The Robinson family, their relatives and intimate associates have bequeathed Huntsville an enduring legacy of buildings beyond the Robinson house, familiarly known as Quietdale, that enhances the city s built environment and provides a living connection with the city s beginnings and early settlement patterns. The National Register nomination by Robert Gamble states: Quietdale is a lucid example of the mid-nineteenth century shift in American architecture from an unalloyed neo-classicism to the freer forms of romantic eclecticism. Its design combines elements from both schools, retaining the basic form and proportions of neo-classicism while incorporating details which express the newer trend in architectural fashion.
Thus, superimposed upon a symmetrical five-bay fa ade the chief motif of which is a restrained entablature is an ornate wooden porch composed of a series of shallow Tudoresque arches that carry eaves bracketed in the Italianate fashion. The same pattern is repeated in the architrave framing the inset doorway, as well as in a secondary porch extending along the west side of the house .Quietdale is significant as one of the earliest expressions of this impulse anywhere in the Huntsville area. Moreover, it is one of the few suburban mid-nineteenth century mansions to have survived the city s later expansion. Description: Site: Quietdale, the antebellum country house of a wealthy cotton planter, sits on 6.2 acres on the north side of Quietdale Drive and the east side of Christian Lane.
To the east is a residential subdivision and on the west side of Christian Lane is an active line of the Norfolk Southern Railroad. When constructed, the house was on 55 acres that extended west to Meridian Street. The yard is predominantly flat and landscaped with mature shrubbery and trees. The house is sited to the southwest, slightly off center of the lot, and faces south. Directly to the north of the house, and slightly east, is the two-story kitchen/slave quarters attached by a new brick patio to the main house. The residence appears to be in sound structural condition. The former slave quarters exhibited significant rot and water damage, and renovation of it had begun in but QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 2) is now stopped.
Two early twentieth century barns, both near collapse, occupy the far north end of the property. Main Dwelling, Exterior: Quietdale is a two-story, five-bay, late Greek Revival frame house embellished with two Italianate-influenced verandas and topped by a truncated hip roof. It retains the neoclassic rectangular profile but with a northwest ell that forms one side of a two-story, L-shaped rear porch. The house is unusual in that it is clad with beaded wood siding instead of the typical brick used for antebellum construction in this region. All windows are six-over-six, double-hung units; only those on the front fa ade retain blinds. The roof is clad with new composition shingles and boxed eaves, while the unglazed monitor is metal.
There are five exterior brick chimneys, two located on the east fa ade, two on the west, and one on the north, all secured by chimney brackets and now painted black. The chimneys are almost flush with the exterior walls, having only a few inches of the stacks extending beyond the walls. A one-story veranda on the front fa ade, a similar one on the west fa ade, and a double-story porch on the north fa ade have standing-seam metal roofs. The continuous brick foundation, also painted black, is laid in a running bond with typical antebellum foundation vents of vertical wooden bars set diagonally within heavy cedar lintels and sills. A wide, plain entablature board transitions between the siding and the roof on the main block.
The south fa ade measures 60' across by 45' deep, while the ell measures 31' deep by 20' wide. The front veranda extends across three bays shielding the entry from the sun. It is accessed by unpainted brick semi-circular steps (installed in and is supported on six octagonal columns along the front with two matching pilasters, one at each corner, against the house. The columns taper towards the top and are connected by shallow Tudoresque arches. An intricate, scroll-work bracket bridges the top of each column, two on each corner, connecting it to the roof overhang. The veranda ceiling is remarkable for its unusually ornate plasterwork. A floral band runs around the outer perimeter, while a stylized grape vine motif occupies an interior band of ornamentation.
A large chunk of ceiling plaster has fallen from the west third of the ceiling, leaving the lath exposed. The foundation is poured concrete that has been painted black. The main entry retains the Greek Revival arrangement of sidelights and transom while incorporating newly fashionable Italianate elements. A pair of two-paneled doors is recessed below a shallow Tudoresque arch supported on ornate square pilasters and capped with a single scroll-work bracket supporting a shallow hood. Sidelights and a broken-transom light surround the doors. Sidelights are composed of three stacked vertical panes secured by muntins. The transom is centered above the door while the broken lights fill the space between the transom and the sidelights.
All glazing is dark red and etched to show the clear glass beneath the glazing, except for the transom. The sidelights and two corner portions of the transom display an etched grapevine design. The center portion of the transom has Quietdale and the date surrounded by a narrow band of red glass etched with a grapevine pattern around the perimeter. The previous owner, Ira Jones, installed this glass. When the Niles Prestages occupied the house, the entry transom had been a single pane painted in a repeating pattern of green and gold, which raises the question whether the ruby sidelights are original.
(It should also be noted that the circa QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 3) Whitaker-Motlow house in nearby Mulberry, Tennessee, also has a ruby glass transom and sidelights.) Wrought-iron security doors are installed on the front. The west fa ade has seven bays. They are not evenly spaced; those towards the front of the house have tighter spacing and do not have sufficient wall space between the windows to allow for fully open blinds (although these blinds have been removed). Fenestration on the upper level from the north is a pattern of four windows, chimney, three windows, chimney.
Fenestration on the bottom level varies only with the three bays between the two chimneys, where the center bay is a single, four-paneled door beneath a transom of three panes of glass: one colored red, one cobalt blue, and one deep gold. The veranda is accessed from the yard by a new set of black brick steps centered between two low pedestals. The veranda is basically identical to the one in front and features six octagonal columns along the front and two matching pilasters at the house. The ceiling is smooth plaster and does not have the ornate filigree of the front. It exhibits signs of substantial repair work. A wrought-iron railing has been added between the columns.
The veranda is supported on brick piers with a pierced checkerboard pattern between each pair; earlier photographs reveal recessed panels of open brickwork in a diamond pattern between the piers. The rear (north) fa ade has two planes because the house is L-shaped in plan with the reentrant angle occupied by a two-story porch. The north wall of the ell is largely covered by the wide chimney and two windows, one above the other on the west side of the stack. The east ell wall facing the porch features two doors with transoms on either side of a window on the first floor and two windows and a door on the second. The roof of the ell terminates in a hip. The two-story L-shaped porch is supported by six slender Tuscan columns on each level and is 12' wide.
The flooring on the first floor has been replaced, and the crawl space under the porch was once screened with contemporary lattice but is now exposed. A spiral ironwork stair was installed toward the east end to connect the two porch levels as was a matching rail of iron balusters on the upper floor in there is no rail on the first level. The ceilings were originally plaster or beaded board but are now contemporary panels with battens. All the exterior doors to the porch are four paneled with transoms. A long, raised brick patio installed in is one step below the rear porch and connects the house with the porch of the detached slave quarters. A new, unpainted set of brick, semi-circular steps was built on the east side of the patio to provide access to the yard.
Elements of the rear porches, including bannisters, columns, stairs, and ceilings, have been modified over the years but the structural configuration is original. The north facade of the main block abutting the porch has three windows and a door on both levels, but not in the same order. All windows are six-over-six except one four-over-four unit that replaced an earlier door. Two narrow gabled dormers face north; each has one nine-over-six double-hung window. The dormers appear to be original. Three solar panels were installed atop the dormers and roof monitor. The east fa ade of the house, beginning at the south end, has a window, chimney, window, window, chimney, window, and porch on both the first and second floors.
QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 4) Main Dwelling, Interior: Quietdale retains a Greek Revival layout with an entrance hall running through the center, two rooms on either side, and two rooms in the ell at the rear. The house has most of its original wood floors, plasterwork, trim, and doors. Generally, the molding is most intricate in the public rooms on the first floor and simpler in the family quarters and the upstairs. It is not uncommon to have different trim designs in the rooms. Baseboard trim is tall, with a simple profile on the bottom and more complex on top. There is no shoe or quarter-round molding. Crown molding is only found in the front foyer, the two first-floor parlors, and the family dining room. All the other rooms are devoid of upper wall trim.
Door molding features a variety of fluted profiles. Most corner blocks on the doors have a bull s-eye design. Windows on both floors have a simple box-paneled molding beneath them. Fireplaces extend several inches into the rooms due to the predominantly inset chimney stacks. Most of the mantels are a simple Greek Revival style with fluted pilasters and plain entablatures, except for those in the east parlors. The ceiling height on the main floor is while that on the second floor is Aside from the pocket doors between the parlors on the east side, the door between the two bedrooms on the east side of the second floor, and the doorway leading to the west porch hallway, the doorways have transoms. They are glazed with two pieces of abutting clear glass to span the width.
The transoms provide only light and must be completely removed from their frames using a wing-nut latch on either side to provide ventilation. Interior doors on the main floor are four-paneled units, while those upstairs are primarily two-paneled Greek Revival and most have the original hardware. Door knobs are a standard nineteenth-century terracotta with white glazing. Door knobs in the front hallway are an unknown silver-colored metal. Most of the woodwork is painted. The double front doors open into a large foyer where simple crown molding defines the perimeter of the room, and an ornate plaster medallion with an abstracted floral design anchors the center of the ceiling.
The medallion has radial symmetry with four abstract botanical designs radiating out from the center, each capped with foliage and small roses. Acanthus-styled foliage divides the final medallion into an eight-pointed star. The east foyer wall has a single door opening into the front parlor, a large formal space with two windows on the south wall and two on the east wall flanking a white marble mantelpiece with a rounded opening and cartouche. The firebox holds a vintage, round-topped, coal-burning insert installed when coal replaced wood. Simple crown molding defines the perimeter of this room, and an ornate plaster medallion with an abstracted dahlia design anchors the center of the ceiling.
The medallion has radial symmetry with twelve main petals creating the face of the dahlia, which is then surrounded by twelve lily and scroll designs. A final garland of small plaster roses rings the outer portion of the medallion. Large three-over-three-paneled pocket doors divide the front parlor from the rear one. The northeast parlor is almost identical in size, plan, and decorative elements to the front one, except the two windows on the north wall look onto the rear porch. A door on the west wall of the room leads into the stair hall. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 5) The door on the west side of the entrance foyer opens into what is assumed to have been a family parlor.
This room has two windows on the south wall, and a fireplace located in the center of the west wall with one window to the north. The mantelpiece is a plain Greek Revival design executed in wood with fluted pilasters supporting an unadorned entablature while a simple coal- burning insert fills the firebox. The only remaining call bell of eight is mounted to the side of this fireplace. A door on the north wall of this room opens to the side hallway that accesses the west veranda, the main stair hall at its east end, and the dining room on its north side. The dining room has a low chair rail and simple plaster crown molding, complete with vertical sections on the architrave that read very much like dentils. The frieze is plain while the cornice line for the crown is convex.
A coal-burning fireplace on the west wall is flanked by a window on either side; the firebox is surrounded by contemporary white tiles while the wooden mantelpiece is similar in proportions to the one in the family parlor but unfluted. The dining room has two additional doors, one on the east wall that opens to the stair hall, and one on the north wall that leads to the rear ell. This is the only room in the family portion of the house that has crown molding. The rear ell has a small hallway providing access to a bathroom/laundry room with a west-facing window, to the rear porch, and to the current kitchen, which may originally have been the formal dining room.
The kitchen has two windows on the west wall and a window followed by a fireplace on the north wall with a vintage built-in linen press or china cabinet on the east side. The fireplace is wood burning with a Greek Revival mantelpiece and Dutch painted tiles surrounding the firebox. A door on the east wall leads to the rear porch. A low, plainly profiled wooden chair rails surrounds the perimeter of the room. The plainness of the molding contrasts starkly with the door and window trim and woodwork in other rooms on the main floor; it may have been added later. On the foyer s north wall are two doors that open into the main stair hall, a necessity when the hall originally consisted of two identical stair halls, each isolated from the other.
Even after the double stair halls were combined and modified to contain just one staircase, the two doors were retained. Today the staircase runs up the west side of the hall to a full-width landing across the north wall, then up a shorter flight on the east wall to the second floor. Two windows, high in the wall above the landing, open onto the upper hall. A square post below the landing supports the center of the span. The balustrade consists of two plain rectangular balusters per step and a rounded rail that ends in a knob atop a turned newel tapering to the top. The stair wall has inset vertical panels beneath an open-string with flat scroll brackets. Stair treads are unpainted.
A stair under the west flight leads to the basement where a coal furnace was installed years ago and vented out the ell chimney. The upper hall has one door on the east wall, one on the west, and two on the south. The east door opens into a large sitting room, likely a former bedroom. This room has an exterior door and window on the north wall to the second-floor rear porch followed by a window, a fireplace and a window on the east wall, then a door along the south wall connecting to the southeast bedroom. This northeast room has a wood-burning fireplace with brick hearth and a simple wood mantel.
QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 6) The southeast bedroom has windows flanking a fireplace on the east, two windows on the south wall, and a door on the west wall providing access to a small vestibule. The wooden fireplace mantel is identical to the one in the adjoining northeast room except the hearth and surrounds are of narrow subway tile glazed a brilliant mottled green and white. These two rooms are assumed to be bedrooms, but they could have functioned as a ballroom before the 10'-wide pocket doors were replaced with a single hinged door. The vestibule adjoining this room has a door to the hall on its north wall and a door to a closet on the south wall. The closet is in the shape of an inverse L and is windowless.
From the central upper hall, a door on the south wall opens into a narrow interior hallway that provides access to the southwest bedroom and to a small bathroom that had been a closet with a window on its south wall. This bedroom has two windows on the south and a window on the north side of the fireplace on the west wall. The fireplace has a brick hearth and cast-iron fireplace screen. The mantel with its fluted pilasters and plain entablature is similar, but not identical, to the other mantels on this floor. From the upstairs hall, a door on the west wall leads to a north-south hallway and to the narrow and steep attic stairs. A substantial portion of the attic has been finished with plaster walls, simple block molding, and trim.
A door on the north wall leads to the unfinished area of the attic. A narrow dog-leg stair on the west wall provides access to the roof hatch. In the center of the attic is a square, brick column roughly 12" on a side that extends through the roof deck; it appears to be a vent but is not connected below the attic so its function and date of construction remain a mystery. The north-south hallway also provides access to a small office or bedroom with a fireplace on the west wall flanked by two windows. The north end of the hallway terminates in a small vestibule with an exterior door on the east wall to the rear porch, a door to a small bathroom on the west wall, and door to the bedroom on the north wall. The bathroom is carpeted and has all plumbing stacks on the south wall.
There is a sink, shower/tub, and toilet, with a single window on the west wall. The bedroom has two windows on the west wall, one window and fireplace on the north wall, and two windows on the east wall. The fireplace hearth is brick, and the fireplace mantel has fluted pilasters and a plain entablature, similar but not identical to the other bedroom mantels on this floor. Main Dwelling, Alterations: The exterior of Quietdale is remarkably intact with original siding and windows. In the exterior was painted a pale lilac with two darker shades used on the trim. All the doors are red. Like most buildings constructed before modern plumbing and electricity, the house has seen numerous updates to accommodate new technologies and changes in social dynamics.
