Kirkwood is a historic plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 house in Eutaw

Eutaw, Alabama

Eutaw is a city in Greene County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 1,878. The city is the county seat of Greene County and was named in honor of the Battle of Eutaw Springs, the last engagement of the American Revolutionary War in the Carolinas...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. The house was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey

Historic American Buildings Survey

The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...

 in 1934 and by Carol M. Highsmith

Carol M. Highsmith

Carol M. Highsmith is a photographer, author, and publisher who has photographed all 50 of the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico for 30 years...

 in 2010. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on May 17, 1976, due to its architectural significance.

Architecture

Kirkwood is built in the Greek Revival

Greek Revival architecture

The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...

 style with Italianate

Italianate architecture

The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

 influences. Foster M. Kirksey began building the house in 1858. Construction was halted by the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, leaving several features of the houses incomplete. The house is wood framed with two primary floors and a large cupola

Cupola

In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....

 crowning the low-pitched hipped roof. The roof eaves are ornamented with wooden bracket

Bracket

Brackets are tall punctuation marks used in matched pairs within text, to set apart or interject other text. In the United States, "bracket" usually refers specifically to the "square" or "box" type.-List of types:...

s. A monumentally scaled portico

Portico

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

 with Ionic

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

 columns wraps around two sides of the house. The balcony railings, cupola, and several minor features were completed in the 1970s, when Roy and Mary Swayze restored the house. The Swayze family was awarded a National Trust for Historic Preservation

National Trust for Historic Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an American member-supported organization that was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods through a range of programs and activities, including the publication of Preservation...

 Honor Award in 1982 for their restoration efforts.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Greene County, Alabama