Marks House - Pike Road, Alabama
Posted by: 
xptwo
N 32° 15.602 W 086° 05.930
16S E 584880 N 3569615
Although Pike Road has been incorporated for a few years, it traces its history back to several founding families. One family built the house which is memorialized in this marker.
Waymark Code: WMFE1R
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 10/04/2012
Views: 14
Pike Road became the second incorporated city in Montgomery County in 1997. The following year this marker was placed in front of one of the historic homes built by one of the original families.
The town web site has a complete history but the following excerpt gives an understanding of the time when this house was built.
"While Pike Road has only existed as a municipality since 1997, the Pike Road community has flourished for more than 175 years. Beginning with the arrival of the Meriwether, Mathews and Marks families around 1815, people began settling and farming the area in the mid-nineteenth century. As more families moved in, more services were needed, and by the early twentieth century, a booming small town had grown up at the intersection of Pike Road and Meriwether Road. (Pike Road, of course, was so-called because one had to pay a toll, or pike, to travel on it.) The crossroads community was referred to as the Pike Road community because of its location on the heavily traveled highway. The main intersection was home to several businesses, including cotton gins, a hardware store, livestock auction, post office, general store and doctors’ offices." source: (
visit link)
The text of the marker reads:
Marks House
Circa 1825
Built by William Matthews Marks, who immigrated from Oglethrope County, GA, on acreage purchased from the U.S. land office in Cahaba, AL for $1.25 per acre.
Foundation is pegged-together heart pine; framing is 3" by 9" timbers; mantles, dados, and all the bricks are hand made. Kitchen, baths, a rose garden and pavilion for dancing were added by the Churchill Marks family in the 1920s. The house was purchased by Dr. Haywood B. (Woody) Bartlett in 1957.
In 1967, the movie of Truman's Capote's "Thanksgiving Visitor" was filmed in the house. The facility has served as the Pike Road Community Club Center since 1968. The Pike Road Arts and Crafts fair is held here annually on the first Saturday in November. The house suffered extensive fire damage on August 28, 1997 and was subsequently restored by the Pike Road Community.
Alabama Historical Association
1998