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Kenworthy Hall, also known as the Carlisle-Martin House and Carlisle Hall, is located on the north side of Alabama Highway 14, two miles west of the Marion courthouse square. It was built from 1858 to 1860 and is one of the best preserved examples of Richard Upjohn's distinctive asymmetrical Italian villa style. It is the only surviving residential example of Upjohn's Italian villa style that was especially designed to suit the Southern climate and the plantation lifestyle. It has a massive four-story tower, windows of variable size and shape with brownstone trim, and a distinctly Southern division of family and public spaces. The building was designed and constructed for Edward Kenworthy Carlisle as his primary family residence and the centerpiece of his estate.〔 It, along with some of its surrounding ancillary structures, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004.〔 The house and a purported ghost are featured as a short story in Kathryn Tucker Windham's ''13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey''. ==History== Edward Kenworthy Carlisle was born in 1810 near Augusta, Georgia. He migrated with his mother, Susan Curry Carlisle, to Perry County, Alabama as a young man. His mother had family members who were established cotton planters in the area. He married Lucinda Wilson Walthall in 1841. Carlisle eventually became a large landholder and also established himself as a cotton factor.〔 In 1858 he decided to build an estate indicative of his family's Black Belt social standing. He first wrote to Upjohn on 4 May 1858 in a letter that stated "Desiring to build a house, a country residence, and at a loss for a plan, we address you as a well known Architect to ask you to draw us a plan, a rough sketch at first, which we hope may result in a suitable plan."〔 The plans for Kenworthy Hall evolved over the course of the next several months, with the plans continuing to be worked on through correspondence even as the brownstone trim, shipped from New York, began to arrive at the site. Carlisle had difficulty in finding labor skilled enough for such an ambitious house, but he finally found a master mason, Philip Bond, in November 1858 and work then commenced. Bond estimated that the brickwork would be completed by June 1859. The family had moved into the house by 1860.〔 The American Civil War arrived in 1861 and Carlisle continued to have success in his many business ventures. One of his cotton trading firms, Carlisle and Humphries, actually saw profits increase during the Union blockade. His fortunes abruptly changed after the war, however, and his taxable property was valued at less than $20,000. The Kenworthy Hall property itself was valued at only $9000 in 1867. He entered into a business relationship in nearby Selma with his son, Edward Carlisle, Jr., and his son-in-law, Alexander Jones. They went on to found the City National Bank in 1871. Carlisle then died in 1873, leaving the property to his wife, Lucinda, who divided her time between it and a home in Selma. She increasingly used Kenworthy as a summer residence only and gave it to her only surviving child, Augusta Carlisle Jones, in 1899.〔 Lucinda died in 1912 and in 1914 Augusta sold the property. The property went through a series of owners after that and went into a general decline. The house lost both of the original porches during this period. The house had various times that it stood vacant. The house was completely vacant for much of the 1950s and experienced a great deal of vandalism. It was at that time that the plasterwork was mutilated, many marble mantles were broken, and the stained glass destroyed, though it all had been partially documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1934. During these various periods of vacancy the local population began to tell stories of the house being haunted and one of these stories was later recorded by Kathryn Tucker Windham in a short story entitled "The Faithful Vigil at Carlisle Hall," which she printed in her first book of ghost stories, ''13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey''. The story involves the purported ghost of a young woman in the fourth floor tower room, who awaits the return of her lover.〔 The house and was purchased by Karen Klassen of Birmingham for $4000 in 1957 and for the next decade she did what she could to restore the house. In 1967 the Martin family bought the property and spent the next thirty years restoring it. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 and the Historic American Buildings Survey spent the part of the summer in 1997 preparing drawings and taking new photographs. The Martins both died not long afterwards. The Martin heirs sold the house in 2001 to a new family.〔 The house, along with four surviving ancillary structures, was declared a National Historic Landmark on August 18, 2004.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kenworthy Hall」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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