh, this is so sad . . . the last vestige of The Prado. You are looking at what has to be two of the four survivors of some forty (?) buildings that made up the grand apartment complex that so proudly stood on the SW corner of Fairview and […]

The Prado

January 27, 2017 in Commercial / Residential tagged apartments / prado

GWTN Mansion — I just knew this impressive GWTW Mansion at 3245 Thomas Avenue had a story to tell, but I just couldn’t find it. I knew it was the home of RR Equip mogul Royce Kershaw in 1946, and five years later it was the dwelling of William Thames, founder of Thames […]

GWTN Mansion

January 23, 2017 in Residential tagged gayle / gwtn / mansion

Algernon Blair House — Blair built it in 1904 for his wife Carolyne. She and their three children had just left Macon GA to join him in Montgomery where Blair had found success as a building contractor. But Carolyne died the very next year, and while Algernon remarried a few years later (into the […]

Algernon Blair House

January 20, 2017 in Residential tagged algernon / blair / builder

Brantwood — It is the first thing past Oakwood Cemetery, sitting on a hill so high it looks down on the cemetery. The home was established in 1917 by the Federation of Women’s Clubs, but for its first 40-odd years it was known as the Children’s Protective Home. The Home’s current quarters […]

Brantwood Children’s Home

January 13, 2017 in Education / Residential tagged brantwood / children

Belvoir Mansion — at 3250 Thomas Avenue, was built in the mid-1920s, when Thomas was little more than a country lane. The large estate is surrounded by an intimidating wall, and the structure appears to be a blending of Washington’s neo-classical Georgian Mount Vernon, and Thomas Jefferson’s penchant for Palladian style. In French, […]

Belvoir Mansion

January 9, 2017 in Residential tagged belvoir / mansion / palladian

Upchurch Residence — AKA Monticello lives on, at 2233 Woodley Road was built by Ken Upchurch Sr to fulfill a lifelong ambition. Ken founded Upchurch Construction Co in 1930, a venture that still exists today, carried on by Ken Jr, and now Ken III. Ken Sr spent 30 years planning and dreaming about […]

Upchurch Residence

January 6, 2017 in Residential tagged monticello / uphchurch

Hillcrest — the one-time home of the Montgomery Federation of Garden Clubs. The Federation purchased the former residence of Judge William Hill in the late 1960s, and for at least 35 years it used the facility to stage weddings, receptions, luncheons, teas and meetings. Garden parties amidst the lush landscaping were a […]

Hillcrest

December 23, 2016 in Residential tagged bed and breakfast / club / garden / hillcrest

Falconer — was built ca 1845, but was moved from its original location at the SW corner of Perry & Alabama, to make way for a parking lot (it now sits directly behind Knox Hall). Much of the structure was lost in the move. Falconer had little to do with the house; […]

Falconer House

November 21, 2016 in Residential tagged falconer

Moulton House — built in 1858 by Jefferson Jackson to be his home, but it later served as the “Working Woman’s Home” for over 100 years. It stood on the SE corner of Adams and Union Streets, on the site now occupied by the new RSA Headquarters. In 1881 the house was purchased […]

Moulton House

November 18, 2016 in Residential tagged home / moulton / womans

3354 Bankhead — This day and time you don’t often find homes which have been in one family for 50 years or more. Our society has grown too mobile. Back when I was a lad, the family unit was the glue, and those that could built or bought a place large enough to […]

Shan Sellers Home

October 28, 2016 in Residential tagged bankhead / sellers / shan

Grover Keyton — This cottage in Old Cloverdale was built circa 1917 and is hailed as the first house built on that street. This part of Park Avenue runs right behind the huge First Methodist enclave, and since this pattern book cottage preceded the church at this location by a decade, it can […]

Grover Keyton Home

October 21, 2016 in Residential tagged grover / keyton

Ware Farley Hood — was located on South Hull Street, a little South of Adams, when planter James Ware built it ca 1855. Ware had it designed in Italianate Style. After his death the structure served as a girls school. Sheriff Horace Hood owned it next, and his wife turned it into a Southern […]

Ware-Farley-Hood House

July 11, 2016 in Residential tagged farley / hood / italianate / ware

Flintstone House — at 3126 Jasmine Road, was built in the early 1960s by William J. “Bill” Brennan, one of the owners of The Big Bam, Montgomery’s renowned 50,000-watt radio station. The Brennan Brothers were radio broadcast innovators of the 1950s and 60s, when they owned and operated powerhouse stations in Jacksonville, Chattanooga, […]

Flintstone House

June 24, 2016 in Residential tagged flintstone

Lucas Tavern — Relocated to and restored on this corner in Old Alabama Town in 1980. It’s original location was East Montgomery County, near Waugh, where it had been built in 1818 as a wayside hotel and tavern. Supposedly it hosted the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825. In 1845 the structure became a […]

Lucas Tavern

June 10, 2016 in Residential tagged lucas / oldest / tavern

Jackson House — … at 409 South Union Street, said to be “simple but stylish”, was built in 1853 by Jefferson Jackson, the same man who built Moulton House. Jackson was US Attorney for both the Middle and Northern Districts of Alabama. He was a reluctant secessionist who died in 1862, but his widow […]

Jackson House

April 29, 2016 in Residential tagged community / historic registry / jackson

harris dawson — Casual passers-by would never look twice at this fading old house at 144 Clanton Avenue, and yet for 50+ years (starting before 1920) it was the immaculately kept home of one of the most remarkable men that ever lived in Montgomery. His name was Dr. Harris P Dawson and I was […]

Dr. Harris P Dawson Home

April 25, 2016 in Residential tagged dawson / doctor / harris

Cassimus House — at 110 North Jackson Street was built in 1893 and is on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It was erected by Speridon Cassimus, the younger of two Greek brothers who, with their dad, moved to Montgomery ca 1878, the first Greek immigrants to settle here. The family […]

Cassimus House

April 11, 2016 in Residential tagged cassimus / greek / historic registry / house / victorian

…out along Chantilly Parkway, from wince the parkway took its name, built circa 1835. When speeding down the parkway, you can still see the old house if you know the exact instant to look. During the latter part of the previous century, the structure was often rented out as a […]

Chantilly Plantation House

March 28, 2016 in Residential tagged chantilly / house