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 dabbled in real estate development and other ventures. In 1920 he built his huge Mediterranean Style mansion on South Perry. About 1925 he formed the Whitfield Pickle Company as a project for his son, and about the same time he started an enormous housing development near Sarasota as his participation in the now infamous Florida Land Boom, leaving his offspring behind in Montgomery to run things there. The Florida development crashed in 1927, but not before so many unique, upscale homes had been constructed, that his “Whitfield Estates” in Sarasota is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today you can pull up numerous pics on the web of homes in Whitfield’s subdivision there, many of which reflect his Lockwood-designed home on Perry Street in Montgomery.

I’ve long wondered what influenced L B Whitfield Jr to make this bold architectural statement on Allendale.  Now I believe it was his exposure to the vast array of contemporary design in his father’s development in Florida  that shaped his taste.  That, and his urge to stand up to daddy. That’s my take on all that, anyway. I have added this house to my very short list of significant Early Modern residential architecture in Montgomery.

-Charles Humphries