New Josiah Haigler Plantation House, County Highway 37 North of U.S. Highway 80, Burkville

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS ALA,43-BURK.V,3B-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The New Haigler House is significant for its association with the Haigler plantation, its commissary, and the role its residents played in the tenant management of the plantation lands during Reconstruction. PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION A. Physical History: 1. Date(s) of erection: Late century. 2. Architect: Not known. 3. Original and subsequent owners: See HABS Form for the Josiah Haigler Plantation House, 4. Builder, contractor, suppliers: Not known. 5. Original plans and construction: None located. 6. Alterations and additions: The house has several alterations and additions.

The front porch columns have been changed and two of the interior walls have been removed to form one long room across the east side of the house and a door added to separate the remaining rear portion of the central hallway, the ceiling lowered over this hallway, and the southwest room reworked for a kitchen. A shed addition was added across the rear (west) side of the house. B. Historical Context: See HABS Form for the Josiah Haigler Plantation House. NEW HAIGLER HOUSE HABS No.AL-884- Page 2) PART II. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION A. General Statement: 1. Architectural character: The New Haigler house is a late century structure distinguished by its original full Georgian center hall plan and tall hip roof. 2.

Condition of fabric: The overall condition of the original portion of the house is fair, while that of the rear addition ranges from poor to dilapidated. B. Description of Exterior: 1. Over-all dimensionsi The house is wide by deep. 2. Foundations: Low brick piers support hand hewn timber sills. The east-west floor joists under the center hall consist of hand hewn timbers, while the north-south floor joists under the original four rooms consist of unfinished logs with a sawn upper side that are notched at each end. 3. Walls: The original section of the house has clap- board siding with an average exposure of Cornerboards are (front and rear) by 1" (sides). 4. Structural system, framing: The existing wall structure was not visible anywhere.

It is most likely the typical pos t and beam construction with diagonal corner bracing. 5. Porches, stoops, balconies, bulkheads: The front porch is 16' - wide by deep and is centered on the east elevation. It has a tongue- and-groove board floor and has a semi-hip roof with stamped metal shingles that is supported by diameter iron pipe columns. The ceiling consists of wood planks and the roof rafters, where visible, are beaded. The rear porch is an open area between two rooms in the west (rear) shed roofed addition. It is IS'-IO" wide by deep and is off center. It shares a common sheet metal sheathed shed roof with the flanking rooms and the three enclosing walls have ship-lap siding. The floor and ceiling consist of tongue-and-groove boards. 6.

Chimneys: Double fireplaces are found between the north and south room pairs. The chimneys are brick NEW HAIGLBR HOUSE HABS NoAL-884-A (Page 3) flfe with corbeled caps (the south chimney is missing its ^ corbelling and is near collapse) that penetrate the roof to either side of the ridge of the hipped roof, roughly in line with the ridge. 7. Openings: a. Doorways and doors: The main (east) entry consists of double doors over which is a three light transom (originally four lights). The doorway is flanked by sidelights consisting of three lights that are the full height of the door and transom. This entrance has been reworked and the existing double doors, consisting of five horizontal panels (the upper two of which are glass), are not original. b.

Windows and shutters: The original windows are 6-over-9 light double-hung s as h with the except ion of the two windows in the former southeast room (now 6-over-6 light) and the smaller window openings of the rear addition rooms that no longer contain sash. 8. Roof: ^k a. Shape, covering: The roof over the main body of the house is a tall hip with stamped metal shingles. Over the front porch is a semi-hip roof with stamped metal shingles, while the rear addition has a shed roof with sheet metal roofing. b. Cornice, eaves: A continuous projecting box eave is found on the south, east, and north of the main body of the house. This eave has a continuous fascia board below it at the top of the wall and consist of a cornice constructed of two fascia boards and a crown moulding. C.

Description of Interior: 1. Floor plans: a. First floor: The original floor plan was that of a central hall design with a pair of rooms to each side. This has been altered to form one large room across the front (east) of the house. The rear addition consists of two rooms, one to each side of an open center porch. 9 b. Second floor: None NEW HAIGLER HOUSE HABS No. AL-884-A(Page 4) 2. Stairways: None 3. Flooring: The original flooring, based on one surviving area in the southeast room to the north of the fireplace, consisted of 11" wide wood planks. Current flooring consists of tongue-and- groove wood. Linoleum covers the floor in the southwest room. 4. Wall and ceiling finish: The large east room is finished with 4* x 8 sheets of fiber board, the joints of which are covered by battens.

The rear (west) portion of the center hall has plank walls varying from to and has a lowered plywood ceiling with a spray-on rough texture that conceals the earlier tongue-and-groove board ceiling. This hall is now separated from the east room by a wood panel partition and doorway. The southwest room has wide wood plank walls (average on the south and west walls and tongue-and-groove wood on the north and east walls. The northwest room has wide plank walls on the north and west walls, beaded tongue-and- groove wood on the east wall, and 3 tongue-and- groove wood on the south wall. The nor th room of the rear add i t ion has an unfinished interior, while the south (bath) room has plank walls. 5. Openings: a. Doorways and doors: The leafs of the front double door are x V-l-l/A* each.

The rear double door leafs are x and are now nailed together. Doors to the southwest and northwest rooms consist of vertical planks and are x b. Windows: The windows in the original portion of the house are x and are of 6- over-9 or 6-over-6 light design. 6. Decorative features and trim: The four mantles in the house are of a simple wood plank design. A picture rail exists in the northeast and southeast portions of the east room. 7. Hardware: All doors have basic flat metal hinges. One pair of porcelain door knobs exists, as do several simple lock boxes. NEW HAIGLER HOUSE HABS NoAL-884-A(page 5) Mechanical equipment: a. Heating, air conditioning, ventilation; No contemporary system exists in the house. The four fireplaces have been closed. Pipes for gas heaters exist. b.

Lighting; Basic junction boxes for ceiling lights and wall plugs have been installed. c. Plumbing: Bath and kitchen facilities have been installed in the southwest room. D. Site: 1. General setting and orientation: The New Haigler House is oriented east towards the county highway. It is located immediately to the nor th of the Haigler Commissary and has an informal drive up a slight rise to the front of the house. 2. Historic landscape design: No evidence exists of any significant historic landscape design. 3. Outbuildings: The Haigler Commissary is immediately to the south. PART III. SOURCES OF INFORMATION See HABS Form for the Josiah Haigler Plantation House.

Prepared by: Michael Emrick, Historical Arch- itect, and Philip Thomason, Archi- tectural Historian The Ehrenkrantz Group/Building Con- servation Technology, Inc. August - September PART IV. PROJECT INFORMATION This recording project was conducted by The Ehrenkrantz Group/ Building Conservation Technology, Inc., of Nashville, Tennessee under contract from Environmental Research and Technology, Inc. for General Electric - Montgomery Project, Burkville, Alabama. Project personnel included Michael Emrick, Project Architect (pro- ject coordination, architectural data) *, James Thompson, Architect (measured drawings and sketch plans); Philip Thomason, project historian? and Barry Starkey, photographer.

Agency involvement included the Mobile District of the U.S, Army Corps of Engineers and the Southeast Regional Office of the National Park Service. WES NO.AT.r-884-A (Paae 6) 1 11* ik<-4" -?L J /9 i f * Jk. Ji i*1-^" n-ion ?^ M W M/^i^sr Pat^e