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Rosemount (Forkland, Alabama)
Encyclopedia
Rosemount is a historic plantation
house near Forkland, Alabama
. The Greek Revival
style house was built in stages between 1832 and the 1850s by the Glover family. The house has been called the "Grand Mansion of Alabama." The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places
on May 27, 1971.
, gave the 3000 acres (1,214.1 ha) property, along with the beginnings of the main house, to his son, Williamson Allen Glover, in the early 1830s. The house was centered on a prominent star-shaped hill. Williamson Allen Glover expanded the house through successive additions and reconfigurations. He went on to raise a total of sixteen children in the mansion's twenty rooms.
portico, east and west side porches, and a continuous cornice
with dentil
s above the second story and the cupola. The house plan forms a T-shape, to take advantage of the cross-ventilation that this plan affords. The major interior rooms include an entrance hall, twin parlors, great halls on both main floors that are 60 feet (18.3 m) long, a dining room, eight bedrooms, and a roof-top cupola
, the largest residential example in Alabama. The cupola houses a music room that measures 16 feet (4.9 m) by 25 feet (7.6 m), double doors exit the south side of the music room onto a three sided porch with Doric
columns. The cupola functioned as a look-out over the plantation and, along with the great halls, as a way to exhaust heated air out of the house during hot weather. Though no longer extant, the grounds once included formal gardens, a carriage house, a two-story servant's quarters, a schoolhouse, several barns, a corn crib, a shop, five slave cabins behind the main house, and a "slave village" about one mile away. Additionally there was a detached kitchen that was later moved and attached to the house.
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 near Forkland, Alabama
Forkland, Alabama
Forkland is a town in Greene County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 629. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:Forkland has one site on the National Register of Historic Places, St...
. 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 house was built in stages between 1832 and the 1850s by the Glover family. The house has been called the "Grand Mansion of Alabama." The property 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 May 27, 1971.
History
Allen Glover, of DemopolisDemopolis, Alabama
Demopolis is the largest city in Marengo County, Alabama, United States. The population was 7,483 at the time of the 2010 United States Census....
, gave the 3000 acres (1,214.1 ha) property, along with the beginnings of the main house, to his son, Williamson Allen Glover, in the early 1830s. The house was centered on a prominent star-shaped hill. Williamson Allen Glover expanded the house through successive additions and reconfigurations. He went on to raise a total of sixteen children in the mansion's twenty rooms.
Architecture
The exterior of the house features a monumental two-story IonicIonic 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, east and west side porches, and a continuous cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
with dentil
Dentil
In classical architecture a dentil is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice.The Roman architect Vitruvius In classical architecture a dentil (from Lat. dens, a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice.The Roman architect...
s above the second story and the cupola. The house plan forms a T-shape, to take advantage of the cross-ventilation that this plan affords. The major interior rooms include an entrance hall, twin parlors, great halls on both main floors that are 60 feet (18.3 m) long, a dining room, eight bedrooms, and a roof-top 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....
, the largest residential example in Alabama. The cupola houses a music room that measures 16 feet (4.9 m) by 25 feet (7.6 m), double doors exit the south side of the music room onto a three sided porch with Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
columns. The cupola functioned as a look-out over the plantation and, along with the great halls, as a way to exhaust heated air out of the house during hot weather. Though no longer extant, the grounds once included formal gardens, a carriage house, a two-story servant's quarters, a schoolhouse, several barns, a corn crib, a shop, five slave cabins behind the main house, and a "slave village" about one mile away. Additionally there was a detached kitchen that was later moved and attached to the house.