National Register of Historic Places

McGehee-Stringfellow House

Greensboro, Hale County, Alabama
Listed
September 16, 1980
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
80000686

About this property

The McGehee–Stringfellow House, also known as Oak Grove, was a historic plantation house near Greensboro, Alabama, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1980, due to its architectural significance. It was accidentally destroyed in the 1980s during an attempt to move it to another location. The house was built by Abraham and Harriet Hill McGehee. Abraham McGehee was born in Oglethorpe County, Georgia 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 800-acre (3.2 km2) plantation property to Enoch Stringfellow, and migrated west to Mississippi. 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, a forestry 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. 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 facade. Both sides of the house had large external chimneys 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 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.

Location

Greensboro, Hale County, Alabama
32.75207, -87.67807

Categories

EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENTARCHITECTURESOCIAL HISTORY
National Register nomination ›
Sources

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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Nearby Historic Sites

Borden Oaks
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2.7 mi
Hatch House
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3.5 mi
Magnolia Grove (Additional Documentation)
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5.2 mi
Greensboro Historic District
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5.5 mi
Erwin, John, House
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5.8 mi

Questions about this property

When was McGehee-Stringfellow House listed on the National Register?

McGehee-Stringfellow House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 16, 1980.

What type of historic resource is McGehee-Stringfellow House?

McGehee-Stringfellow House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for McGehee-Stringfellow House?

The period of significance for McGehee-Stringfellow House is recorded as the industrial era.

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