Rosemount is 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

Forkland, Alabama Forkland is a town in Greene County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 445. It was incorporated around 1974. History Forkland has one site on the National Register of Historic Places, St. John's-In-The-Prairie, b ...

, United States. The

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, ...

style house was built in stages between 1832 and the 1850s by the Glover family. The house has been called the "Grand Mansion of Alabama." The property 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 May 27, 1971. The Glover family enslaved over 300 people from 1830 until 1860.

History

Allen Glover, of

Demopolis Demopolis is the largest city in Marengo County, in west-central Alabama. The population was 7,162 at the 2020 census. The city lies at the confluence of the Black Warrior River and Tombigbee River. It is situated atop a cliff composed of th ...

, gave the property to his son, Williamson Allen Glover, in the early 1830s. The main block of the house, designed in 1832 by state architect, William Nichols, is centered on a prominent star-shaped hill. This main block, with three floors and a mezzanine, was built in 1835. Williamson Allen Glover continued to expand the rear and interior of the house, through successive additions and reconfigurations, up to 1855. He went on to raise a total of sixteen children in the mansion's twenty rooms.

Architecture

The exterior of the house features a Carolina-type monumental two-story Ionic portico, east and west side porches, and a continuous

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

with

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

s above the second story and the cupola. The house plan forms a T-shape, to take advantage of the cross-ventilation that this plan affords. The major interior rooms include an entrance hall, twin parlors, great halls on both main floors that are long, a dining room, eight bedrooms, and a rooftop

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

, the largest residential example in Alabama. The cupola houses a music room that measures by ; double doors exit the south side of the music room onto a three sided porch with Doric columns. The cupola functioned as a look-out over the plantation and, along with the great halls, as a way to exhaust heated air out of the house during hot weather. Though no longer extant, the grounds once included formal gardens, a carriage house, a two-story servant's quarters, a schoolhouse, several barns, a corn crib, a shop, five slave cabins behind the main house, and a "slave village" about one mile away. Additionally there was a detached kitchen, now destroyed, that was later moved and attached to the house. The house passed through different families over the years, going through some periods of disrepair and later, restorations. A massive restoration was begun around 2005 and the exterior was completely finished.

References

* https://sankofagenus.com/2017/06/24/rosemount-plantation/ {{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Greene County, Alabama Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Houses completed in 1850 Greek Revival houses in Alabama Plantation houses in Alabama Houses in Greene County, Alabama Slave cabins and quarters in the United States

History

Architecture

See also

References