Sept. 16, 1972

The John Looney House was built by its namesake and his sons around 1820, west of the Coosa River – near what is now the town of Ashville, in St. Clair County.  A veteran of the War of 1812, Looney served at Fort Strother and fought in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend under Andrew Jackson. The Looneys built the house in typical dogtrot style, with an open, center breezeway separating two log structures. The historic house sits on a locally quarried stone foundation, with heart pine floors and cedar beams. Its pine logs are dovetailed at the corners and pegged with dowels.

After Looney’s death, the home passed to his eldest son, who sold it in 1882. Subsequent owners added a wing and lean-to porch on the back. In 1949 it was purchased by Colonel Joseph Creitz, who in 1972 deeded it to the newly formed St. Clair Historical Society. Today, the restored John Looney House and Pioneer Museum serves as an archive for local history and the site of the annual St. Clair County Fall Festival each October.

Read more at Bhamwiki, Encyclopedia of Alabama, or Alabama Travel.

An excellent example of pioneer architecture in Alabama, the John Looney Pioneer House Museum was built in Ashville in 1820 and may be the oldest dogtrot log house in the state. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)

A two-story log dogtrot house with half-dovetail corners, owned by the St. Clair County Historical Society. The structure was built in the Beaver Creek valley ca. 1820 by the Looney family from Tennessee. It formerly was covered with siding which put it in the highest social and architectural category and it has unusual Flemish-bond brick chimneys, in which brick sides and ends alternate to form an interesting pattern. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Eugene M. Wilson)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.