Tour of President's Home at Athens State University in Alabama

Huntsville, AL

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Huntsville, AL

Tour of President's Home at Athens State University

Beaty Mason Home at 211 S. Beaty St. in Athens AL

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On a recent trip to Athens, I was fortunate enough to be with a group tour of Beaty Mason home, the home of Athens State University's President, presently Dr. Jerry Bartlett. The house is owned by the University. It was once featured in Architectural Digest magazine. It has the unusual feature of two square and two round columns on the front porch. It is also the first split-level house in Alabama.

Most students visit it at least once in their college careers, especially if they have earned special honors. And every senior, along with friends and family, is invited to a reception there during commencement week.

Robert Beaty (1862 - 1837) and his partners bought 160 acres of Limestone County land at a land auction in Huntsville in 1816, and on it founded the town of Athens. They gave to the town, to guarantee its success, the lots for a town square and other essential county buildings (such as a jail), and provided lots for other essentials - - a boys' school, a cemetery, and perhaps a water supply. They probably persuaded the donor of the original campus to give that land "for a girls' seminary, and for no other purpose whatsoever." Robert and Sallie Beaty and their six children lived in the house he built in 1826, a large brick structure, called a mansion in its day and still a stately home. Until the death of the last member of the family, Mary Elise Mason, in January1958, that house was never occupied except by family members.

Its occupants have included the town's founder, Beaty himself, its first successful Reconstruction era governor (George Smith Houston), and other colorful members of the family. One valuable item in the house is the tailor's table that the future President Andrew Johnson used to cut cloth (see photo below).

The house sold in 1958 and the buyer who asked to remain anonymous, gave the house to the college. The community enthusiastically collected appropriate furnishings and contributed money to restore the home to its present elegance.

Virgil McCain was president when the restoration took place, and Frank Philpot was president during further restoration; his wife, Frances English Philpot, initiated and carried through the renovation and modernization of the two log slave cabins (last photo) in guest rooms, and supervised their "whitewashing" with a combination of white cement, salt, and powdered limestone. (This has since been removed.) Each president and his family since that time have added their touches to increase the property's value and beauty.

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President's Home at Athens State University