This plantation home, located southeast of Orrville in the Molette’s Bend area of the Alabama River, was built circa 1857 for Lewis Buckley Moseley. This home evolved over time. It began as a simple “I” house with two rooms up and two rooms down. Later, four tall square columns and a pediment, sheltering a long upper balcony, were added. The house initially had a separate kitchen which at some point was moved indoors.
The front of the Moseley-Seale house is almost identical to those of the McMillan-Oxford House, Tasso, and the Cochran House at Crumptonia which are also located in the vicinity of Orrville. However, unlike the others, the Moseley-Seale house had four massive bookend chimneys, two per side. They were all partially destroyed during a tornado in 1974.
This house was at one time the centerpiece of a large tenant-run cotton plantation complex. The plantation included a windmill, barns, stables, a commissary. plus several tenant houses.
The Moseley-Seale house is featured in the large-format book, Silent in the Land, which is a unique depiction of the major styles and periods of Southern architecture with photographs by artist Chip Cooper and essays by Harry Knopke and Robert Gamble.
This house is located approximately eight miles southeast of Orrville in the Molette’s Bend area of the Alabama River (32.213655,-87.197798 – Google Maps).
This house is privately owned – drive by only.
Sources: 1 ) “The Alabama Catalog, A Guide to Early Architecture of the State”, by Robert Gamble; 2) “Silent in the Land” by Chip Cooper, Harry Knopke and Robert Gamble, January 1993.
Pictures that are provided were taken February, 2012.