Co-Nita Manor – Abandoned House

Co-Nita Manor, also known as the Coleman-Brunson House, is a Neo-Classical Revival home built circa 1909 in Uniontown, Alabama by Dr. Solon Lycurgus Coleman, Jr. In 1862, his father, Dr. Solon Lycurgus Coleman, Sr. enlisted as a Private in Company D, 4th Alabama Infantry. During the Battle of Fredericksburg, he was wounded in the right leg. He returned to service in late 1864 and was made purchasing agent for the Division Hospital in 1865. The 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment was organized in Georgia in May 1861 and fought until Lee surrendered it at Appomattox Court House. There were 1,422 men under its command during the Civil War, of whom 240 died in battle, and nearly 100 died from diseases. After returning from the war, Dr. Solon L. Coleman, Sr., and his wife, Rosa Scott Coleman, started a family. Their third child and Dr. Coleman’s namesake, Solon Lycurgus Coleman, was born in Uniontown on May 22, 1874. He never knew his father, who had died four months earlier, in January 1874, at the age of 35. Dr. Solon Lycurgus Coleman, Sr. is buried in Uniontown in Rosemont Cemetery.

Following in the footsteps of his father, Solon L. Coleman, Jr. began studying medicine. In 1896, he had the distinction of receiving the first degree in pharmacy to be issued from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn University). Later, he studied medicine at Tulane University where he received his degree and entered immediately upon the practice of medicine, devoting his entire life to his profession in the town in which he was born.

In 1899, Dr. Coleman moved back to Uniontown and was hired as the city’s health officer during a smallpox outbreak. Vaccines were administered at his office located above the dry goods and mercantile store of Julius Marx at the corner of Water and Front Streets. Dr. Coleman later married Julius’ sister, Estelle Marx Coleman in 1901. Unfortunately, she died not long after in 1903 at the age of 21. In February 1906, Solon L. Coleman purchased a lot in Uniontown to build a grand home for his family. Between 1906 and 1909, Coleman oversaw the construction of his Neo-Classical home known as Co-Nita Manor, although it is a mystery as to where the name comes from. Co-Nita Manor has four bedrooms, and two bathrooms and is 3,381 square feet. Dr. Coleman remarried in 1927 to Martha Ida McGinniss Brown-Coleman. In 1938, after a brief illness, Dr. Solon L. Coleman died at the age of 68 at a hospital in Selma and is buried in Rosemont Cemetery. Co-Nita Manor was later owned by the Brunson family.

Co-Nita Manor has sat vacant for quite some time. In 2010, restoration began but the project was never completed. The home has been listed for sale several times since then. The most recent listing was with Bill Mackey Real Estate who had the house with a 1-acre lot listed for $54,900. In 2000, Co-Nita Manor was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Uniontown Historic District. The application describes the architectural features of the home, including a central double-leaf entrance with fanlights and sidelights on both the first and second floors. The house has a full-height portico with paired Corinthian columns and a main portico with smaller Corinthian columns. Other notable features include decorative quoins and exterior corbelled chimneys.

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