Abandoned Raised Cottage in AL

Wesley Plattenburg House - Kirkpatrick House, Selma Alabama

Date added: September 21, 2023 Categories: Alabama House

Looking west at front and side facades (1991)

The Plattenburg House in Selma is a raised basement coastal cottage, a style not usually found in central Alabama. This ca. 1855 house features a hipped roof, a high masonry foundation, massive piers supporting a porch, and floor-length windows on one facade. Slender, square columns and a bracketed cornice accent the raised porch. This raised cottage has some Greek Revival and Italianate details.

Wesley Plattenburg was born in Maryland in 1803 and settled in Virginia with his family two years later. He settled in Selma, Alabama, in 1829 as a merchant tailor. Plattenburg nurtured an interest in cotton cultivation after he purchased a two-thousand-acre tract in 1842. He married Anna Maples approximately one or two years later and built his plantation house on his land ca. 1855. A reference to a non-descript dwelling in the 1842 deed raises questions of whether the ca. 1855 house may have been the addition to the original dwelling or an entirely new house. As prominent members of the Selma community, Mr. Plattenburg was trustee of Dallas Academy in the 1840s, and Mrs. Plattenburg led several organizations for the Confederate cause during the Civil War. The 1860 Dallas County census estimates the Plattenburg's wealth in real and personal property as $150,000 or more.

The Plattenburgs sold their house and a small surrounding parcel of land in 1866 to Mrs. Emily C. Bayne for $3,000. The family remained in Selma for an unknown period of time and eventually moved to Giles County, Tennessee. Wesley Plattenburg was buried in Selma in the Old Live Oak Cemetery after he died in 1882. The original property passed to several owners before it was purchased in 1904 by Dr. Samuel and Mary Kirkpatrick for $4,500.

The Plattenburg House is a good representation of the rural raised cottage that was characteristic of the Gulf Coast during French occupation and after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The raised basement-type house is found in coastal areas from the Chesapeake Bay to Savannah to New Orleans. However, the type of raised cottage with the large, overhanging hipped roof and wraparound porch is found generally in the Gulf Coast area. It is unusual to find these houses so far inland; however, the presence of South Carolina settlers in Selma may account for the appearance of this type in the area. By 1860, the popularity of these coastal-type cottages diminished and have since become one of the rarest historical resources in the country.

Raised cottages are characterized by hipped roofs and deep porches supported by a high masonry foundation and massive piers. Porches covering two or three elevations are common as are external stairways under the porch. Often, slender columns support an engaged porch roof or dual-pitched roof. The main body of the house is generally half-timbered and stuccoed. The basement is constructed of brick to keep this level cool in summer and warm in winter, and the main level has tall ceilings and floor-length windows opening onto the gallery for cross-ventilation. Most of the rooms would have doors on the gallery rather than doors on an internal hall; rooms often open directly into each other. However, a central hall may occur in more formal examples.

The Plattenburg House is a rare example of a Gulf Coast raised cottage in central Alabama. Few others are known to exist except in the Louisiana and Mississippi area. This style is closely associated with the type known as the Carolina Cottage found on the Gulf Coast and Southern Atlantic Coast. Very similar examples are found in New Orleans and elsewhere in Louisiana including the early 19th-century Riche House, which also has a hipped roof supported by slender columns and a second-level porch supported by massive masonry piers.

Building Description

The Plattenburg House was built on what was once known as the northern outskirts of Selma. Today the ca. 1855 raised cottage is located on the corner lot of Washington Street and Furniss Street in Selma. The house is significant for its style, which hardly exists in central Alabama.

The first story of the L-shaped raised cottage is constructed of brick and rests on an above-ground stuccoed brick basement. The low-pitched hip roof is covered with asphalt shingles. Several ca. 1930 frame additions account for the overall rectangular shape. Three interior end brick chimneys pierce the roofline.

The two-story recessed porch or gallery wraps around the south and east elevations. Ten massive piers support the second-level porch, and ten slender, square columns support the bracketed cornice. The last bay on the south end of the upper gallery has a frame enclosure, and the main stairway on the north end of the east porch is enclosed with lattice. The rear porch, which covered the angle of the L-cottage, is believed to have been similar to the front porch and was removed for the construction of the frame additions. An attached shed roof on the first level gallery is a recent addition, and at some point, the balustrade was removed.

The eastern three-bay facade includes the main entrance, a single door with transom and sidelights, on the main level. The entrance is flanked by 6/6 sashes which are also found on the basement level. The south elevation has four bays, and the main level features full-length 6/9 sashes.

The L-shaped plan of this raised cottage is made up of three rooms and a hall on each level.

Two basement-level rooms with storage closets, fireplaces, and porch entrances face Washington Street. A narrow hall with front and rear porch entrances separates the southeast room from the rear ell. This rear room has a fireplace and rear entrance.

The main level is reached by an enclosed exterior staircase on the north end of the front porch. The main entrance leads to a central hall and matching rear entrance. Two rooms with fireplaces flank the central hall. The southeast room shares a door with the rear room. This rear ell is the only main level room that has entrances from either or both porches. Although the interior of the house is badly deteriorated, some decorative elements are still evident. The doors and windows have simple trim, and the doors have four panels. Most of the ceilings appear to have narrow flushboard, and there is some evidence of wainscotting, now removed.

A historic frame outbuilding occupies the corner of the lot on Furniss Street. Due to the house's deteriorated state, the property was in danger of demolition. The new joint ownership by the Selma-Dallas County Historic Preservation Society and the Alabama Historical Commission will hopefully allow the rehabilitation of the Plattenburg House.