Some of these alterations are quickly evident, such as the conversion of former storage rooms into bathrooms, the addition of an interior kitchen, and the installation of electrical wiring, while others are merely suspected and cannot be proved without additional primary source documentation or selective demolition. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 7) On the exterior, major changes include the removal of the shutters, except on the front, the addition of the spiral stair on the rear porch, and changes to the transom and possibly sidelights. The most significant interior alteration with the removal of the double stair hall. A door opening on the east side of the second floor was altered at some point as well.
The design of the room, combined with the age and style of the house, suggests that a balustrade might have crowned the house. This is a minor exterior element that can easily rot over the years, and because the roof has been re-shingled multiple times, it would be very challenging to find definitive evidence of an original balustrade. Local tradition describes the ruby-colored transom and sidelights as witches glass, a security feature considered necessary for the detection of flying witches. This superstition likely is derived from the regional popularity of employing colored witches balls and bottles to capture evil spirits or witches.
However, the glass around the front door is a sophisticated form of etched glass invented in by Friedrich Egermann in Czechoslovakia that utilized a copper sulfate solution. His production technique was kept secret until stolen in after which the glass became famous throughout Europe and the United States. It would have been available at the time of Quietdale s construction, but no documentation has surfaced revealing that this glass was installed in the nor is there any documentation that it dates from a later renovation. A description of the house written in the by Pat Jones makes no mention of red sidelights and transom, although a description does refer to burgundy glass surrounding the front door.
Replacements for damaged panes were installed in the late twentieth century by owner Ira Jones, as was the current transom pane. Evidence of the interior transoms confirms that the transom would originally have consisted of more than one pane.1 Like many antebellum houses Quietdale s original kitchen was a separate structure. It is not known when the current kitchen room was co-opted for that use, although Pat Jones states that it had been moved inside by the A small section of metal 1950s-era cabinetry in the northwest corner indicates that the current kitchen space may have been used for that purpose for sixty-five years or more.
The far north end of the rear porch, that portion abutting the current kitchen, was enclosed for a utility room at an unknown date, but that addition has been removed and the porch restored. Door knobs in the entry foyer are all a silver-toned metal. Oral histories claim that the door knobs are silver, although that could not be authoritatively determined at the site visit. The rim locks for the knobs are stamped Russell & Erwin Co.
Headquartered in New Britain, Connecticut, the Russell & Erwin Company was founded in The name of the company changed a few times, but in it was named Russell & Erwin Co., and it was known under that name until Period hardware catalogues from the company show several steel 1 Colored entry glass is not mentioned in Virgil Carrington (Pat) Jones, True Tales of Old Madison County (Huntsville, AL: Johnson Historical Publications, Virgil Jones was city editor of the Huntsville Times and his articles would have been written in the early The entry glass being burgundy is referred to in Glimpses into Ante-Bellum Homes of Historic Huntsville, Alabama (Huntsville, AL: Huntsville Branch American Association of University Women, 2 See Jones, True Tales, 81.
QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 8) and nickel options, although the exact knob profiles could not be definitively matched. Further investigative work could help determine if the door knobs are silver and/or original to the front hall. Door knobs on the back of the rim locks are white glazed terracotta. The most significant interior alteration was a complete remodeling of the interior stair hall. As built, the stair hall was two enclosed halls on either side of a support wall running north/south through the center of the current stair hall. The guest staircase ascended the east wall after a landing, while the family staircase ascended the west wall in the same manner.
When the dividing wall was removed and the dual staircases reworked to create a single stair beginning along the west wall, the doorway in the west hall to be shifted to accommodate this change. The door frame was moved to the south but lacked sufficient space for a full width of side and top framing on the southern side of the door. As a result, the top casing is truncated, while the side casing is entirely missing. Reconfiguring the two stair halls into one allowed for the removal of the exterior door to the rear porch that originally served the guest portion of the house; it was replaced with the only four-over-four window. The reconstruction date for the stair hall renovation is unknown.
On the second floor, the most significant alterations beyond the reconfigured stair hall, now open through both floors, were the conversion of a former trunk room into a bathroom (directly centered on the south wall) and the removal of a pair of 10'-wide pocket doors that once divided the upstairs guest parlors. A dressing room or storage room in the ell portion of the house now serve as a bathroom. Slave Quarters, Exterior: The former slave quarters have been extensively remodeled over the years, primarily inside, and in late the building was partially dismantled. The siding and windows were removed as were the interior walls and fixtures, leaving the roof, porch, north wall cladding, and framing intact.
The east and south sides were wrapped with plastic, but the west side was left exposed, except for the protection provided by the porch. This structure measures 54' north-south x 28' with 10' of the width being a full-length porch along the west fa ade. It faces west and is a rectangular two-story building originally clad with beaded siding. All windows were nine-over-six, double-hung units, and all exterior doors were four paneled beneath a four-light transom. The end-gabled roof is covered with strips of sheet metal. A single internal chimney is located about a third of the way into the roofline. A recessed, full-length, double-story porch runs along the west elevation and provides entry to all rooms. It is supported by seven square posts on each floor, which rest on brick piers.
The porch s first-floor ceiling consists of the unclad joists of the porch floor above. A new brick patio connects the main level of the house porch with the quarters, and a pyramidal stack of square brick steps set into the corner leads to ground level on the west side. From the south end to the north end on the quarters first floor was a door, window, window, window, door, and then a staircase to the second floor. The middle window replaced a door some years ago, and a window at the stair was removed. The narrow staircase at the far north end of the first floor has a dog-leg; the landing is located after the second riser.
The staircase terminates at the QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 9) northern end of the upper porch with a hinged trap door, which, when closed, covers the staircase opening with a panel matching the porch floor, leaving visible only the porch railing with its narrow square balusters and chamfered posts. The second-floor fenestration pattern alternates doors and windows. The second-floor porch ceiling was lath and plaster. The north fa ade is dominated by the recessed two-story porch, which takes up a third of the western end of the fa ade. The only window on this wall is located just to the west of the fa ade s center point but is not original to this wall.
A gable-roofed shed against the north fa ade covers recessed stairs leading to the large basement cellar that extends south to the chimney. The east fa ade had six bays on each level with nine-over-six, double-hung windows, except for the northernmost window on the first level, which has been removed. That window might have been installed on the north fa ade of the quarters. Slave Quarters, Interiors and Alterations: Because the interior has been so heavily altered, and then abandoned, over the years by multiple owners, it was in an uninhabitable condition even before the siding, interior doors, transoms, and windows were torn away. However, it is clear the quarters originally had three chambers per floor with the kitchen located in the southernmost lower-level room.
The chimney stack, which is presumed to have originally provided ventilation on each side on each floor for a total of four fireplaces, now only vents the two fireplaces upstairs. The current owner apparently planned to replace rotten wood and renovate the building for a new use. Structural repairs have begun, new windows are stacked on site as is a large pile of new lumber, and it appears that the original exterior doors were to be reused. At the time of the writing of this report in work had ceased. The Quietdale property is currently vacant and for sale, so a new owner could restore the exterior of the quarters to its original appearance. The fate of this significant dependency remains precarious.
