The Wilson-Finlay House is a historic plantation home located at Gainestown in southern Clarke County. This is one of only two Classical Revival style antebellum homes remaining in the county.
The house was built in 1846 for Dr. Joshua Sanford Wilson. He came to Clarke County in 1817 with his father, Reverend Joshua Wilson, one of the founders of the Gainestown community. Dr. Wilson later purchased property in Gainestown that included a ten-room, two-story house that was built around 1843. In 1846, Dr. Wilson hired Isaac Fuller, a master contractor from Maine, to build a full two-story front addition to the existing house. Construction of the addition reportedly took about five years to complete, and skilled stonemasons were brought from England to do the masonry work.
Sometimes after 1903, the original 1843 portion of the house was removed due to deterioration, leaving only the 1846 addition that survives today.
This two-story Greek Revival-style house features limestone ashlar foundations and front columns, which is very unusual in Alabama. The limestone, which has visible marine fossils, was quarried locally, at the Gainestown Quarry on the Alabama River.
This house was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage (ARLH) on September 17, 1976, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on July 12, 1978.
This home is located beside CR 29 just north of downtown Gainestown (Google Maps: 31.45455, -87.69153).
This is a private residence – drive by only. (The house is located on a wooded lot and you can get only glimpses of it as you pass on the main road.)
Sources: 1) NRHP “Wilson-Finlay House” Nomination Form; 2) clarkemuseum.com; 3) wikipedia.org/Wilson–Finlay_House.