Cedar Crest, also known as Cedar Crest Farms, is a

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

located near Faunsdale,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. It was built for Kimbrough Cassels Dubose in 1850 by Albert Prince, a slave. Dubose, born in Darlington District, South Carolina was educated at the preparatory school of Prof. Stafford who later was of the faculty of the University of Alabama. His wife was Miss Elizabeth Boykin Witherspoon also of Darlington District, South Carolina, and they had seven sons and four daughters: John Witherspoon, James Henry, Jr., Eugene, Nicholas William, Francis Marion, Lemuel Benton and Edwin Dargan-the daughters Louisa, Rosalie, Augusta and Adele. The plantation was worked by the forced labor of as many as 130 enslaved persons. The house is one-and-a-half stories with side gables, but has been simplified. It originally had side wings, with adjoining porches across the front. These were removed in 1939, leaving the small central front portico. Another historic plantation house, Altwood, was moved from a nearby location to the Cedar Crest grounds in 1988.Marengo County Heritage Book Committee: ''The heritage of Marengo County, Alabama'', page 15. Clanton, Alabama: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000. The house 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 August 5, 1993, as a part of the

Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission The Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings Multiple Property Submission is a multiple property submission of properties that were together listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The multiple prop ...

. Kimbrough Dubose's son John Witherspoon Dubose, author of "Chronicles of the Canebrake," resided at "Cedar Grove" as he referred to it from February 1850 until December 1876.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Marengo County, Alabama Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Greek Revival houses in Alabama Houses completed in 1850 Plantation houses in Alabama Houses in Marengo County, Alabama {{MarengoCountyAL-NRHP-stub