The Grounds: The most striking change made in is the construction of tall brick piers along the Quietdale Drive frontage with iron gates across both ends of the horseshoe-shaped drive, while a massive brick structure of unidentified intent sits at midpoint in the row of piers. A large circular pond with fountain has been constructed in the front yard. The field of vintage spring bulbs on the far east side appears to be undisturbed. The foundation plantings along the front and sides of the house are gone as are the bushes and flowers along the driveway. History: The Robinsons in Alabama: Quietdale is a late antebellum house on the north side of Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, roughly 20 miles south of the Tennessee border.
It was built on 55 acres as the family home for William and Caroline Robinson and their five children. Although the Robinsons owned extensive cotton plantations, the house was on none of them, nor was it in Huntsville; it was neither a plantation nor a townhouse, but a country house. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 10) William Robinson, born in what is now Russell County, Virginia, to Littleberry and Paulina Robinson, arrived in Madison County with his parents no later than Historian Thomas Jones Taylor, recounting the early settlement of Madison County, described the influx of settlers along the great highway from Virginia to Alabama during the years as being more like the route of an army of occupation than an ordinary public highway.
3 Madison County, then part of the Alabama Territory, is in the Great Bend of the Tennessee River, an area whose fame had long spread eastward through glowing reports of the valley s fertile soils, abundant forests, and reliable water sources. The future of this new frontier captured the imaginations of small farmers and large planters alike, both eager to make a fresh start on virgin soils and, perhaps, engage in land speculation. Immigrants had begun trickling in to the southern Tennessee Valley as early as before negotiations for land cessions with the Cherokee and Chickasaw nations were finalized. By the government had surveyed sufficient acreage to schedule the first federal sale of Madison County lands in Nashville, Tennessee.
Although there were already some 300 squatter families settled in the county, the government auctioned acres of the choicest tracts, mostly to wealth planters from Georgia and Virginia, whose ability to purchase large tracts gave them a distinct advantage. Many of these planters were anxious to abandon the marginally profitable tobacco cultivation of the seaboard for the promise of large-scale cotton production, a move made feasible by their possession of considerable wealth and numerous slaves. Indeed, cotton flourished. As roving journalist Anne Royall approached Huntsville in December she was stunned: The cotton fields began to appear. These are astonishingly large; from four to five hundred acres in a field!...It has the appearance of magic.
4 It was as part of this flood of immigrants that two Robinson brothers and their families arrived shortly before Alabama was admitted to the Union at the end of Their father, William Robinson, was born in South Carolina circa ventured to North Carolina where he married Charity Kennedy, settled in the southwestern tail of Virginia in what is now Russell County long enough to raise a family of eight children, and finally headed to Tennessee where he died in Along the way he acquired multiple tracts of land, reputedly holding a half interest in some acres dispersed across Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. His will named two of his sons, William Jr.
and Littleberry, as executors, and it was these two who trekked to Madison County where they and their descendants would leave an enduring imprint.5 Col. William Robinson, born circa was the first son lured by Alabama Fever to pursue the imagined cotton bonanza in Madison County, arriving by Having acquired considerable wealth during his four years in Alabama, he died in leaving his wife Margaret 3 Judge Thomas Jones Taylor, A History of Madison County and Incidentally of North America, (University, AL: Confederate Publishing Company, 49. 4 Daniel S.
Dupre, Transforming the Cotton Frontier, Madison County, Alabama, (Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 26; quote from Anne Newport Royall, Letters from Alabama (University, AL: University of Alabama Press, 5 William Robinson, of Russell County, available at County/6000000022878777032, accessed January 26, QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 11) Warden with seven children, several plantations, a mansion house, hogs, cattle, sheep, horses, his current cotton crop, and several slaves. His 1,000-acre cotton farm in the Little Cove area of southeastern Madison County was divided among his children.6 His younger brother, Col. Littleberry Robinson, was the second son who moved to Madison County seeking his fortune.
Born circa Littleberry had married Paulina Burton (who was illiterate and referenced by numerous imaginative spellings) and sired six, possibly seven, children, including William, the dreamer of Quietdale, who would have been about 11 years old when his family arrived. Possibly using his father s inheritance, Littleberry began purchasing land in including eight quarter sections and a residence just west of the Meridianville Pike, for which he agreed to pay Littleberry s real estate transactions were convoluted, and it is not certain what he legally held title to at his death in at age 52.
His three youngest children, William, John G., and Martha, were still minors; his two oldest daughters were married; another daughter presumably was deceased; and the youngest boy was either his son or a nephew. Because Littleberry died intestate, and Paulina, his widow, relinquished her right to administer his estate, William Patton was appointed administrator, secured by a obligation put up by himself, Henry Cook, and Rodah Horton, the latter being Littleberry s son-in-law, real estate partner, and fellow Virginian. The Robinson homeplace on Meridianville Pike was surveyed, and Paulina was allotted the 370 acres surrounding the family dwelling as part of her dower. The settling of estates was frequently a long, drawn-out affair, often taking decades.
It was before Patton demonstrated to the probate judge that the Littleberry estate was insolvent and requested a court order to sell Paulina s two quarter sections to help discharge the debts. The order was granted and her dower land auctioned, but by then, her son William had come of age. It was he who purchased the family s homestead at public auction for Two months later, the court declared Littleberry s estate closed with only in assets to be divided among creditors claiming Paulina died in at 70 years of age, leaving as heirs her children William, John G., James B., Fanny, and Martha. She left no will and no property of consequence except two female slaves and designated William as her executor.
He did little settle his mother s estate, simple though it seemed, and when he died unexpectedly seventeen years later, John Robinson, his cousin, became William s executor and, by default, Paulina s. Her estate finally closed in but not without considerable family squabbling, which was to become something of a Robinson family tradition.9 William s early life is not well documented, but it is obvious that he inherited his family s talent for acquiring acreage, incurring litigation, and neglecting to pay bills. Judge Taylor recounts that 6 Probate Case No. All cited deeds, court cases, probate, will, and marriage records, are held by Madison County, Alabama. 7 Deed Book E, 8 Deed Book P, Probate Case No. 9 Probate Case No.
QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 12) he commenced his successful career selling good [sic] and groceries. 10 In he married Caroline Penelope Moore, born in northern Madison County. They rented a house in Huntsville at the southeast corner of Gates and Henry streets (Henry is now Fountain Circle) as well as a second lot across Gates Street where they housed four cows, three wagons, a buggy and a carriage, three bay horses, five mules, slave quarters, and other dependencies. They were the parents of five surviving children: William Mary, James P., Charles, and Fannie. During this period, William became a successful cotton planter, acquiring a plantation of some acres in the Little Cove area of Madison County and an additional acres on his Mississippi plantation in Noxubee County.
William, known locally as Black Bill, was elected Madison County sheriff for a three-year term in it then being unlawful to serve a consecutive term.11 The House: Oral tradition holds that William dreamed about erecting a country house for his family, designed every detail of it, and even amassed enormous stockpiles of materials for its construction. On July 9, however, while attending a barbeque, he suffered an apoplectic fit and died within hours. He was 44 years old. His obituary elaborated that this was the second attack, the first occurring two years prior while at his Mississippi plantation from the effects of which he never recovered.
12 His widow Caroline, left with at least two large cotton plantations to manage and five minor children, resolved to proceed with the construction of the house, exactly as her husband had planned so the story goes. It is a romantic tale but possibly slightly embroidered through years of retelling. Digging through historic documents verifies parts of the story but raises questions about others. Like his father and mother, William died intestate.
