The Gurley Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Gurley, Alabama Gurley is a town in Madison County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 816. History The community takes its name from the Gurley famil ...

. The town was originally the plantation of John Gurley, who came to Madison County from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

in the 1830s. In 1857, the

Memphis and Charleston Railroad The Memphis and Charleston Railroad, completed in 1857, was the first railroad in the United States to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Mississippi River. Chartered in 1846, the gauge railroad ran from Memphis, Tennessee to Stevenson, Alabama t ...

built its line through the property, and Gurley constructed a water tank to service the line's

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

was established in 1866, at which time only a few families lived in the area. The town incorporated in 1890, and the population immediately began to grow. Industry was attracted to the area by its abundance of lumber; many

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

s, producers of wooden

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

s, and the Eagle Pencil Company set up shop near the town. Retail establishments were centered on Joplin Street, however a fire in 1923 destroyed most of the structures. Depletion of the area's timber and the greater influence of neighboring

Huntsville Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...

drew industry away in the 1920s and 1930s, though despite declining population a new Madison County High School was built in 1936. The oldest extant building in the district is the Captain Elijah F. Walker House, built in 1874 by the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

veteran who would later serve in the

Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency contai ...

. The majority of the remaining structures were built between 1891 and 1910; notable among them is the H. A. Smith House, an elaborate Queen Anne house built by a carpenter who would later serve as postmaster. Several other houses exhibit Queen Anne,

American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its ...

, and

Bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

details, though most are less decorated folk architectural forms. Two churches in the district, the United Methodist church built in 1891 and the Presbyterian church built in 1912, are

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

in style. ''See also:'' The district was listed on the

Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage The Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, commonly referred to as the Alabama Register, is an official listing of buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts deemed worthy of preservation in the U.S. state of Alabama. These properties ...

in 1995 and the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2004.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Alabama Historic districts in Madison County, Alabama Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama {{Alabama-NRHP-stub