As some of you know, I’m a historic house plan collector. I’ve got boxes of books and house plans from the Victorian and Edwardian eras and on into the 1920s and 30s. One of my favorite architects, is George Franklin Barber. I have lots of plan books with his designs in it. In fact, I can spot one of George’s houses pretty easy. I like using them in my books and have also seen his plans used by present day designers creating what’s called “new old houses.”
George was known for his mail order house plan business. In fact, he was doggone good at it. He advertised like nobody’s business and was widely published. His Victorian couture designs could be spotted all over Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and a host of other states.
George was born near Ft. Scott in Kansas, moved in 1884 to Dekalb, IL, and started a business, Barber & Boardman. They were contractors and builders. He moved to Knoxville four years later and went into business with Martin Parmelee. Worked with a Mr. Linden in 1889 and a Mr. Mould in 1890, then finally settled into George F. Barber and Company. He filled an entire floor with draftsmen once he reached that stage of his business life.
George was very popular, and his houses are featured on old house realty sites and in numerous books and magazines. But I came across one house of his years ago that I had never seen the plan for and fell in love with it. One sees a lovely Victorian Cottage by George and thinks, “Oh, if only those walls could talk!” Well, this house’s does, after a fashion. The realtor got a little history of the house, and though the little hamlet in Alabama where it’s located isn’t the bustling place it used to be, it’s still fascinating to read the history behind such a delectable piece of architecture and the little town of Orrville, Alabama.
The house was built by George F. Barber and displayed in the May 1896 edition of George’s American Homes. John E. Dunaway, the home’s builder and first owner, was quite the busy gentleman back in the day. Mr. Dunaway owned J.E. Mercantile Company in Orrville which handled Dry Goods, Groceries, 5000 bales of cotton annually, 1000 tons of fertilizer, 600 plows & plantation furnishings.
The house he built consisted of 4674 sq ft with 7 bedrooms & 3 baths has beautiful pine floors, original mantels, wainscoting, spool work detail, bay windows & porches on 3 sides! The 1.7 acre lot is level & tree shaded with a brick carriage house in back. I’m sure he had more land back in his time, but in our time, 1.7 acres is what the home has. Oh, the temptation!
In 1850, the town of Orrville didn’t exist yet. It was nothing but a stoop on the road near the town of Cahawaba, best known for an Artesian well that refreshed travelers trekking through Alabama. One early map called it Orrs Mill in 1853, and by 1860, the town was officially named Orrville. Orrville’s entrepreneurial founder, James Franklin Orr, was a young man when he and his wife Mary settled on their farm in nearby Bogue Chitto. An inventive fellow, Orr owned all the adjacent lots in town and designed a public square based around the boundless Artesian well.
He set up his gin, grist, and sawmills, and over time,
included a planning mill, flour mill and two
blacksmith shops all clustered under one very large roof. Mr. Orr also acquired over 10,000 acres of farmland and grew cotton, corn, wheat and even experimented with raising rice. He raised cattle, horses, and even made scuppernong wine from his backyard vineyard. A natural tinkerer, Orr invented an air rifle and earned $5000 for designing an off set screw driver. He’s best known for his prized cotton gin, which was patented in 1857. Orr and Mary had four young children and contributed a place for churches to worship on a rotational basis and donated acreage to build the towns first school. the Orrville Male Academy, a Greek Revival mansion on Academy Street that is a private residence today. A female academy was also built, which later burned down. Other families started moving here in the late 1800s and Orrville was incorporated in 1907. For much of the 20th century, Orrville prospered as banks, schools, cotton gins, druggists and mercantile stores all served the population in and around the one-square mile town.
Staring at the cottage George designed and Mr. Dunaway built (yes, I know, all 4674 sq. feet is considered a cottage) it’s hard to imagine all that industry in one square mile. Driving through Orville now there’s very little, and I have fun imagining the bustling little place a hundred and thirty years ago.
So the next time you drive by an old house, try to turn back the clock and imagine what life was like and what it’s walls would say.
Until next time,
Kit
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