The Raphael Semmes House, also known as the Horta-Semmes House, is a historic residence in Mobile

Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

, 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...

. It is best known for having been the home of Admiral Raphael Semmes

Raphael Semmes

For other uses, see Semmes .Raphael Semmes was an officer in the United States Navy from 1826 - 1860 and the Confederate States Navy from 1860 - 1865. During the American Civil War he was captain of the famous commerce raider CSS Alabama, taking a record sixty-nine prizes...

, captain of the Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 sloop-of-war

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 CSS Alabama

CSS Alabama

CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead, United Kingdom, in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company. Alabama served as a commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never anchored in...

. The house was added to 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 February 26, 1970.

History

The Raphael Semmes House was built by its first owner, Peter Horta, in 1858. The structure was purchased in 1871 by the citizens of Mobile and presented to Raphael Semmes. Semmes lived here until his death in 1877. In the mid-twentieth century Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Linyer Bedsole purchased and restored the house, donating it on April 22, 1946 to the First Baptist Church of Mobile situated next door. It was given in memory of their son, Lt. Joseph Linyer Bedsole, Jr., who was killed in action over Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Architecture

The overall exterior design of the two-story brick townhouse is in a simple Federal style

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...

, with a 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...

 entrance doorway and surround. The front (south) facade is adorned with a full-width 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...

 porch across the ground floor, added in 1870s. The ironwork features a floral design motif. Due the narrow city lot upon which it was built, the house is much longer than it is wide. The main body of the house measures approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) wide by 40 feet (12.2 m) deep. A two-story rear ell

Ell (architecture)

In architecture, an ell is a wing of a building that lies perpendicular to the length of the main portion.In connected farm architecture, the ell is often extended to attach the main house to another building, usually a barn. It takes its name from the shape of the letter L.-External links:*...

is attached to the northwest corner of the main house and measures approximately 15 feet (4.6 m) wide by 27 feet (8.2 m) deep, extending the entire depth of the house to 67 feet (20.4 m). The ell served as the service wing and was fronted on the courtyard side by wooden galleries on both floors that adjoined the matching rear galleries of the main house.

The interior layout features a stair hall on the west side of the house, on both floors. The stairway is mahogany with turned spindles. The stair hall opens onto a parlor and dining room on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second floor. The parlor and dining room both retain their original black marble mantles. The service ell contains a kitchen and storage room on the first floor and two servant rooms on the second.