The Urquhart House (pronounced ''Er- Kit'') is a historic residence in

Huntsville, Alabama 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 t ...

. The property was acquired by Allen Urquhart in 1813, and the house was built soon after. The dogtrot house was built in several phases, with the eastern "pen" being the original section. It was originally built as a one-room

log house A log house, or log building, is a structure built with horizontal logs interlocked at the corners by notching. Logs may be round, squared or hewn to other shapes, either handcrafted or milled. The term " log cabin" generally refers to a sm ...

with a 7-foot (2.1-meter) ceiling. The house was extensively modified around 1835; the ceiling was raised to , and many

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

-period details were added, including beaded

chair rail A dado rail, also known as a chair rail or surbase, is a type of moulding fixed horizontally to the wall around the perimeter of a room. The dado rail is traditionally part of the dado or wainscot and, although the purpose of the dado is main ...

s and

baseboard In architecture, a baseboard (also called skirting board, skirting, wainscoting, mopboard, trim, floor molding, or base molding) is usually wooden or vinyl board covering the lowest part of an interior wall. Its purpose is to cover the joint b ...

s, an elaborate

mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...

, and

lath A lath or slat is a thin, narrow strip of straight-grained wood used under roof shingles or tiles, on lath and plaster walls and ceilings to hold plaster, and in lattice and trellis work. ''Lath'' has expanded to mean any type of backing mate ...

and plastered walls. The second floor and western pen may have been added at this time; most of the original details were removed from the western pen in the early 20th century, making it difficult to date its construction. When it was completed, the house's dogtrot form was established, including loft rooms over both pens and the

breezeway A breezeway is an architectural feature similar to a hallway that allows the passage of a breeze between structures to accommodate high winds, allow aeration, or provide aesthetic design variation. It is a pedestrian walkway because it is intende ...

. An addition was made in the 1860s or 1870s to the rear of the western pen which features a

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 ...

mantle. In circa 1915–1930, a

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...

was added to the rear of this room, and an enclosed

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

was built in the ell along the rear of the house. A front porch was added in the middle of the 20th century. The house was listed on 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 1992. It was included on the Alabama Historical Commission's Places In Peril list for 2013; after years of neglect, the building is nearing collapse.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Huntsville, Alabama Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Federal architecture in Alabama Houses completed in 1813 Houses in Huntsville, Alabama {{Alabama-NRHP-stub