Inspection of his estate appraisal filed in reveals the family residence in Huntsville was valued at and the lot across the street on which the Negro house and stables were situated was Curiously, the deed to the residence lot had been conveyed to them only two months prior to William s untimely death, although it stated that the family had been in possession and occupancy for some years.13 The appraisal also lists ninety-three slaves and a significant amount of livestock (presumably housed at the Little Cove plantation), household goods, and 55 acres on the Turnpike Road (the land on which Quietdale would be built). Curiously, the Robinsons did not have the deed for the 55-acre lot until sometime after the house had been completed.
The most intriguing appraisal item is for 1 lot lumber for building and raw brick valued at lending credence to the claim that William had already begun collecting materials for his house.14 Caroline Robinson, determined to proceed with the house construction, retained Samuel Allison as the contractor/builder. The family had relied upon Allison since to procure their annual supply of bulk goods, such as 750 pounds of pork, ten loads of firewood, and hundreds of pounds 10 Taylor, History of Madison County, 89. 11 Probate Record 16, James Record, A Dream Come True, The Story of Madison County and Incidentally of Alabama and the United States, Vol. 1 (Huntsville, AL, 12 Southern Advocate [Huntsville, AL], July 14, 3. 13 This was the same property on which James G.
Birney resided from to before departing Huntsville in the to fight for abolition and twice run for U.S. president on the Liberty Party ticket. 14 Probate Record 16, Deed Books K, and M, QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 13) of flour. Allison was another Virginian who had migrated to Alabama, although it is unclear whether the Robinson family and Allison were connected while in Virginia. In Allison wed William s younger sister Martha, making him part of the Robinson family. The federal census identifies Allison as a carpenter; ten years later, his profession was lumber merchant and he claimed in real estate and in personal property.
In Allison s account with William Robinson, his charges began to include building supplies such as quantities of lumber of various sizes and types, hinting that some work may have begun at Quietdale. Presumably, this was the lumber and brick listed in the appraisal.15 Allison s accounts provide partial documentation as to the materials and hardware employed in the construction of the house and its approximate date of completion, although the bills that have survived are often difficult to decipher, confusing, and some are undated.
A one-page summary of Allison s work for the Robinsons dated January 1, includes Bill for main Building dated July 1, It is followed by several additional expenses, bringing the total price to but when interest for two years and six months to January 1, is added, the total bill for Building and finishing amounted to from which 10 percent was deducted. A separate entry for Superintending Brick and lumber Kiln was verifying that at least some of the lumber and brick was secured or processed on site. If these numbers and dates are accurate, Quietdale was essentially completed by the summer of when the last entry noted Putting in 510 Lights Glass.
16 A second document that validates the dates on the construction bills is an affidavit in which Joseph Bradley and William Acklen swore that in their lifetimes, they had heard William Robinson state he had employed Samuel Allison to do the building, now occupied by his Family near Huntsville, and that the said building was being erected at the time of the death of said William Robinson.
This statement, combined with Allison s bills to the estate, verifies that William had begun construction prior to his death, probably in and that the house was occupied by the family no later than Until more definitive documentation appears, it seems reasonable to date the dwelling to the period and to accept that William did indeed begin its construction, and Caroline was responsible for overseeing its completion.17 Part of the lore surrounding the history of Quietdale is that the actual work was executed by William s slaves, many of whom presumably were trained in the building arts, but there is scant reason that a cotton planter would have invested in such specialized, expensive workers.
In fact, a comparison of William s estate appraisal with that of local builder George Steele from reveals that none of William s slaves were listed as skilled artisans while thirteen of Steele s were trained mechanics, each of greater value than any of William It is clear Allison was charged with the construction, but there is no information about whether he maintained his own crew of skilled slaves or, if not, whom he employed. An unrelated local contract from to erect a log house sheds light on how such projects could be accomplished: the contractor agreed to finish the structure according to the specifications in the contract in a plain neat and 15 Probate Case No. 16 Probate Case No. 17 Probate Case No.
18 Probate Record 16, Chancery Record AA, QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 14) workmanship manner and the owner is to find my hands and do the hauling part . 19 The latter clause suggests that the local tradition could have been for Allison to use some of Robinson s slaves, but it might have required Robinson or Allison to provide others possessing specific construction skills. It was common practice at the time for builders to hire slaves skilled in carpentry, masonry, plastering, or blacksmithing, frequently for a year, rather than to own them.
Interestingly, one account of materials used in Quietdale included such items as two dormer windows for of architrave for 114 shelves for of moulded base for 20 cents/foot; plane base for 6 cents/foot; 62' of pilasters for of transom rails for sixteen cedar caps and lintels to grates (foundation vents) for of weatherboarding for fifty steps in stairs for and so forth.20 What is not clear is whether Allison purchased these items or oversaw their production, and who the actual workers were that built Quietdale also remains an open question. Additional pages of accounts for construction completed by Allison for the Robinsons are undated but include work completed between and These are for farm structures that were erected on the Little Cove plantation.
Combining the material and labor costs reveals that a mill house with water wheel cost while the wheel, measuring 12' x 8', was an additional $48 undoubtedly it was located on Robinson Mill Creek, which meandered across William s Little Cove property. For a dwelling, Allison charged the granary was a corn crib the gin house ran to without machinery; a barn and shed cost and the mule stable was only For the Little Cove plantation structures, the total bill was roughly In a separate account between the years and early Allison performed work on the stables, crib, cow house, kitchen, and smoke house in town, which would have been on the lots in Huntsville.21 Several issues remain unresolved.
If construction of Quietdale began in or even early one might expect the appraisal of William s estate to not the presence of some improvement on the 55-acre tract on the Meridianville Road. More curious still is the disposition of the town property where the family resided for multiple years. Following William s death in the probate court overseeing his estate ordered that the two Huntsville lots be sold by John and James B. Robinson, his administrators. At a public auction in January John C.
Spottswood purchased the lots for payable in one and two years without interest.22 If the Robinsons had continued to occupy this property until Quietdale was completed and Spottswood had paid in full, then he should have taken possession of the two Huntsville lots no later than but, in fact, the administrators did not convey the title to Spottswood until August Did Spottswood not complete payment until then? Did the Robinsons continue to occupy the house in town? The latter explanation is less likely, but it is impossible to know.
Immediately behind Quietdale, but detached and situated perpendicular to it, stands a structure at least as significant (if not more so) as the big house, partially by virtue of its size, but more 19 Paulina Jones Gandrud, compiler, Alabama Records, Madison County Vol. 80 (Southern Historical Press, 46. 20 Probate Case No. 21 Probate Case No. 22 Deed Book CC, lots 49 and 57. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 15) importantly by its very existence. It was constructed as a frame, two-story kitchen and slave quarters containing six large rooms, three per floor, each accessed from a double-tiered porch along the west side. Each chamber had a door with transom and large window opening onto the porch and two more windows on the east wall.
The gable roof extended over the porch and was supported on seven columns on each level. An exterior stair within the porch provided upstairs access. The first-floor room nearest the house would have been the kitchen given its proximity to the house s rear entry and retains a massive, interior brick chimney that was used for cooking and heating. The siting of this structure is such that when viewed from the southeast, it almost appears to be a continuation of the east wall of the main house, which raises the question whether the exceptionally large and numerous windows of this dependency were intended for the exterior effect or to create more commodious quarters for the occupants.
