Lakewood is a historic antebellum mansion in Livingston,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The two-and-a-half-story

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

-style house was completed in 1840. The house was recorded by the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

in 1936. It was added to Alabama's Places in Peril in 2012, a listing that highlights significantly endangered properties in the state.

History

Lakewood was built for Joseph Lake, a native of

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 ...

, by Hiram W. Bardwell, a master builder. Construction was completed in 1840. Located adjacent to the

University of West Alabama The University of West Alabama (UWA) is a public university in Livingston, Alabama. Founded in 1835, the school began as a church-supported school for young women called Livingston Female Academy. The original Board of Trustees of Livingston Fe ...

, Julia Strudwick Tutwiler, a Lake relative, periodically resided in the house from 1881 to 1910 while she served as president of the university. It was then known as Livingston Normal College. The house was extensively photographed by Alex Bush for the Historic American Buildings Survey in November and December 1936. Lakewood has continued to be owned by descendants of the Lake family to the current day. The house and its surviving of grounds were listed on the Places in Peril in 2012 due to the immediate threat of its acquisition by developers.

Architecture

The house has a plan that is relatively rare in early Alabama architecture. The plan features a brick ground floor that is topped by one and a half stories of wood-frame construction. The ground floor originally contained domestic spaces, with the formal rooms on the principal floor and bedrooms on the upper floor. A central hallway is present on all levels. The facade is five bays wide, with central entrance doors on the ground and principal floors. The bays are divided by two-story Doric

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s, with the middle third of the facade occupied by a two-tiered

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

Doric portico. Two curved

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

staircases ascend from ground level to the front center of the upper portico, leading to the formal entrance.

References

{{Reflist Greek Revival houses in Alabama Houses in Sumter County, Alabama Houses completed in 1840