The Albany Welcome Center, formerly known as the Bridge House, is a historic residential building in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in Southwest Geo ...

. It was designed by

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

architect and engineer Horace King and built in 1858.Bridge House
Explore Southern History 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 November 19, 1974. It is located at 112 North Front Street. Born into slavery, King was granted special rights by 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 ...

in 1858 and was a successful engineer and architect of bridges in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

. Colonel Nelson Tift hired him in 1858 to build a

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

across the

Flint River The Flint River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains of western Georgia, flowing south from th ...

at Albany and King's design included an adjoining Bridge House that served as a gateway to the city. Horace King circa 1855

The home's cellars were used during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

for a meat packing operation to feed Confederate soldiers, and the grounds were used as for the slaughter of thousands of cows, hogs and sheep that were pickled in barrels.Albany Register
Albany, Georgia Sites on the National Register of Historic Places On the second floor is a room known as "Tift's Hall" that was made into a theater. It was described as the social center of Albany. Tift hired artists from New York to decorate the hall's walls and ceilings with ornate

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es. The room was used to host actors, hold dances, stage plays, and was also used for

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

meetings. In 1887, Nelson Tift sold his bridge rights to Dougherty County, which later built a new bridge south of the Bridge House. The building was home for several decades to an auto parts store, and following the Flood of 1994, was purchased by Dougherty County as part of downtown Albany's redevelopment. The Bridge House was meticulously restored under the direction of David Maschke, a local architect, and reopened as the Albany Welcome Center in August 2008.

References

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External links

The Bridge House
historical marker Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Houses completed in 1858 Buildings and structures in Albany, Georgia Houses in Dougherty County, Georgia National Register of Historic Places in Dougherty County, Georgia

See also

References

External links