Montebrier, National Register Historic Building in Bibb County, Alabama.
Montebrier is a 1+1⁄2-story frame house near Brierfield, Alabama, with a steep roof, wide eaves, lightly arched porch supports and Gothic window treatments. The National Register nomination calls it simple early domestic Gothic, possibly inspired by A. J. Downing's The Architecture of Country Houses; S. W. Mahan began it and Archimedes Mahan served as carpenter.
Construction of Montebrier began in the early 1850s under S. W. Mahan, with Archimedes Mahan as carpenter; the house was occupied by 1855 but work continued after the Civil War. In 1866 Mahan sold it to Josiah Gorgas, former Confederate Chief of Ordnance, for $320, and Gorgas mortgaged it to trustees of the Brierfield Iron Works the next year. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 2, 1973.
The property maintains its original residential function while serving as one of six National Register properties in Bibb County, alongside Brierfield Furnace.
The building is located in a rural area north of Brierfield and is visible from outside. Since it is a private residence, viewing from the exterior is possible, but interior access should be arranged beforehand.
Montebrier was converted into a country club in the 1920s, a use that ended with the 1929 crash, when the Merchants and Planters Bank of Montevallo took over the property. In 1932 Alabama College sociology professor John Steelman, later executive assistant to President Harry Truman, bought the house for back taxes.
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