place

Wilson Park Houses

Georgian Revival architecture in AlabamaHistoric districts in Florence, AlabamaHouses in Florence, AlabamaNRHP infobox with nocatNational Register of Historic Places in Lauderdale County, Alabama
Victorian architecture in Alabama
Wilson Park Houses 2012 09 29 16 36 06
Wilson Park Houses 2012 09 29 16 36 06

The Wilson Park Houses are a group of three historic homes in Florence, Alabama. Built as upper-class residences between 1890 and 1918, the houses are adjacent to Wilson Park, laid out as a public space upon the city's founding and later renamed for President Woodrow Wilson. Two of the houses came to be owned by Hiram Kennedy Douglass, who upon his death in 1975 willed the houses to an organization willing to maintain them for the public. The houses are now owned by the city and contain the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts. The houses were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wilson Park Houses (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Wilson Park Houses
East Tuscaloosa Street, Florence

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Wilson Park HousesContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 34.803888888889 ° E -87.675277777778 °
placeShow on map

Address

East Tuscaloosa Street 217
35630 Florence
Alabama, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Wilson Park Houses 2012 09 29 16 36 06
Wilson Park Houses 2012 09 29 16 36 06
Share experience

Nearby Places

Wood Avenue Historic District
Wood Avenue Historic District

The Wood Avenue Historic District is a historic district in Florence, Alabama. The residential neighborhood was primarily developed after Reconstruction, although five houses date from before the Civil War. By the time of Florence's economic boom of the 1880s, the most fashionable upper-class neighborhood in Florence, today known as the Sannoner Historic District, had already been filled in, leading development to move to Wood Avenue to the west. Most homes built during this time were large, Victorian structures, including many elaborate examples of Queen Anne architecture. As the economy slowed in the 1910s, more modest homes were constructed, primarily bungalows. Although they now make up nearly half of the buildings in the district, the first bungalow in the area, the Wade-Ware House, met resistance from neighbors when it was built in 1916, arguing that its style was not up to the standards of the neighborhood. After the completion of Wilson Dam in 1926, Florence's economy quickened once more and larger homes began to be built in the district. Houses of this era tended to be Georgian Revival in style, although other revival styles, such as Spanish Colonial and Tudor are represented. As the neighborhood filled in, the focus of development shifted to the north and west, including in the Walnut Street Historic District.The district was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage and the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Its boundaries were increased in 1996 and 1997.

Downtown Florence Historic District (Florence, Alabama)
Downtown Florence Historic District (Florence, Alabama)

The Florence Downtown Historic District is a historic district in Florence, Alabama. Florence was founded in 1818 by the Cypress Land Company, who counted among its trustees Creek War General John Coffee, future Governor of Alabama Thomas Bibb, early Huntsville settler LeRoy Pope, and future United States Senator and Supreme Court Justice John McKinley. The company hired Italian surveyor Ferdinand Sannoner, who divided the land into over 400 lots and named the town after Florence, Italy. The first Lauderdale County Courthouse was completed in 1822, and the oldest extant building in the district, the Gothic Revival First Presbyterian Church, was completed two years later. Most of the early buildings was destroyed by a fire in 1866. Development resumed in earnest in the 1880s as Florence's industrial economy developed with the addition of several cotton mills, and the Florence Wagon Works, among others. Other booms occurred in the 1920s with the construction of Wilson Dam, the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s, and during World War II as metals and chemical plants were drawn to the area. The majority of buildings in the district are either one- or two-story brick commercial blocks, the older buildings having Italianate and Classical Revival detailing. Notable buildings in the district include the Art Deco Rogers Department Store, the Italianate Southall Drugs, the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse built in 1913, and the Art Moderne old Public Library, built in 1944. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 and was extensively expanded in 2001.