Sadler House Marker
The unique old home began
as a "single pen" house and
was expanded over the years
to its present appearance.
Sadler Plantation House - McCalla, Alabama
ExploreSouthernHistory.com - Sadler Plantation House, Alabama
ExploreSouthernHistory.com - Sadler Plantation House, Alabama
Sadler Plantation House
The oldest section of the historic Sadler House was
built before 1820. The house was expanded in 1835
and is a fine example of plantation architecture..
A Reminder of Early Alabama
Located adjacent to the Birmingham area's
outstanding
Tannehill Ironworks Historical
State Park, the beautiful old Sadler Plantation
House is one of the finest surviving homes of
its era in the Deep South.

It is thought that the original section of the
home, a so-called "single pen" log cabin (so
named because it was a square "pen" made
of logs), was built between 1817 and 1820.
Tradition holds that the builder, John
Loveless, began construction on the home in
an old Indian field after arriving in the area
from South Carolina.

There may be some truth to the legend. The
site of the house was on land taken from the
Creek Nation at the Treaty of Fort Jackson,
Alabama, in 1814.

Loveless died within a few years of moving to
Alabama and his widow sold the home to
Isaac Wellington Sadler. The new owner
began a major expansion of the house
during the early 1830s.

Sadler was a key individual in the area. His
plantation grew to include 2,800 acres by the
outbreak of the Civil War. The modern city of
Birmingham did not exist at the time of the
war and the Sadler Plantation and other
farms in the area escaped the hands of the
Union army until the very end of the war.

The plantation was on the route taken by a
part of General James H. Wilson's command
during his
devastating raid through Alabama
and Georgia. Companies of the 8th Iowa
Cavalry destroyed the nearby
Tannehill
Ironworks, but the Sadler House was spared.

Nine children were raised in the home by
Isaac and Martha Sadler. Among them was
David Scott Sadler, who died while fighting
as a Confederate soldier near Dalton,
Georgia. He was only 17 when he died.
The Sadler House remained in the hands of
the family until the 1970s when Mrs. Freddie
S. Lipscomb, a Sadler descendant, donated
it to the West Jefferson Historical Society.

The home is located on Eastern Valley Road
just north of Tannehill Ironworks Historical
State Park. The grounds are open to the
public.
Dogtrot Hall at Sadler House
The open central hallway or
"dogtrot" was common in
Southern homes of the era.
Rear of the Sadler House
The house was spared by the
Union troops of Gen. James
H. Wilson during the Civil War.
Photos by Lauren McCormick
Gurney's 125 x 125
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Copyright 2011 by Dale Cox
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