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Thornhill (Forkland, Alabama)

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Thornhill
The front elevation in 2008
Thornhill (Forkland, Alabama) is located in Alabama
Thornhill (Forkland, Alabama)
Nearest cityForkland, Alabama
Built1833
ArchitectWilliam Nichols
Architectural styleGreek Revival
NRHP reference No.84000618[1]
Added to NRHPMay 10, 1984

Thornhill is a historic plantation near Forkland, Alabama. The Greek Revival main house was built in 1833 by James Innes Thornton.[2] The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 10, 1984.[1]

History

Thornton was born October 28, 1800, at the Thornton family plantation known as Fall Hill, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He was educated at Washington and Lee University and then emigrated to Huntsville, Alabama. He began to practice law there in 1820. He was elected as Alabama's third secretary of state in 1824 and remained in that position until 1834. After this he retired from public life and became a planter in Greene County.[2] Thornhill Plantation was developed as a cotton plantation in the early 1830s and extended over 2,600 acres. It utilized the labor of 156 slaves by 1860. About a third of the slaves lived in quarters behind the main house.[3] Thornton died there on September 13, 1877.[2] According to the diary of Josiah Gorgas, in talking with Thornton, at Thornhill, after the War between the States, Thornton "was opposed to the doctrine of secession and necessary deduction that we fought so valiantly in the War and bled so freely in a cause so radically wrong." Gorgas pointed out however, that Thornton "did his share to sustain the war, and perhaps that consciousness makes him talk the more freely of this former view"

Architecture

William Nichols (1780-1853) is believed to be the architect of the main house at Thornhill. Nichols became the state architect of Alabama in 1827. He is known for designing the now-destroyed Alabama State Capitol building at Tuscaloosa and the former Mississippi State Capitol building in Jackson, Mississippi.

The main house at Thornhill was completed by 1833. The monumental two-story portico with six Ionic columns was added circa 1850. David Rinehart Anthony (1801-1871) of Eutaw is believed to be the builder who made the portico addition and second story balcony (crisscrossed lattice railing). The house measures 55 feet (17 m) wide. Inside is a 14 ft (4.3 m) wide by 40 ft (12 m) long central hall, with two rooms to either side. The left front room was the parlor, with the dining room behind it. On the front right was the master bedroom with the plantation office behind it. Upstairs is a matching hall and four bedrooms. All eight rooms are 19.5 feet (5.9 m) square. Originally there was a brick kitchen behind the house, it later burned. The plantation schoolhouse was constructed circa 1845. Additions were made to the original structure from circa 1890 to 1949. They were razed in 1994 and rebuilt to better match the original intent of the house. The house and grounds were extensively recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1934.[4]

Family Cemetery

Buried in the family cemetery, located east of the main house, are:

  • James Innes Thornton (10/28/1800-9/13/1877)
  • Anne Amelia Smith Thornton (1812 - 2/14/1864), his second wife.
  • James Innes Thornton Jr. (11/31/1835 - 12/12/1837), his son.
  • Fitzgerald Thornton (10/6/1837 - 7/6/1939), his son.
  • Catherine (Kate) Marshall Thornton (9/30/1842 - 10/27/1870), his daughter. She was re-interred from Nevada in 1906. She married her first cousin Harry Innes Thornton, whose father, the senior Harry Innes Thornton was Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
  • Harry Innes Thornton (5/18/1848 - 5/30/1900), his son.
  • Sallie A. Blocker Thornton (1849-1924), his daughter-in-law.
  • Bettie Cooper Thornton (9/19/1876 - 7/16/1878), his granddaughter.
  • Harry Innes Thornton (1/18/1883 - 1938), his grandson.
  • George Francis Thornton (12/10/1885 - 7/14/1889), his grandson.

Grandson James Innes Thornton (3/10/1873-7/23/1951) was re-interred to the Eutaw cemetery, as was his first wife Betty Woolf Thornton to the Dayton cemetery.

  • The schoolhouse in 2008
    The schoolhouse in 2008
  • Rear elevation in 1934
    Rear elevation in 1934
  • Detail of the Ionic columns in 1934
    Detail of the Ionic columns in 1934
  • Stairway and hall in 1934
    Stairway and hall in 1934
  • The schoolhouse in 1934
    The schoolhouse in 1934
  • One of the slave quarters in 1934
    One of the slave quarters in 1934

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15.
  2. ^ a b c "Alabama's Secretary of State: James Innes Thornton". Alabama Department of Archives & History. 21 August 2007. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
  3. ^ "Thornhill Plantation, Greene County, Alabama". American Memory Collection. Library of Congress. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
  4. ^ "Thornhill Plantation, County Road 19, Watsonia, Greene County, AL". Historic American Buildings Survey. Library of Congress. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
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