The McGehee–Stringfellow House, also known as Oak Grove, was a historic

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 ...

near

Greensboro Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina, af ...

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 ...

, United States. 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 September 17, 1980, due to its

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

significance. It was accidentally destroyed in the 1980s during an attempt to move it to another location.

History

The house was built by Abraham and Harriet Hill McGehee. Abraham McGehee was born in

Oglethorpe County, Georgia Oglethorpe County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,825. The county seat is Lexington. Oglethorpe County is included in the Athens-Clarke County, GA Met ...

in 1791; Harriet was born in 1798. They married in 1817. By 1824 they had relocated to Alabama and were building the house. Construction on the house stopped after Harriet's death on February 25, 1826. She was the first burial in the family cemetery on the property. McGehee sold the house and the plantation property to Enoch Stringfellow, and migrated west to

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. Enoch Stringfellow died in 1839 and the house was inherited by his son, McDonald. McDonald Stringfellow died in 1875, but the house remained in the Stringfellow family until the late 1970s. But deferred maintenance had resulted in the house beginning to deteriorate in the 1940s. The decline in the agricultural company had left the family without resources to maintain the house. The house and surrounding property were sold in the 1970s to

MacMillan Bloedel MacMillan Bloedel Limited was a Canadian forestry company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company was formed in 1951 as MacMillan and Bloedel through the merger of Bloedel, Stewart and Welch with the H. R. MacMillan Export Com ...

, a

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

company. The company attempted to move the house from the property in the 1980s, but the brick structure collapsed while still on its original site. The house site remains on the National Register of Historic Places.

Architecture

The McGehee–Stringfellow House was built in the Federal-style. It was a two-story structure with two rooms and a central hall on each floor. The entire house was built from brick that was handmade on the plantation by McGehee's enslaved African-American workers. It featured side gables and a symmetrical three-

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 ...

facade. Both sides of the house had large external

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...

s centered in the wall, with windows to either side on both floors. The original woodwork in the house was joined using the older technique of wooden pegs, rather than nails. McGehee had planned a two-story brick

ell An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", an ...

for the rear of the house, but it was not built due to the interruption of Harriet's death. Instead, Enoch Stringfellow added a frame addition to the rear of the house, as well as a detached one-story log kitchen. McDonald Stringfellow replaced the log kitchen with a frame building housing the kitchen and dining room. It was connected to the house by a covered breezeway.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGehee-Stringfellow House National Register of Historic Places in Hale County, Alabama Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Houses completed in 1824 Plantation houses in Alabama Demolished buildings and structures in Alabama Houses in Hale County, Alabama 1824 establishments in Alabama 1980s disestablishments in Alabama Demolished but still listed on the National Register of Historic Places