The design of this structure is not unique; there were others of similar arrangement, such as the smaller one at Rosemount plantation in Greene County, Alabama [see HABS No. AL-212], which burned. Amazingly, this one has survived and stands today as a unique relic. While previous owners have made unfortunate alterations, primarily inside, the quarters now face a grave danger from an inappropriate renovation that could result in total destruction. There has been speculation that the quarters may have been constructed earlier than Quietdale and survived as a dependency from an earlier homestead or were even intended as a primary residence while the big house was under construction. Several local examples of the latter practice have been identified.
However, surviving documents reveal that the kitchen also was erected by Samuel Allison, apparently just prior to beginning construction of the main house. Allison s summary statement mentioned above lists the kitchen structure as completed in at a cost of to which had been added interest for the three years and nine months the bill had remained unpaid. (It should be noted that arriving at an exact price for Quietdale s various structures is complicated by the addition of interest payments and the reductions of anywhere from 10 to 25 percent at various times.) A receipt exists that implies the administrators for William s estate paid the full bill of for the house and kitchen quarters in April but that was not the end of Allison s troubles.
Despite the fact Allison had married into the Robinson family, he faced as much difficulty collecting debts from them as did others. In just months after receiving payment for the house and quarters, Allison brought suit against the Robinson administrators John and James B. claiming he was due for work and labor performed by him for William in his lifetime and at his request for the years to he further claimed for cash paid out by Allison in addition to work and labor performed for William. The administrators responded that those debts had been paid before the suit was filed, the demands were barred by the statute of limitations, and the bills were not filed in probate within the required eighteen-month period following the appointment of administrators. John and James B.
then countered that Allison was actually indebted to the estate for some for funds and work provided by William to Allison. As late as the suit was still pending in circuit court when a jury hearing the case found for Allison, although it assessed the damages at plus interest and other charges, which brought the total to Unfortunately, the minutes of this case are missing so it is unclear exactly what was being argued. However, one exhibit lists the structures Allison built for William on his Little Cove plantation with the prices; Allison further alleged that he should be QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 16) paid for going to Tennessee for lumber and for cash he paid at Whitesburg for cedar. He further related that he made a set of brick molds and installed fencing.
The missing details could have provided invaluable documentation of antebellum construction practices. The case was appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, but apparently it was not heard and closed August Based on these documents, it can be concluded that the kitchen was constructed in and the house was essentially completed by The ruby glass transom at the front entry is etched with Quietdale but probably is not original since Quietdale has not appeared in any historic papers. A second appraisal of the personal property of the William Robinson estate recorded in runs to six pages and identifies 102 slaves, livestock, bulk food stuffs, crops, and farm equipment in Madison County as well as the furnishings in Quietdale.
The federal census of the following year for Caroline, then 37, reported her real estate holdings valued at and personal property of The coming war would decimate her assets; however, the Quietdale property escaped damage during the war, prompting Caroline to insure the house to protect her surviving investment. An Aetna policy dated insured the two story frame Dwelling covered with Metal on part and part with Shingles Seven Thousand Five Hundred Dollars. On the Furniture contained therein Two Thousand Dollars. On her two story Frame Kitchen and servants dorm covered with shingles Five Hundred Dollars for a total of The policy continued to describe the property as situated on the east side of the Meridian Road, 1.5 miles north of the city of Huntsville, owned and occupied by C. P.
Robinson as a family residence. This insurance coverage is reasonably close to the construction costs submitted by Allison, verifying the then-value of a significant mid-nineteenth century country house. The tax assessment for Quietdale, which lumped the land and improvements in one figure, was Further Questions: These documents confirm that Samuel Allison was the contractor/builder of Quietdale and that it was essentially completed by They further demonstrate that construction began before William s demise, but they are silent as to whom credit should be assigned for the design. Locally, William is believed to be the designer it was his dream.
But the scale and quality of the design as well as certain specific features suggest an architect was involved, perhaps as an advisor if only to refine or clarify the homeowner s vision. The house is a frame, two-story, five- bay Greek Revival house, except for the almost identical, picturesque front and side porches, each one-story supported by six bracketed, octagonal columns from which flat Tudoresque arches spring. This minor break with the Greek Revival continues with the double-leaf front doors set between a pair of sturdy, incised angular pilasters supporting the arched and jigsaw ornamented entry. These porches and entry appear to be an early instance in Madison County of the coming shift from neoclassical precedents to the romantic eclecticism that blossomed after the Civil War.
There are some who have argued with vigor that these porches could be not be 23 Probate Case No. Case No. Circuit Court Record, 24 Probate Record 23, Tax Book Beat 1, 40; copy of Aetna policy from in author s personal collection. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 17) original to the house, that they had to date from the and that they replaced the originals, whatever they might have been, because the romantic styles had not yet arrived in Huntsville. One intriguing bit of evidence to the contrary is an bill from the Huntsville craftsman Thomas Gassaway to Caroline for painting verandas. 25 The concept of veranda had floated over from England, and the term came into usage during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
This bill proves that verandas were not unknown in Madison County in the and represented a distinct departure from Greek-inspired porticoes, which they soon replaced. Furthermore, during the antebellum period, Huntsville was home to a talented architect/builder by the name of George Steele who designed the majority of the town s public structures and many of its dwellings. Although not academically trained, he was exceptionally well self- educated and designed competently in Federal, Greek Revival, and Gothic, often introducing the newest styles to town. Steele would have been cognizant of the nascent architectural styles and could have proposed these veranda designs.
Undoubtedly, he was familiar with the books of Alexander Jackson Davis, Andrew Jackson Downing, and others who were promoting the Picturesque cottage for rural dwelling as early as the by introducing Gothic and Italianate designs that were widely disseminated before the at least to those who were attentive. As early as Downing derided the pseudo-Greek Temple form, then most popular for American country villas, and encouraged the adoption of a style that by its varied and picturesque form and outline, its porches, verandas, etc., also appears to have some reasonable connection, or be in perfect keeping, with surrounding nature. 26 So the bill for painting Quietdale s verandas demonstrates that the concept of a shady, fanciful porch was already finding favor over the formal portico.
Additionally, multiple examples exist of southeastern dwellings dating from the that experimented with grafting a few Gothic or Italianate details onto the symmetrical antebellum box. One notable example is the North Carolina builder Jacob Holt who decorated his otherwise rigidly Greek Revival houses with playful elements to create a new eclectic style.27 It has been further argued that the Quietdale verandas could not be original because the clapboard is painted behind the pilasters and a painted foundation vent exists beneath the side veranda. If these porches were original, the argument runs, there would have been no paint in these locations.
However, it was already understood that when constructing with wood, it was prudent to paint all the surfaces if one could afford it, even those not visible, as protection against the weather. In fact, on December 1, the local Southern Advocate newspaper published a short, unsigned piece entitled Facts in Building that clearly advised the use of paint as the best economy, in the preservation it affords to all wood work. The argument that the porches are Victorian replacements is countered by the evidence that they could just as easily have been one of the first to appear in Huntsville. 25 Frances Roberts Collection series 1, sub-series B, in Box 3, Folder 3 University of Alabama-Huntsville Archives, Louis Salmon Library. 26 A.J.
Downing, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 27 Catherine W. Bishir, Southern Built, American Architecture, Regional (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, chapter 1. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 18) Another feature of interest is the original floor plan. Quietdale was constructed with a distinctive arrangement where the stair hall consisted of two enclosed rooms behind the entry foyer, each having a parallel set of steps to the second floor, separated by a wall extending from the first floor through the second and thereby dividing the house into two parts. The two rooms were inaccessible one from the other on the second level.
