Alabama Front Porches: The official website for Alabama's Black Belt

Demopolis; 1817; forced to flee France when Napoleon’s empire failed, his aristocratic supporters founded what was intended to be a city of the people. They hoped to establish a successful wine and olive industry in the Alabama territory, but eventually failed. This marker is located on the N side of Hwy 80 on the E [...]

Trinity Episcopal Church was founded in 1834 and is the third oldest church in the Diocese of Alabama. The congregation met in homes and a small log building until 1850 when a frame building was constructed on this lot given by the Lyon family. Federal Troops burned the framed building during the occupation of Demopolis [...]

Between 1842 and the outbreak of the Civil Way, Gaineswood evolved from a two-room cabin surrounded by 1000 acres of cotton into a Greek Revival style mansion. General Nathan Bryan Whitfield, the builder, was his own architect, though he had no formal training. The labor was done mostly by slaves, some of whom were extremely [...]

Overlooking the Tombigbee River, Bluff Hall exemplifies two major architectural trends in the Antebellum South. Built in 1832 as a father’s gift to his daughter, the original brick Federal style structure was modified to Greek Revival in the 1850′s by the addition of the columned portico, a large rear wing and white paint. Bluff Hall [...]