The Bankhead House, also known as Sunset and the John Hollis Bankhead House, is a historic mansion in

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

, Walker County, Alabama. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on June 18, 1973.

History

The

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

-style house was built for John H. Bankhead in 1910. He served in the

Alabama Legislature The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both cham ...

, as a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

, and as a

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

. His granddaughter, the award-winning actress Tallulah Brockman Bankhead and her sister Eugenia, were raised in the house when

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

was not in session. The pair were largely reared by their grandmother, Tallulah James Brockman Bankhead, after their mother died from

sepsis Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage of sepsis is followed by suppression of the immune system. Common signs and s ...

less than a month after Tallulah's birth.

Architecture

The

-style house is a two-story wood-frame building with a stone foundation and hipped roof. It features a one-story portico that spans the full width of the front (east) of the house and partially wraps around each side. At the front central

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

, the porch projects and transitions to a two-tiered portico that frames the main entrance. A

porte cochere Porte may refer to: *Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman empire *Porte, Piedmont, a municipality in the Piedmont region of Italy *John Cyril Porte, British/Irish aviator *Richie Porte, Australian professional cyclist who competes ...

projects out from the main porch on the south side of the house. Most of the windows feature one lite per sash, typical of the time the house was built.

References

External links

* National Register of Historic Places in Walker County, Alabama Houses in Walker County, Alabama Neoclassical architecture in Alabama Houses completed in 1910 Historic house museums in Alabama Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Bankhead family Historic American Buildings Survey in Alabama 1910 establishments in Alabama {{Alabama-museum-stub