1847 Greek Revival Style Mansion in Mobile AL

Bragg-Mitchell House, Mobile Alabama

Date added: February 21, 2025

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The Bragg House was the home of Judge John Bragg and subsequently his brother General Braxton Bragg, and is one of the finest Greek Revival mansions in Mobile and was designed and constructed by one of the city's outstanding architects, Thomas Simmons James.

The house was built in 1847 by William H. Pratt who has acquired the land within the year. A small house was already on the property and had served as the country home of Louis Judson from 1827 to 1837. Pratt hired Thomas Simmons James of Mobile to design the house. James, who also worked in Natchez, Jackson, and New Orleans was one of Mobile's outstanding architects. He is credited with having designed the City Hall, and the Madame le Vert House, as well as several other outstanding Mobile structures. Mobile historians Peter Hamilton and Erwin Craighead both concede to James the architectural credit for Barton Academy and the Government Street Presbyterian Church.

Judge John Bragg bought the house from Pratt in 1855 and during his occupancy the house was a meeting place for statesmen of the day. Bragg's brothers, Gen. Braxton, later to own the house, ex-Governor Thomas Bragg of North Carolina, Captain William Bragg, and Alexander Bragg were constant visitors.

Bragg came to Alabama from North Carolina where he had studied at the University of North Carolina and had been admitted to the Bar in 1827. He was elected to the legislature of North Carolina in 1830 and was re-elected for four consecutive terms. He arrived in Mobile in 1835 and shortly thereafter served as editor of "The Register" for a brief period.

In 1842 he was appointed by Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick to fill a vacancy upon the circuit bench until a meeting of the legislature, at which time he was elected by a large majority for a six-year term. He was later re-elected by the people. In 1851, he was invited by the States Rights Democratic party to become a candidate for the United States Congress from the Mobile district and was elected. He served during the two sessions of 1852 and 1853 and then declined re-election. He retired from professional as well as political life and did not reappear in public until his election to the Constitutional Convention of 1861 as a representative of Mobile County. During the war he remained on his plantation in Lowndes County.

From 1869 to 1880 his brother General Braxton Bragg owned the house and either occupied it or the small house out back.

The house changed hands a number of times from 1880 to 1924. William Pratt and his daughter owned the house again from 1880 until 1889. Subsequent owners were: Georgianna Upham 1889-1909, Emma Wingate 1909-1924. The house was acquired by A. S. Mitchell in 1924 and has remained in the family since that date. Later the house was owned by the Mitchell Foundation, with plans to donate it to the state.

Building Description

The Bragg Mitchell House, a two story white frame structure, is situated on a large lot facing a grove of live oak trees through which a driveway bends in the shape of a horseshoe.

Built in the Greek Revival style by architect Thomas James, the house differs from his earlier buildings in that it lacks massive columns or temple-like pediments and is more graceful and refined.

The T-shaped house has a gallery which extends across the front and sides of the central mass and also across the front of the wings. Eight floor-length windows open onto this gallery, and like all windows on the house they are double hung and have simple moldings and shutters. Tall slender fluted columns along the gallery support the hipped roof. These columns, which belong to no particular order appear to be closer in style to the Doric order than any other. The cornice of the roof projects and is supported by brackets.

The front entrance is not centered, but is placed to the right on the central mass of the house. An architrave supported by four pilasters frames the double doorway, which also features a transom and side lites.

At the second floor level of this central portion of the facade are three windows; the center one gives access to a wrought iron balcony supported by three large brackets.

The off-center entrance opens onto a hall which runs the length of the house and allows for an unusually large double parlor to the left. This hall is divided by an archway supported by two pilasters which are similar to the exterior columns. A large spiral stairway to the rear of the hall has statuary niches.

The double parlors are likewise divided by a triple archway supported by two freestanding columns identical to the exterior ones. The twin mantels are of carved white marble.

The interior trim of the windows and doors is flat and wide with molded edge much narrower at the top than at the bottom. Locally this is called Egyptian molding, but is actually a common Greek Revival form.

The original furnishings were destroyed during the Civil War, but the house has been refurnished with antiques, and structurally is basically unaltered from its 1855 state.