Maxwell block (present day Courthouse block)
Maxwell Block west of the Courthouse block
"The newly wedded pair at once went to Tuskaloosa, and to housekeeping in their own home, that has lately been torn down, but which was on the corner westward, across the street from the present county jail, which is on the quarter square, then the vegetable garden of Thomas Maxwell. Diagonally from the Maxwell residence was the old Baptist Church, now occupied by the warehouse of Allen & Jemison Co. Across the street, northwardly, was the residence of M. D. J. Slade, who was owner and publisher of the Tuskaloosa Monitor newspaper. " 1923 page 1 of Autobiography of J.R. Maxwell
"This, our wedding day, was June 5th, 1867, a little over two years after the end of the war between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. My father owned one-half the square except this south- east corner lot and house, which he presented us with as our wedding present. There we lived for a couple of years. Our first child was born there, but lived only a few weeks. " page 310 of Autobiography of J.R. Maxwell
"Mrs. Little's school was in their family home, which stood where the Diamond Theater now stands, the front facing the Odd Fellows Hall on west side of Greensboro Street, where the Allen & Jemison Hardware Store is now. In front were several large China trees, and along outside of the sidewalk on the south side of the house was another row of China trees. Across the street, to the south, was the residence of Dr. Leland, a long one-story building."
" First the school was in a large room added to the back end of the residence, but finally it required more room and was moved to the next street east, to a frame building on the east side of the street that had four rooms. It is safe to say that all Tuskaloosa children, born between 1842 and 1858, passed through this primary school, under the tuition of these two Christian women." Barbara Little grave in Greenwood Cemetery Barbara Kerr Little (1804-1869) - Find a Grave Memorial
"About Jan. 1st, 1850, my grandfather and grandmother went to housekeeping in a two-story house that stood where now stands the county courthouse. It had a one-story piazza on the side next to Greensboro Street, that being the front of the house. My two uncles, John and Robert, went to live there also. This left my father's house for his own family and servants."
"but about 1852 was taken from the primary school and sent to Mr. Milford F. Woodruff's preparatory school. Mr. Woodruff leased the lower story of the Odd Fellows Hall, a two-story brick building that stood where now stands the hardware store of Allen & Jemison Company. In the front was a pillared one-story portico, brick paved. Across the front, about level with the eaves, in large gilt letters was I. 0. 0. F. The lower story had two front rooms, one at each corner, with one large window to each. The rooms were about fifteen feet square, and in the center a hall and staircase reaching the upper story, and one large room in the rear about 40 x 30 feet for a schoolroom. The corresponding rooms upstairs were the lodge rooms and accessory rooms. My father was a very prominent Odd Fellow." (Thomas Maxwell represented the Odd Fellows at the laying of the Bryce Hospital cornerstone)
"His father was the principal bookseller of the town, David Woodruff. The bookstore was about in the center of the block on Main Street, about where Pizitz' department store now stands." (2309 University Boulevard)
" Our playground was a large yard in the rear of the schoolroom. Only the street separated it from grandma's house. Whenever I got hungry I ran across the street. She kept a jar of butter and soft brown sugar mixed, which, spread on a big slice of light bread, one half of an inch thick, made a lunch for a hungry boy hard to beat. "
"Dr. John R. Drish owned a large farm on both sides of the Greensboro road reaching from the boundaries of the old corporation southward to where the depot of the Ala. Great Southern R. R. now stands. His residence is now the Jemison schoolhouse. It was planned and its building was superintended by a negro slave of Dr. Drish. From its front door northward to the corporation line extended a broad avenue of elm trees which still stand. At the corporation line was the entrance gate; on the west side of which was built a porters' lodge, occupied by a family of negroes that were the property of Dr. Drish. Someone was supposed to be always in attendance to open and shut this gate as needed. The style was that of an Englishman's country estate, and this large plantation was well cultivated at all times. West of this residence of Dr. Drish, ex- tending from the back yard in rear of the residence nearly to the Greensboro road on the west, was a long row of brick rooms where the negroes lived who cultivated this farm."
"In sight of the residence of Dr. Drish was that of Mr. Alexander Dearing, an imposing residence, so long in late years occupied by Major James Spence."
"Again in plain sight of the old Alexander Dearing home, a few hundred yards to the northeast and just outside of the old corporation line (which Queen City Avenue bounded) was the residence of Alexander Dearing's brother, James Dearing. The house was of the same general plan, but the high pillars of the porticoes are of wood instead of brickwork."
"Further to the northward, just outside of Queen City Avenue and north of the Huntsville Road, were the residences of the Harrises and the Ormonds. The Harris family owned large plantations in Greene or Marengo or Perry Counties, I am not exactly wise as to locality. Hon. John J. Ormond was a member of the Supreme Court of Alabama for many years, resigning about Jan. 1st, 1848, and resumed the practice of law in Tuskaloosa, dying in 1865. He lived in the house now occupied by Dr. Geo. Little. "
1852 Sold to R. N. Harris
April 26, 1870 Deeded by Mr. Harris to his daughter, Mrs. H. M.
Somerville.
April 30, 1900 Sold to Dr. J. L. Williamson by heirs of Mrs.
Somerville.
May 1, 1922 Sold to Dr. S. E. Deal.
May 8, 1939 Sold to Dr. J. M. Forney.
April 1, 1944 Sold to the University of Alabama.
February 23, 1947 University Club opened
The square eastward from that held our Uncle Robert's and grandparents' house on its northeast quarter square. On the northwest quarter square was our vegetable garden. The southern half of that square belonged to the Hogan family, the only names of members of which I can remember are Alexander and Gertrude. This family, probably in 1856 or 1857, moved to Iowa, about the time of big speculations in land in that state.
The next square to the south contained, at its northeast quarter, the old Methodist Church and parsonage; on its southeast quarter the residence of Dr. Reuben Searcy, the building being much as it now stands; on its southwest quarter the frame residence of Mrs. Raoul, with Alfred Raoul, her son, and daughters, Elise and Hattie. Capt. Charles L. Lumsden married Elise Raoul, probably in 1861. The northwest quarter of this square was occupied by the home of one of the Richardsons, who were owners of the steamboat Ophelia and of some plantations the location of which I never knew.
Coming southward along Greensboro Street, the next square held, in its northeast quarter, the Presbyterian Church which has lately been replaced by the new building so generously financed by the widow of Mr. James Spence. The southeast quarter of the square held a one-story frame building tenanted by a widow named Douthet with two children. The western half was owned by a merchant named Hopkins, his home being a frame building with a piazza extending the length of the front at the northwest quarter of the square, where now stands the parsonage of the Presbyterian Church.
The Presbyterian parsonage of that date being in the home now occupied by Mr. Clayton Strickland at the then extremity of Greensboro Street, at the southern boundary of the corporation, on the eastern side. The pastor was the Rev. R. B. White, whom I well remember as he was still pastor at the end of the Confederate War.
The next square towards the south was owned by Mr. Alfred Battle, whose residence and gardens, ornamental and vegetable, occupied the whole square, as it still does, being the residence of Mrs. B. Friedman.
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