As might be expected, this arrangement did not survive the occupancy of the second owner. At an unknown date, the dividing wall was dismantled and half of each flight was removed while the remaining halves were connected by a landing extending across the rear of the now-enlarged room.
Odd as the original layout seems today, there existed sufficient examples of similar arrangements in Madison County to suggest that it was not exceptional at that time; both the Laughinghouse-Sisco and Grayson house had separate stairs to a divided upper floor even Oak Place [see HABS AL-402, listed in the National Register in the house George Steele designed for himself, featured separate stairways and a split upper story although the more common plan was for the central hall to have one stair at the front and a second ascend from the rear.
At least two explanations have been proposed for this split arrangement: one, it permitted separation of the sexes, especially during parties, and two, one side accommodated formal affairs and guests while the other was designed for the family s private use. The second rationale appears to be the case here as it is obvious that the east side, divided into two large connected rooms on each level, is distinctly more ornate and intended to impress while the west side is divided into rooms of varying size and shape according to their intended use. The west half represents a significant advance over the traditional double-pile layout and was an early step towards breaking through the staid exterior elevations to create an asymmetrical, irregular fa ade reflective of the interior arrangement.
One other layout distinction is the side-hall-and-entry to the west veranda running off the center hall or passage. While this arrangement also is not unique in the area, it is infrequent and primarily survives in those houses constructed by the Virginia contingent, specifically Oak Place, Greenlawn, and Quietdale. Finally, one other uncommon feature is the exterior handling of the chimneys, which are not flush but protrude a few inches beyond the exterior walls. This treatment appeared on Greenlawn, and the rear chimneys of the Rodah Horton house [see HABS AL-410, demolished as well as at Quietdale.
When one considers Quietdale s verandas, double stairways with split second story, and side- hall-and-porch layout, it is noticeable that two of these features earlier appeared in George Steele s own house called Oak Place. This is not to argue that Steele was responsible for designing Quietdale, but to suggest he was more qualified to propose new ideas that might have appealed to William s sense of self as a style-setter. At the least, it is tempting to credit Steele with influencing some of these choices, if perhaps not with designing the full structure; but no concrete evidence has been located. Steele died in (three years after William) although he could have influenced certain decisions while both were living.
Steele s estate, administered by his son Matthew, also a builder, list two debts for work completed for the William Robinson estate, one specifically for work furnished by Matthew, but the other is unspecified. They are dated the same year Allison sued for non-payment, and are for balance of work done, one for and the other for substantial amounts indicating that the Steeles had more QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 19) input than previously acknowledged, especially when one considers that Steele s two bills equaled almost half the original amount charged by Allison for the entire house.28 The final mystery concerning Quietdale is on what terms the Robinsons acquired the 55 acres on which Quietdale sits.
It was not until after William s death and after completion of the house that the Robinson heirs were forced into Chancery Court to sue for receipt of the deed, awarded in and filed in probate on January 16, The Quietdale property originally possessed the usual complement of antebellum dependencies mentioned previously that have vanished over the years except for the kitchen/slave quarters and two much later dilapidated barns. A large field east of the house yard contains hundreds of vintage bulbs worthy of preservation. The Virginians and Their Buildings: Quietdale was located north of Huntsville while William s Little Cove plantation lay some 10 miles to the southeast.
Many of Huntsville s prosperous citizens, particularly the Georgia faction, who attended the first land sale in with money and insider tips enabling them to snap up the choicest parcels, chose to erect their homes within a few blocks of Huntsville s courthouse square while maintaining their plantations at a considerable remove. Some others who arrived slightly later purchased tracts along the Meridianville Pike, the main road north to Tennessee, and these were frequently settlers who had come more directly from Virginia. Whether these families were acquainted in Virginia is not clear, but once here they became closely entangled, if they were not already, through marriages, investments, legalities, and common backgrounds.
One especially tightly interrelated group of Virginians consisted of the Oteys, the Hortons, and the Robinsons. A brief consideration of these families reveals much about early settlement patterns and customs. Walter Otey married Mary Walton in in Virginia, had several children, immigrated to Madison County circa and settled in a log cabin on a quarter section near the village of Meridianville where he died in His son Madison, born did not leave for his mother s home until he married Octavia Wyche in (also of Virginia heritage), which prompted him in to build Greenlawn (see HABS AL-476, listed in the National Register in for his new family on the east side of the Meridianville Pike, just south of Meridianville.
Madison was the last of his siblings to marry, but three of his sisters already had made advantageous marriages, two of them to Robinsons and the third to Rodah Horton.30 John Jacob Robinson, William s cousin, and James B. Robinson, William s brother, also established themselves in Madison County, prospered, acquired large tracts of cotton lands, married sisters, and each built a magnificent brick Greek Revival mansion on the west side of the Meridianville Pike.31 Virginia family history relates that John Robinson (born circa 28 Chancery Court Book AA, 29 Deed Book AA, 30 Dorothy Scott Johnson, Cemeteries of Madison County, Alabama Vol II (Huntsville, AL; Johnson Historical Publications, 31 The relationships of James B. and John to each other and to William are still vigorously debated.
QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 20) departed Virginia at age 14 for Meridianville, Alabama, to work for Rodah Horton and had amassed sufficient funds by to marry Caroline Louis Otey, a sister of Rodah Horton s second wife. This romantic tale could well be true as the Horton and Robinson families apparently were close in Virginia. John and Caroline built Oaklawn [see HABS AL-411, listed in the National Register in circa James B. Robinson (born married Mary Frances Otey in and their home Forestfield was reputed to be a near copy of Oaklawn; however, it was significantly damaged by Federal troops in November and a photograph purportedly of it in the book Forestfield by Robert Bentley is believed to be of Oaklawn.
A third significant member in this transplanted Virginia clan was Rodah Horton (born who married Christiana Robinson in in Madison County. She was born in Russell County, Virginia, in as the second daughter of Littleberry Robinson, thereby making Rodah a son- in-law of Littleberry Robinson, with whom he partnered in various real estate transactions, and a brother-in-law of William Robinson. Littleberry and Christiana both died in Two years later, Rodah married Lucy Ann Otey, a sister of the Robinson s wives, with whom he had six surviving children. His marriages and legal affairs intertwined him with the expanding Otey family as well as with the Robinson clan.
In the early Rodah constructed his Greek Revival house [see HABS AL-410, demolished on the west side of the Meridianville Pike abutting the Oaklawn acreage. He served two terms, as a Madison County representative in the state legislature, farmed multiple plantations in Madison and Marengo counties in Alabama and one in Mississippi, and was intimate with and a financial partner of various Robinsons. He died intestate in at age 52 and was interred in Huntsville s Maple Hill Cemetery. (Much like William Robinson who died while his dream home was under construction, Rodah died shortly after his was completed.) Rodah Horton is the grandfather of Judge James E.
Horton, who issued a decisive ruling for justice in a Scottsboro Boys trial, thereby forfeiting another judicial term as well as his friends and standing in Athens, Alabama, where he had grown up. (Not until October was a statue honoring Judge Horton erected in front of the Limestone County courthouse in Athens.) And finally, while not living directly on the Pike, architect George Steele, also a migrant from western Virginia, lived nearby and is known to have been closely connected with this interrelated family.
