The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-21
The Greek Revival of the Far South

J. Robbie Kennedy Jr., in the Architee-
tural Record.
n ERHAPs nowhere over the south
can be found town which more
perfectly blends the relies Of the
old regime with that of the new than
we find here in the quaint old town of
Tuscaloosa, with its wide streets and
their rows of massive oaks, forming over
head a veritable canopy Of verdant green,
and lined with houses and grounds roam
ing about with the true southern disre-
gard Of space 1t is a town which to the
historian teens with interest of the early
days of the state, and 1t should TEEN
with interest to the architectural stu
dent, for here we find a type of house
of the southern variety, which in many
ways is superior to the other multitude
of charming. old buildings that deluged
the black belt and the south in general
with their white becolumned porticos in
the early part of the past century. In
studying these old buildings we cannot
fail to be interested in their histories
snd their roamnces.
The town of Tuscaloosa was founded
IN 1915 on a high plateau on the banks
of the Black Warrior river at a point
where the foothills of the Appalachian
mountains emerge into the fiat country
which only a few miles from Tuscaloosa
again energies into the black-soiled prai-
RE of the so-ealled black belt. The little
settlement made in 1916 grew rapidly and
in 1873 1t was laid out in streets and
chartered as a city. Continuing to grow
in size and importance, it was chosen in
1876 as the capital of the state. to super
sede Cahawba, which had grown uninhab-
liable on account of its malaria In 1926
1t was also chosen the site for the
state university, which, in 1881 opened its
doors to the youth of the state as an
institution of learning
The towns prosperity and importance
continued until 1886 when it received
somewhat of a setback by being super
seeded as the capital city by Mont gomery,
larger and more central town. Since
that time it has not retained the impor-
sant place in business and governmental
affairs that it held in its earlier days
But the point which really interests
one Is the high degree of enlightenment
its society attained in apte-bellum days
a quality which 1t retainsy to this day
Perhaps the reason for this highly devel-
oped society in so young a town as Tus-
caloosa was the superior class of immi-
grants attracted by the towns prosper
ity and Importance; and according to all
accounts this class of immigrants con-
sisted largely of men of the professions
os law and medcine-and these profess
siors were the only honorable ones in
ante-beum days. The association of the
executive officers of the state and legis-
lature with the faculty and student body
of the university also gives us an indi-
cation of an unusual social condition, 1t
may also be said that the settlers of this
old town are generally known to have
come from Virginia and the Carolnas
One old writer who seems a little enthu-
. siastic over the society of that time says:
This class of men was the ruling class
of the south-the slave-holding class
which, during ante-bellum days, formed
. in itself a veritable little aristocracy.
From the earliest times the social lines
. of demarcation were very broadly mark
ed Old families rich from commerce or
f planting, at the head of cotton houses or
. baronial plantations down in the black
belt with their teeming population of
slaves, with their large incomes, oppor-
tunity and taste for leisure. luxury and
culture, brought home-life here to a de-
gree of pAlish and elegant eXcIusiVeness
that was unsurpassed. Here hospitality
| hipened into fine art and never Powered
to a more exquisite display than in this
old town. The men were honorable, chiv-
alric and Thoroughbred New IDEAS have