Jones House – Abandoned House

This historic Neoclassical house, referred to as the Jones House, was built circa 1890 for Rebecca Frances Erwin Jones, the granddaughter of Alabama State Senator John Erwin Jr., and her husband Madison Jones, Jr. John Erwin Jr., a prominent lawyer and Democratic politician, built his two-story Greek Revival antebellum home known as Glencairn, often referred to as the Monticello of the Canebrake, in 1837 in Greensboro.

John Erwin Jr. relocated to Alabama in 1818 from Pendleton County, Virginia and quickly amassed extensive land holdings and property in Alabama’s Blackbelt region. Erwin was elected as Greene County’s representative in the Alabama Senate in 1831, chosen as president pro tempore the next year. He went on to serve in the lower house in 1836, 1837, and 1842, as well as being a Congressional candidate in 1845 and 1851 but was closely defeated in both races. He was heavily involved in the 1852 and 1860 Democratic National Conventions. On December 10, 1860, John Erwin Jr. died unexpectedly at Glencairn after returning from a Grand Tour abroad. At the time of his death, he owned 169 slaves and was a leader in the secession movement that lead to the formation of the Confederate States of America.

Although the Jones House was constructed roughly 50-60 years later, many similar architectural details of Glencairn can be found inside such as the interior staircase configuration, paneled doors, bullseye trim, and the double-tiered gabled portico. The original floorplan of the Jones House was four rooms upstairs and four rooms downstairs with a 12-foot-wide hallway down the middle of the house. Originally, the home had no bathrooms or a kitchen. The original kitchen was outdoors some distance from the house and the bathroom was an outhouse. There is a two-story veranda porch across the front, with hand-planed Doric columns on each floor. There is also a full attic.

During the Great Depression, the Jones House went through a renovation, four bathrooms and an indoor kitchen were added. The upstairs rooms were reconfigured into apartments to make room for boarders and relatives who had no money. One tenant lived upstairs in the house until she died in the 1950s. The attic space was also converted into an apartment, electricity and a kitchen were added. A staircase was added to the back porch to access the attic apartment. In the 1930s, Rebecca’s daughter, Margaret King Jones Brown, fell ill and was admitted to Selma Hospital. After she was discharged, she returned to the Jones House so her mother could care for her. Once her condition took a turn for the worse, her husband Winston E. Brown a prominent Selma attorney, was summoned to her bedside where she ultimately passed away at the young age of 42 in 1934. Her mother, Rebecca Erwin Jones, died two years later in 1936.

In the late 1980s, a granddaughter of Rebecca Erwin Jones sold the property to Gloria, a retired anthropologist who worked as the curator of a local historical site. Before the sale, both parties came to a verbal agreement regarding the restoration of the old Jones House. The Jones family, realizing the scope of work required, gave Gloria a large break in the purchase price for the house after she promised to do certain things within specific time frames. As the years began to pass, they realized the house was never going to be restored and felt taken and betrayed, not to mention the pain of watching their family home being allowed to slowly decay. The Jones family was livid. After the death of Rebecca’s granddaughter, the remaining family members decided to no longer live in the area. With a brief mention of her name, a neighbor quickly relives going in the house in the 1990s and spoke of the filth and how packed the house had become.

In the early 2000s, Gloria was relieved of her duties at the historic state-owned property after a new director noticed the house and grounds were not being properly maintained. Coworkers mentioned Gloria would not allow anyone to even lift a spoonful of dirt. Tree limbs were blocking the driveway so tour buses could not drive through. There were reports she even took a brand-new state-owned lawnmower to her house to cut her grass.

Once Gloria was let go from her state position, neighbors say she became somewhat of a recluse and was rarely seen around town. Several locals that I interviewed for this blog who knew her well said that they have not seen or heard from her in roughly fifteen years, although ironically, she was spotted at a local art gallery at the end of 2020. While researching, I discovered Gloria had a website where she spent the majority of her time writing about gardening, anthropology, and even her historic home. By 2021, she amassed an astounding 20,000 entries and over 5 million views on her forum.

In January 2021, the mailman noticed Gloria’s mailbox was full and contacted police for a welfare check. Sadly, local authorities discovered 80-year-old Gloria deceased in her backyard. According to police reports, at the time of her death, the house had no working air-conditioning or heat, no working plumbing, and electricity in only one room. Since Gloria had no will and her remaining family lives across the country, the property has sat abandoned. A court appointed attorney is conducting the sale of the home and has several interested parties. Perhaps someday, the Jones House will receive the restoration it has long deserved.

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