He constructed the massive columns that fronted Horton s house, reputedly as the result of losing a political bet with Horton, although his bill for the job was marked paid, putting the lie to that tale.32 Steele is further suspected of having more than a neighborly connection with the designs of Quietdale and Greenlawn. Architect George Steele left a lasting imprint on Huntsville.
He designed the second Madison County courthouse [see HABS AL-437, demolished the Huntsville Branch of the Second Bank [see HABS AL-405, listed in the National Register in and his last home, Oak Place [see HABS AL-402, listed in the National Register in as well as the Roach-Cabaniss house [see HABS AL-431], the Steward s house [see HABS AL-408], the portico on the LeRoy Pope house [see HABS AL- and the renovation and additions to the Fearn-Garth house [see HABS AL-414], the latter four in the Twickenham Historic District [listed in the National Register in All are extant 32 Probate Case No. Folder 5. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 21) except the courthouse.
He also designed at least fifteen additional houses, two churches, several schools, and one signed mausoleum.33 One more curious distinction of this extended Virginia clan should be noted. Of the twenty Madison County houses documented by HABS in the only three were of frame construction, all the others being brick, a percentage that likely is representative of the overall construction tradition for antebellum homes of the wealthy in the country. Of the three frame structures, one was built by Walter Otey, one by Rodah Horton, and the third was purchased by William s daughter, Mary Robinson Burritt [see HABS AL-474]. Quietdale, also of frame construction, while not included in the original HABS survey, belongs in this group.
Is there a reason this clique of Virginians chose frame rather than brick homes? And why were these all located along the stretch of Meridianville Pike north of town unless they were connected by their Virginia backgrounds and their inter-marriages? The Quietdale, Horton and Oaklawn properties encompassed most of the east half of Section 24, Township 3, Range 1 West, making the families close neighbors as well as relatives. This collection of antebellum homes, with all its mysteries intact, survives as a significant and impressive relic of early life in Madison County as fashioned by one subset of immigrants. The Horton house was demolished in for a subdivision, but Greenlawn, Oak Place, Oaklawn, and Quietdale are extant, leaving a lasting heritage that enriches us today.
William and Caroline s Descendants: Caroline Robinson lived out her life at Quietdale rearing her five living children, all of whom were minors under the age of 14 when their father died. By the census, Caroline s assets had shrunk dramatically as the result of the war and emancipation, but she carried on until when she died at age 60, having heroically retained possession of the family lands. By order of the Madison County Probate Court, Quietdale was auctioned and sold out of the family in Caroline and William are interred together in Huntsville s Maple Hill Cemetery along with sons William and James P., neither of whom married, and daughter Fanny alongside her husband, James Ridley.
Granddaughter Carrie Ridley Herreshoff has a stone in the family plot, and two Robinson daughters, Mary and Carry who died as infants, also are buried there. The third son, Charles, married and left the county. Mary, the other Robinson daughter, is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in the Burritt mausoleum with her in-laws. Daughter Fanny and her husband, Dr. James Ridley, resided in Huntsville where he conducted his medical practice, and they became parents of three daughters: Marveleen, Irma Grey, and Carrie.
Around Marveleen Walker and Irma Grey Herreshoff, both then residing in Atlanta, donated to Huntsville s Episcopal Church of the Nativity for the construction of a new parish house on the condition that it be named Ridley Hall in honor of their father, who had died in The hall was dedicated in and stands today as a significant component of the Episcopal Church complex that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 33 These have not been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. 34 Deed Book 35 Frances C.
Roberts, Sesquicentennial History of Church of the Nativity, Episcopal (Huntsville, AL: Church of the Nativity, 75, and QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 22) In the Frank Wills-designed Episcopal sanctuary was declared a National Historic Landmark, although Ridley Hall was deemed noncontributing. The other Robinson daughter, Mary King, married Dr. Amatus Robbins Burritt, a homeopathic doctor who had settled in Huntsville in the mid-1850s where he established his practice. Two years after their marriage, Mary purchased a Federal-period frame house [see HABS AL- demolished where they raised their two children, Carrie and William Henry Burritt. Amatus died in William Henry followed his father into homeopathic medicine studying in Nashville, New York, and Cincinnati.
He returned to Huntsville in when his mother Mary became ill, was declared non-compos mentis, and committed to the state asylum as were her brother William and grandson Burritt Matthews where she died in William Henry lived in Missouri for several years, actively involved in the rubber industry, before returning to Huntsville in the early In he deeded his childhood home jointly to the city of Huntsville and Madison County for construction of a new county health department dedicated to the memory of his father, Amatus Burritt.36 By then, William Henry had completed construction of his retirement home, situated on a prominent brow overlooking Huntsville. The house is a truly unique design insulated with straw bales while incorporating a federal mantel and stair rail from the family home.
His will deeded this house, its 160 acres, and its furnishings to Huntsville in for a city museum and park, now known as Burritt on the Mountain [listed in the National Register in Although married three times, Burritt died in leaving no direct heirs. One final structure with a loose connection to Quietdale is Huntsville s third high school. In Johnnie and Guy Bishop became the owners of Quietdale, and in they sold acres on the south side of Quietdale Drive to the Huntsville Board of Education for construction of a new school that opened in initially as a junior high school.38 (These 24 acres were not part of the original Robinson tract.) After fifty-six years of service, Lee High School was replaced in by a new, enlarged Lee High adjacent to it on the west side.
The school buildings will be demolished. Owners and Name: Quietdale has passed through multiple owners and is now situated on just 6.2 acres. The second owner was Alexander Erskine Mastin who purchased the 58-acre property at public auction for in It remained in the Mastin family for sixty-one years being willed first to Mastin s wife Lula on Erskin s death in and then to her five daughters at her death in In four of the daughters deeded their interests to the fifth, Sallie M. Gill, who retained the remaining 26 acres until when she and her husband, Eugene Gill, sold the property to Johnnie Bishop.39 Guy and Johnnie Bishop lived there until when they sold it to Niles Prestage who resold it three years later to Ira and Billie Jones.
The Joneses were devoted to the preservation of the house and were the owners who requested that it be documented for HABS. Sadly, Ira died shortly after that discussion, and Billie sold the house in to the current 36 Deed Book Probate Case No. Deed Book 37 Will Book 7, 38 Deed Book 39 Deed Book Will Book 4, Will Book 5, Deed Book Deed Book 3. QUIETDALE HABS AL-1000 (Page 23) owner, Anna Thornley, who has undertaken a major, but incomplete, renovation and now has it on the market.40 When the name Quietdale became attached to the Robinson property has not been identified. The records in William s estate files reference the William Robinson homeplace.
An plat surveyed for Reuben Chapman, who owned much of the surrounding acreage, included Quietdale but identified it as Robinson and the road running in front of it, east from the Meridianville Pike, is labeled Road to the Pike owned by Chapman. The city directory lists Eugene Gill s residence as Quietdale with no street name. This is the earliest reference to the name so far discovered. An article written by Pat Jones for the Huntsville Times in the refers to the property as the estate now known as Quietdale, which suggests the Gills might have originated the name.41 In the city directory listed the Gills address as Meridian Pike, the shortened name of Meridianville Pike, implying that the street in front of Quietdale was still private.
In fact, a map names the front lane Quietdale Drive (private) while the directory lists the house at 401 Quietdale. Although the house is well within Huntsville today, it remained in the county for 100 years, not being annexed into the corporate limits until the year the city school board purchased land for a new high school on the south side of Quietdale Drive.
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