Cedar Grove, also known as the Charles Walker House, is a Greek Revival plantation house located in Marengo County near Faunsdale. This is a two-story frame structure with a gabled roof and double veranda. The house was photographed and recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) during November 1936. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on July 13, 1993 as a part of a multiple property submission, “Plantation Houses of the Alabama Canebrake and Their Associated Outbuildings.”
This plantation home evolved from a two-story, log cabin. The log cabin was built around 1830 by two brothers from Scotland, Dougal and Malcolm McAlpin. In 1848, Charles and Margaret Walker purchased this property. They hired a builder from Virginia, Theophilus Fowler, and construction began on the main house in 1852. Work was completed in 1858. The log cabin that was incorporated into the house is now the dining room, a bedroom, and a storage area above the dining room. The porch on the house was altered in 1915 from a one-story design with simple turned wooden columns, spanned by arched latticework, to the multi-level configuration with paneled box columns seen today. This house served as the center of a large plantation. Charles Walker owned 154 slaves in 1860. This house remained in the Walker family until 1982.
Cedar Grove is located approximately 1.4 miles southeast of Faunsdale on unpaved Old Uniontown Road (GPS coordinates 32.448573, -87.575343).
This is a private residence – drive by only.
Sources: 1) wikipedia.org/Cedar_Grove_Plantation; 2) The Heritage of Marengo County, prepared by The Alabama Marengo County Heritage Book Committee.
B&W photographs courtesy of the U. S. Library of Congress (HABS), photographer: Alex Bush, date: November 11 & 14, 1936. Rccent photographs taken during June 2010.