Waldwic Plantation, Gallion Alabama

Date added: July 27, 2023 Categories: Alabama House Plantations & Farms

Facade and northern elevation looking southwest (1993)

Walwic plantation was formed in 1838 by Robert Sinclair Gracey of Iredell County, North Carolina. The core of the main plantation house is believed to date from this time and the dwelling consisted of a simple central hall plan cottage with two rooms flanking the hall on either side. After the death of Gracey in 1843, the plantation passed to his brother Minor Winn Gracey and his wife, Mourning (Smith) Patterson. It is believed that the Minor Graceys enlarged the house with the addition of the outriding end wings. After the death of Minor Gracey in 1853 (the result of the yellow fever epidemic which swept through Demopolis), Mrs. Gracey married General Willis Bocock, Attorney General of Virginia in 1858. Reputedly, the couple toured the Hudson River Valley, an area rich in Gothic Revival architecture, and upon their return embellished Waldwic with Gothic Revival detailing. The renovation included the embellishment of three outbuildings with similar detailing. These designs or renovations might possibly have been inspired by the work of architect, William Ranlett who published a plan for Waldwic cottage in his pattern book, The Architect (1851). Upon the death of Mourning Smith Patterson Gracey Bocock in 1886, title to Waldwic passed to Sinclair N. Steele, nephew of Minor Winn Gracey. Sinclair Steele married Bettie W. Smith, sister of Mourning Smith Gracey Bocock. The plantation eventually passed to the Steeles' daughter Bertha Gracey Steele Spencer, wife of William M. Spencer. Today, Walwic is owned and beautifully maintained by Mr. William M. Spencer, III of Birmingham and Gallion.

Waldwic conveys a sense of the formation and development of the plantation and plantation system in Alabama and more specifically, the Canebrake region. Walwic has been continuously owned and operated as working plantation by members of the related Gracey-Steele-Spencer family since 1839 and therefore, provides valuable, tangible evidence about the formation and operation of the-agricultural way of life in the Canebrake region of Alabama from 1818 to 1942. The buildings of the plantation complex possess evidence about the formation and operation of agricultural life in the Canebrake region of Alabama.

Building Description

Although the dwelling appears to have been conceived as a single design, the house is actually the product of a series of additions and renovations which occurred from ca. 1840 through the mid-1850s. This plantation house reflects the influence of the Romantic architects of the mid-nineteenth century such as A. J. Downing, A. J. Davis, and Samuel Sloan. It has been suggested by architectural historian Robert Gamble that this particular dwelling might have been based on the design of "Waldwic Cottage" by William H. Ranlett which appeared in vol. 2, 1851 of The Architect. In addition, three outbuildings located on the property also date from this period and are embellished with Gothic Revival detailing. The main house began as a story and a half cottage but the dwelling underwent a series of renovations in the early to mid 1850s.

Resting on a small rise at the end of a cedar-lined drive and facing east, Waldwic is a one-and-a-half-story frame dwelling covered in vertical sheathing and clapboarding. The structure is basically H-shaped with a side-gabled central section (3 bays in width) with a roof monitor along the ridge. Located at either end of the main section are slightly projecting cross-gabled end pavilions with bay windows. This particular arrangement, a three-bay section with flanking slightly projecting end pavilions was also seen in other Canebrake houses, notably the Gayle-Locke house in Greensboro. At Waldwic, the end pavilions flank a recessed porch supported by arched trellis work supports. A central second-floor chamber with front-facing gable roof and balcony projects over the middle bay of the porch. The dwelling is embellished with pointed Gothic windows with diamond-shaped panes in the three front-facing gables. These front-facing gables are embellished with cusped bargeboards and finials. A porch extends across the rear of the dwelling (west) and down the southern elevation. Originally, a kitchen was attached to the rear of the dwelling by a covered way. The kitchen was razed in the 1930s. The rear (west elevation) also features a gable-roofed chamber projecting over the rear porch. This chamber opens onto the landing of the main stairwell.

The interior of Waldwic is based on a central hall plan with double flanking rooms on both sides. The hallway features a built in bookcase on the southern wall which is embellished with a sloped surround featuring a Greek Key or shoulder molding. The main staircase rises along the northern wall. During a restoration of the dwelling in 1973, the staircase was enclosed. The main rooms of the central section are separated by interior chimneys. To the left of the hallway are the dining room and kitchen while a den and bedroom are located to the right. The den was perhaps originally utilized as a library and contains built-in cabinets encased in the same sloping Greek Revival surround as the hall bookcase. The southern pavilion contains a parlor and a bedroom also separated by an interior chimney. The parlor is the most elaborately detailed room in the dwelling, containing door and window surrounds embellished with an acorn and thistle motif and naive "gothicized" woodwork. The bay window in the parlor is set in an unusual ogee arch. Windows in the parlor feature jib panels for easy access onto the front and side porches.

A bathroom was constructed in the southeast corner of the bedroom in the southern pavilion.

The northern pavilion originally contained two bedroom chambers separated by a small hallway containing a staircase. During the 1973 renovation, the hallway was enclosed and the room arrangement was slightly altered to accommodate the addition of modern bathroom facilities. Mantles and woodwork throughout the house are much simpler than the parlor room and are characteristically Greek or Gothic Revival in design.

The second floor of Waldwic contains a large central chamber and small attic rooms located above each of the end wings. A small chamber is located off the staircase landing and extends over the rear porch. The central chamber is connected to the end pavilions by the roof monitors, long narrow passages with bands of windows located beneath the eaves of the roof on both sides. The southern attic rooms appear to have been used exclusively for storage and are simple plastered rooms separated by the fireplace wall. The northern pavilion contains a storage room, separated from the small staircase by a latticed screen. The rear attic room was apparently inhabitable due to the inclusion of a fireplace and probably served as a servant's room. Today, the entire upstairs is devoted to storage.

Located directly behind the main house are three buildings that date from the time the main house was constructed and which are embellished with Gothic detailing such as bargeboard and sloped Greek key or shouldered moldings. The structure immediately behind the main house probably served as a slave dwelling. This structure is one and a half stories in height with a central chimney and a two-room plan. The structure which lies slightly southwest of the main house was a combination smokehouse and slave dwelling. The one and a half storied structure contains an interior staircase that rises from an exterior door located on the north elevation and pitches through the structure. The smokehouse is located in the rear half of the structure and rises the full height of the building. A one-story carriage house lies slightly to the northwest of the main house and contains a single large room.