Eufaula, AL

A walking tour of historic Eufaula, Alabama, on a warm early spring day.

Originally home to the Eufaula Indian tribe, Eufaula was settled by the white man in 1823 by a group of Georgians looking for fertile land. After the bloody Creek Indian War, the native inhabitants ceded their land rights and moved to Eufaula OK and in the 1830's the town began to take its present form

The Dr. William Thornton House was built in 1845. While the interior is basically unchanged, the exterior was modified in the early 1900's by the doctor's daughter, who added the wide veranda supported by round and square Doric columns.

Prominently displayed in a front window of another home was a large statue.

This Queen Anne Cottage is known as the Skillman House. Sarah Sparks had it built in 1891, but sold it almost immediately to C. C. Skillman, the town's blacksmith.

Although not a historic house, I was taken by the landscaping and spring flowers in front of this home.

Dean-Page Hall was built circa 1850 complete with this ornate belvedere.

The blooming dogwoods contrast nicely with the shady porch and ornate trim of this home. This is the Rhodes-Davis home, built in 1889.

Wiliam Raney built this Greek Revival-style home in 1863. The exterior was greatly changed in the early 1900's with the Doric columns and banisters added. The original detached kitchen was attached to the main house at that time.

Dr. John Drewery was known as the greatest typhoid doctor of his time. His house was used as a hospital during severe typhoid outbreaks and Civil War patients were cared for on the large latticed back porch. A roof-top belvedere burned in 1914 and was not replaced.

I was taken by the ornate trim on this porch and the color contrast offered by the waving flag.

Raised on a plantation, John P. Foy became a wholesale grocer and eventually president of the Commercial Bank. He built his home in the Queen Anne Classical style in 1895; no major modifications have been made to its exterior.

This house, the Shorter Mansion, was known as "Eli's Folly", after its owner, Eli Sims Shorter spent $100,000 to remodel an 1884 one-story house into this Neoclassical Revival mansion. It was purchased n 1965 for $33,000 by the Eufaula Heritage Association and is now open for tours daily.

This is The Martin-Bullock-Ballowe House in Eufaula, Alabama. This home was built in 1879 in the Second Empire style by Mr. John O. Martin, one of Eufaula’s earliest settlers. This house is probably one of Eufaula’s most endangered historic buildings. A Eufala resident commented that the house has been under renovation since she was teenager 40 years ago.

Right in the center of town is the Bluff City Inn, built in 1885 by Dr. W. N. Reeves and Mr. J. H. Reeves, both officers of the John McNab Bank. It boasted 100 rooms. A barbershop has occupied the same location since the inn's opening.

In the center of the intersection of Broad St. and Eufaula Ave. is the Confederate Monument. Thirty-five feet tall, it was presented by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1904.

Broad Street, wide and tree-lined, is the center of downtown Eufaula. The Dough Boy Monument, an image of a WWI soldier, or doghboy, honors 5 of the ten men from Eufaula who perished in that war and was erected and dedicated in 1920.

Home now to the Reeves Peanut Company, this warehouse property was built by the Eufaula Grocery Company in 1903 in the Renaissance Revival style.

At 3 1/2 stories, the Bowen-Lamprey-Voors building is one of the tallest in Eufaula. The Lamprey family, prominent members of the Eufaula Cotton Exchange, owned the building from 1885 to 1993. The style is Second Empire.

In the foreground is MacMonnie's Fountain, a three-tiered wrought-iron fountain purchased from the city of Dayton OH in 1880.

This is where we began and ended our tour - at the Chamber of Commerce offices and Visitor Center located in the 1892 Central of Georgia RR freighthouse. Vacant and deteriorating since the late 1980's, it was renovated in 2000.