Alfred Hatch Place at Arcola, National Register of Historic Places plantation in Gallion, Alabama
Alfred Hatch Place is a three-story brick house in the Greek Revival temple form, with a monumental tetrastyle Doric portico across the front and a full-width cantilevered balcony beneath it on the second level. A Tudor arch window sits centered in the pediment. The house stands on land that was the center of a 3,000-acre forced-labor plantation.
The plantation was built in 1856 and belonged to Alfred Parker Hatch, who moved from North Carolina to Alabama in 1840. His relocation led to the establishment of multiple agricultural estates in the region.
The property connects to the Vine and Olive Colony through Frederic Ravesies, one of the initial French settlers who came to the region in the early 1800s. This link shows how European immigrants shaped the agricultural development of the area.
The property has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988 and offers visitors insight into the architectural and historical features of the antebellum South. The structure remains largely intact and documents life on a large 19th-century plantation.
Locals call the house the Half-house, a nickname tied to its temple-form massing rather than to its size. The three-story brick block was built in 1856 for Alfred Parker Hatch, who enslaved 200 people across his plantations, and the property entered the National Register on January 6, 1988.
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