Bluff Hall, an antebellum mansion in Demopolis, Alabama, is now a museum showcasing life in the 1850s. The mansion was built in 1832 and features Victorian and Empire era furnishings. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and has a period herb garden and kitchen. Nearby historic homes include Gaineswood and Lyon Hall.
Bluff Hall is an antebellum mansion that has been converted into a museum, and visitors can enter its halls and rooms to see what life was like in the southern state of Alabama around 1850. The mansion was built in 1832 overlooking the White Bluff limestone in the city of Demopolis. Allen Glover, a founder of the town and the son of a Revolutionary War commander from South Carolina, ordered the house built for one of his daughters and her husband. The museum house sits on land originally purchased by Allen Glover’s son-in-law Francis Lyon and contains examples of period clothing and furnishings from the Victorian and Empire eras.
The museum, which also exhibits local history artifacts, was used by the family as a residence in the 1800s, when it exclusively sported federal architectural details. Alterations followed in the mid-1800s, with Greek Revival details such as a columned porch. The renovation also added a wing to the front of the structure and a rear gallery. In 1970, Bluff Hall, which sits high above the Tombigbee River, was honored with a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
The mansion on North Commissioners Avenue sports half a dozen columns, each two stories high, and the building is made of brick and stucco. Inside, in the double hall, sit two more columns. This mansion inspired a Demopolis native, writer Lillian Hellman, who used it as the setting for one of her plays. Visitors to Bluff Hall can enjoy its period herb garden and kitchen, which includes period cooking utensils. The museum house also has a gift shop where visitors can purchase souvenirs.
Bluff Hall is just one of Demopolis’s many historic attractions. Nearby historic homes include Gaineswood, another Greek Revival National Historic Landmark built by a cotton planter in 1834. Lyon Hall is another Greek Revival structure, built by George Gaines Lyon, grandson of Allen Glover’s son-in-law, Francis Lyon . Lyon Hall, on South Main Street, was completed in 1853 and has half a dozen front columns, the same number as Bluff Hall. In another resemblance to Bluff Hall, it is made of brick and finished in stucco. Both Lyon Hall and Bluff Hall were included in the Historic American Buildings Survey.
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