Arlington Mudd-Munger Plantation House, Birmingham Alabama

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Arlington is the oldest structure in Birmingham and Jefferson County, one of America's youngest metropolitan areas and one of the most heavily industrialized cities in the South.

Sometimes called the "Birthplace of Birmingham," Arlington is the only Greek Revival structure of mansion proportions to survive the War Between the States, Union Army raids and the phenomenal 1890-1950 growth of the "Magic City," the South's leading steel industry center.

This mansion is almost unique in Alabama for large square supporting pillars, a complete upstairs veranda, and an impressive 1840 facade enclosing an unpretentious 1820 home.

While the house itself, as it appears today, dates back to 1842, records pertaining to the land go back as far as 1820. On July 1^st of that year, the United State Government granted 23,040 acres of land to the American Asylum of Hartford, for the education and instruction of the deaf and dumb.

In 1820 Elyton was established as the county seat of Jefferson. This area had been known as Frog Level. By an act of the State Legislature it was renamed Elyton in honor of Captain William Ely, agent for the American Asylum of Hartford, Connecticut.

Two portions of the original land grant were purchased by William 0. Tarrant on February 19^th, 1821 and John Burford, Jr. & Sr., on March 5^th, 1821. One year later in 1822 Stephen Hall had purchased both of these parcels of land. There were approximately 475 acres of land involved in these transactions.

Stephen Hall had a plantation on this land where he had erected "a dwelling house and outhouses there unto belonging." In his will he left all the land, the dwelling house, a blacksmith shop and tools plus other items to his son, Samuel W. Hall. At his death the will was executed and Samuel W. Hall, his son, received this property. During the life of Samuel Hall, debts accumulated and by court order from the bank of the State of Alabama the land was sold at public auction in 1842.

On February 7^th, 1842, the sheriff of Jefferson County, under a court order against Samuel W. Hall, sold and conveyed the land to William S. Mudd. William Mudd with the help of his slave labor built onto this existing "dwelling" and constructed the mansion we know today.

Arlington, in 1865, during the closing days of the War Between the States, was commandeered by Union General James H. Wilson. Here he placed his sentry and established his staff headquarters. It was at Arlington that General Wilson issued orders to his cavalrymen to burn the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, to destroy the iron furnaces at nearby Oxmoor and Irondale and the Confederate arsenal at Selma. Wilson's occupancy of the Home during that brief period is the reason it was left undisturbed. This might not have been true had he known that while the Union soldiers roamed the grounds, there was concealed in the attic a Confederate spy--an esteemed poetess, Mary Gordan Duffee.

Judge Mudd sold Arlington in 1884 to Henry DeBardelaben, who never occupied the house but sold it to F. H. Whitney in 1886. He turned it into a fashionable boarding house. R. S. Munger bought the house in 1902 and made it his permanent home. One of his daughters, Mrs. A. C. Montgomery, and her husband were the last private owners of Arlington.

In 1953 the City of Birmingham purchased Arlington and opened it as a place of historic interest and a museum. The Arlington Historical Association restored and authentically furnished the mansion. The association has since maintained the mansion in an excellent manner.

Building Description

Arlington is a sprawling Neo-Classic Greek Revival mansion of the early 1840's, built around an 1820 four-room pioneer home.

The earlier dwelling house is the west wing of Arlington, built by Stephen Hall, around 1822. The original rafters are still in the attic. It was a four room structure, two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs, constructed of solid hewn timbers and put together with wooden pegs. The chimneys on this wing are the original ones that gave heat by grates to each of the four rooms.

William Mudd built onto this dwelling by adding on the east wing, in 1842.

When the mansion was completed, its exterior appearance was much as it is today: a large, square frame house, white, adorned with green blinds and containing eight rooms--four above, four below--with halls on each floor extending from front to back. Square pillars of generous proportion reach up two stories to hold the roof of the long piazza.

The upstairs hall opens out upon a complete upstairs veranda, which is enclosed by an iron balustrade. The porch at the rear of the mansion is enclosed with windows and serves as a sun parlor; the balcony above is a screened sleeping porch.

The entrances are paneled, with side and fan lights, and full entablatures. The low pitched hip roof is flanked by four center end chimneys, two at each end.

Arlington stands today, situated on a symmetrical knoll in the center of an eight-acre tract. Its square pillared portico overlooks two city blocks of nineteenth century gardens.

Front (1969)