Orange Vale, Greek Revival plantation house in Talladega, United States

Orange Vale is a Greek Revival plantation house in Talladega featuring a six-columned portico across its front facade and two-level porches spanning the rear. The main residence displays a center-hall floor plan that extends toward the back porch, while a hipped roof incorporates interior chimneys and small pavilion structures on each side.

Orange Vale was completed in 1854 as the centerpiece of a 3,000-acre cotton plantation worked by enslaved Black people. It is principally associated with Levi Lawler, an Alabama state legislator who mainly used the house in summer. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 22, 1986.

Levi Lawler, an Alabama state legislator, used Orange Vale mainly as a summer residence rather than a year-round home. The house is also known as the Lawler-Whiting House, carrying the names of the families tied to it. Its hexastyle portico has square columns and a heavy paneled entablature but no pediment.

The property is located on Alabama Highway 21 south of Talladega and retains about 108 acres of original land with seven additional structures. Visitors should plan to explore the main house along with the surrounding grounds where several outbuildings contribute to understanding the full plantation layout.

The house was originally built as the center of a 3,000-acre cotton plantation, a vast holding that demonstrates the economic power of that period. This scale shows how these properties anchored the entire regional economy of their time.