On March 3, 1817, Congress passed an Act which paved the way for the settling of Demopolis by a group of political exiles who had been banished from France by King Louis XVIII following the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. The act granted four adjoining townships of public lands on the Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers.
The French exiles assumed that olives and grapes would flourish and brought with them carefully protected shoots and stock of their native olive trees and grape vines. A band of about 150, including women and children, reached the White Bluffs (the present site of Demopolis) on July 14, 1817.
Morning in Demopolis
Gaineswood: photo courtesy of Rural Southwest Alabama
Gaineswood: A National Historic Landmark and considered one of America’s finest examples of the Greek Revival style of architecture.
Bluff Hall Bluff Hall was built in 1832 as a father’s gift to his daughter. This Federal townhouse was modified in the Greek Revival style in the 1850’s by the addition of a colonnaded portico, a large front wing and louvered gallery on a rear wing and white paint.
Lunch at the Foscue House
A typical Carolina Style unpainted antebellum farm house. The original construction date (1840) is worked into orange-hued brick on south side chimney. The brown-hued brick addition on the front was added in 1849, requiring removal of two-tiered, columned entrance portico. The present shed-roofed porch was added in the twentieth century by Jesse G. Whitfield, replacing a small 1849 portico. (visit them on Urban Spoon
here)
Afternoon Travel
Laird Cottage: Headquarters of the Marengo County Historical Society and houses a large collection of works by internationally famous sculptor and painter Geneva Mercer, native of Marengo County
St. Andrews Episcopal Church (Gallion): St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, also known as St. Andrew’s Church, in Prairieville, Alabama, is a small Carpenter Gothic style church built in 1853. The exterior of the church features wooden buttresses. It appears to have been built from a design in the book Rural Architecture by architect Richard Upjohn.
http://trinitydemopolis.dioala.org/standrews/homecoming.html
