Originally called Montgomery House, 1821 Greek Revival plantation home was significant to cultural development of central Alabama. Remarkable circular staircase spirals 24 ft. to 3rd-floor banquet room. Available for weddings, parties, tours, etc.
The Biggs Home
Street address:
550 Upper Kingston Road, Prattville, AL
GPS:
32.471654, -86.477765
The Home of Martha and Earnest Biggs is an outstanding example of Queen Ann-style architecture. It was built in 1893 for Joseph Bennett Bell, the son-in-law of Merrill Pratt, nephew of town founder Daniel Pratt. The Biggs family purchased the home in 1970 when Biggs, a retired lieutenant colonel, was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base. The painstaking restoration of the house has been a labor of love for the Biggs family.
The Biggs home (or Bell House) has many unique features, including a wrap-around porch with Doric column supports and turned balustrades.
Other features of the Biggs home include: oak double front doors, a gabled entranceway, supported by paired ionic columns and elaborately decorated with garlands of flowers and ribbon motifs. All the main rooms on the first level have oak floors with parquet borders. Sliding oak double doors separate the formal parlor and the dining room which boasts a renaissance-revival coffered ceiling of dark wood and its original brass chandelier. A demi-octaganol bay window is graced by a leaded glass window.
The Bell House is also significant as its design has been attributed to prominent architect Frank Lockwood (1869-1936), a native of New Jersey.
Joseph Bennett Bell, the son of Jonathan Ezekiel and Georgiana Bell, was born in Greenville, Butler County, Alabama, in 1859. He was raised in Greenville and then moved to Montgomery where he obtained a job as a clerk at a hardware store. In 1889 Bell married Mary Pratt, daughter of Julia and Merrill Pratt, who was the nephew of Daniel Pratt, town founder of Prattville. Bell moved to Prattville in early 1890 and became a departmental manager for the Daniel Pratt Gin Company. In 1893 the Bells constructed their magnificent home on the outskirts of Prattville.
By 1905 Joseph Bell was secretary for the Prattville Mercantile Company where he remained employed for many years. From 1911 until 1915 Bell was a member of the State Legislature as a representative from Autauga County and in April 1919 he was appointed probate judge for the county. He dies in 1937 and his wife, Mary Bell, continued to live in the home until her death in 1945.
The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places - NPS on July 17, 1997 and to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on October 7, 1998.
Related attractions
Sponsored by Autauga Co. Heritage Assn., museum dedicated to historical preservation of Autauga Co. Features Daniel Pratt memorabilia, local family history, Civil War room, county artifacts. Genealogy information access.
Dedicated in 1982 as 1st wilderness park developed inside city limits in U.S. Areas of forest have 60-ft.-tall bamboo with trunks 6 inches in diameter. Hundreds of varieties of plants, including one of Alabama's largest beech trees.
The Wilkinson House is a two-story Queen Anne Victorian Home built Circa 1850.
Old Prattvillage is a collection of structures from the 1800's. Some are standing in their original locations and others relocated by the efforts of the Autauga County Heritage Association and private citizens.
In 1838 seven members of the Union Baptist Church met to form the Unity Baptist Church, the forerunner of First Baptist Church. Daniel Pratt deeded a lot south of Autauga Creek to the Unity Baptist Church in 1840.
First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1846 with thirteen chartering members. Four years later the first church was dedicated. This was a one-room frame structure located near the cotton gin factory on the south side of Autauga Creek.
The First United Methodist Church was founded in 1843. Daniel Pratt provided and equipped a room above a store for these first meetings and later donated land and money for a larger and more elaborate church building.
Episcopal Services were held in Prattville as early as the late 1840's, but the congregation formally organized in 1859 as Saint Mark's Episcopal mission and was admitted to the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama in 1877.
The history of Ward Chapel goes back to the days of slavery, when its members were connected to the Methodist Church in Prattville. The first sanctuary, in 1843, was located south of Autauga Creek, across from the end of Chestnut Street.