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 the balcony of the old Exchange Hotel on Court Square, he introduced Jefferson Davis to the crowd after the latter had arrived to assume the presidency of the Confederacy. Subsequently, Yancey served as the Confederacy’s Commissioner to England and France. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973, but because of commercial alterations made later in that decade, the designation was withdrawn in 1986. Yet, the building remains on the National Register of Historic Places. The building interior has recently been remodeled. 

-Charles Humphries