The Montgomery-Janes-Whittaker House, best known today as Buena Vista, is a historic Federal

Federal architecture

Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...

 style plantation house in Autauga County

Autauga County, Alabama

Autauga County is a county in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census the population was 54,571. Its county seat is Prattville.Autauga County is part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

, 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...

, south of Prattville

Prattville, Alabama

Prattville is a city in Autauga and Elmore counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the city is 33,960. Nicknamed "The Fountain City" due to the many artesian wells in the area, Prattville is part of the Montgomery metropolitan statistical area and serves as...

. It was listed 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 October 25, 1974. The house is currently owned by the Autauga County Heritage Association and operated as a historic house museum.

History

Construction of the house was started in 1822 by one of the first landowners, John W. Freeman or Josiah Huie. It was completed by the next owner, William Montgomery, in 1844. Mary Emma Scott Stewart purchased the property in 1910 from the Montgomery family. Jacob Janes then owned the house for two years before it was sold to the Fred Whittaker family in 1937. The Whittaker family restored and added modern amenities to the house. They owned it until 1978, when the house was inherited by M.W. Petrey, Jr. It was sold again in 1982 to the Union Camp Corporation

Union Camp Corporation

Union Camp Corporation was an American pulp and paper company and a private owner of timberland in the United States. In 1999 it was acquired by International Paper.-Company creation:...

, a pulp and paper company

Pulp and paper industry

The global pulp and paper industry is dominated by North American , northern European and East Asian countries...

 that allowed the Autauga County Heritage Association to preserve and maintain the house. Following Union Camp's acquisition by International Paper

International Paper

International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 59,500 employees, and it is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.-History:...

, the new owner donated the house to the association in 2007.

Architecture

Original exterior details of the -story frame house include delicately built fanlight

Fanlight

A fanlight is a window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan, It is placed over another window or a doorway. and is sometimes hinged to a transom. The bars in the fixed glazed window spread out in the manner a sunburst...

s over the front doors and in the side gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

 ends. The interior features elaborate plasterwork

Plasterwork

Plasterwork refers to construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. This is also sometimes called pargeting...

 and a spiral mahogany

Mahogany

The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....

 staircase that ascends from the ground floor to the third floor attic. A monumental 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...

 portico was added to the front facade of the house during the Colonial Revival

Colonial Revival architecture

The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...

 period by the Stewart family. The Whittaker family changed the front portico floor from wood to brick and added cast iron

Cast iron

Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

 to the existing second floor balcony during their restoration efforts.

See also

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

External links

• Buena Vista (Official website)