Montgomery County
The Wharton-Chappell House
The Wharton Chappell House is one of Montgomery's last pre-Civil War cottages. This structure occupies the site of General John Scott's 1817 pioneer settlement, "Alabama Town" which was founded upon a Creek Indian village overlooking the Alabama River. General Scott sold the land to William C. Wharton, a brick-layer from Virginia, who made his Montgomery fortune in brick works with enslaved labor. In 1854, Wharton built this brick house in the fashionable Greek Revival style of the time. During the Civil War two tent hospitals were located in the vicinity. In 1865, residents Louisa and James Chappell amassed hundreds of acres of farmland along Bell Street and the river to produce grains, cotton, vegetables, meats, vineyards, woodlands and more, earning the property the name: Chappell Villa. The Villa remained in the Chappell family for seven decades and was sold by heirs in 1928 to W.F. Joseph. The federal government acquired the property in 1935 and the house was rehabilitated for use as the offices for the housing authority that oversaw the city's efforts to provide low income housing in the city.
(Continued on other side)
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2015
Riverside Heights
(Continued
from other side)
The Wharton-Chappell House rehabilitation for use as the Montgomery Housing Authority (MHA) offices is the earliest documented example of a federally funded adaptive reuse of a historic building within the context of a federal housing project. Riverside Heights was built as a large low-income housing project for whites, constructed under the direction of the Public Works Administration during the Depression. The Wharton-Chappell House served as an office for the MHA and the housing complex for the next seven decades. The complex was expanded in 1940 to provide housing for defense workers during the mobilization for World War II. The Maxwell Field School (later the Pendar Street School and the Peterson Elementary School) was constructed at the northwest corner of the complex in 1955-1956. Expansions and additions to the house reflect the authority's growing operation over time. In 2004, the City of Montgomery announced plans to widen Bell Street and to purchase and raze Riverside Heights. The buildings remained on the site until demolition began circa 2009. The Wharton-Chappell House remains as the only tangible vestige of the former low-income housing complex.
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2015
Comments 0 comments