Kildare-McCormick House

About this property

The Kildare–McCormick House is a historic residence in Huntsville, Alabama. The highly ornate, Queen Anne-style mansion was built in 1886–87. Its early owners contributed to the development of Huntsville, both through industrial projects and philanthropic efforts. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The house was built by industrialist Michael O'Shaugnessey, who had come to Huntsville from Nashville in 1881 with his brother to open a cottonseed oil factory. He also was a member of the North Alabama Improvement Company, which invested in infrastructure and industry and were the main backers of Dallas Mill. O'Shaugnessey built his mansion in 1886 on 71 acres (29 ha), naming it Kildare, after the county in Ireland where he was born. O'Shaugnessey returned to Nashville in 1900, and sold the house to Mary Virginia McCormick, daughter of Cyrus McCormick, another industrial magnate who invented the mechanical reaper. Virginia McCormick lived in the house as a winter residence with her caretaker Grace Walker. McCormick and Walker were heavily involved in philanthropic efforts in the city. McCormick funded several YMCAs in the mill villages surrounding town, an African-American wing for the then-segregated Huntsville Hospital, and a hospital at Alabama A&M University; Virginia's relative, Robert R. McCormick also funded A&M's Domestic Science Building. The house was used for many social events, including Christmas parties for children, Easter egg hunts, and a celebration for Virginia's birthday in May. During McCormick's tenure, a conservatory was added to the side of the ballroom and a porch added to the rear of the house. McCormick moved out of the house in 1931, and the family subdivided and sold the property the next year. Over the next 40 years, the house had no fewer than 10 owners who repurposed the house as a hotel, boarding house, health spa, antique shop, and brothel. After years of neglect, the house was purchased in 1975 by James Reeves, who restored the house over the next 20 years. The current owners purchased the house in 2007 and constructed a protective barrier around it sometime after 2013. As of 2024, the structure had fallen into disrepair, with broken windows and mature foliage growing from the eastern chimney. The Kildare–McCormick House is three stories, plus an English basement, and contains 40 rooms and ove 10,000 square feet (1580 sq. m.) of living space. The house has a central block with a southern wing with a rectangular ell on one corner and a cylindrical tower on the other, and a northwestern wing with an semicircular section. Designed in a highly decorated Queen Anne style, the exterior combines a variety of materials and colors.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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