High up in the once elegant Cottage Hill District, at 544 Martha Street, stands the Dowe Cottage . . . the 1866 home of Irish immigrants Mike and Mary Dowe. The house was built soon after the Civil War, as part of a neighborhood trend away from grand mansions of the rich planters, toward merchants and artisans. Some Historians say Martha Street started as an alley to provide rear access to the bigĀ antebellum homes facing Clayton Street. And even today, Martha Street has this close-knit, Cinderella flavor, every house close to the street and to one another, every yard neat and well kept. What you see here is the second floor, which contains all the principal rooms, and what would normally be up-stair spaces are on the lower level, down the slope and out of view.
-Charles Humphries