After Morgan died, ownership of the home passed to one of his daughters, Ruth Morgan Curtis, who served the town as a pharmacist. In 2000, the property was purchased with the intent to restore it. The house is currently vacant and suffers from vandalism and deferred maintenance. The interior has sustained significant water damage, and critical repairs to the roof and windows are needed. The community is seeking ways to rally support and rehabilitate this property to ensure its unique history and architectural features remain for generations to come.
Atop a hill in Phenix City stands a neoclassical two-story residence constructed by Dr. David Elias Morgan in 1904. Hailing from Monmouthshire, Wales, Morgan arrived in America as a young man. At a train stop in Columbus, Georgia, on the way to what he thought was his destination of New York City, he met Minnie Alice McGehee, whom he wed in 1890. Morgan abandoned his plans to move to New York; instead, he and his bride settled in Girard (now Phenix City), Alabama, where he served as a practicing physician. When an 1840s Columbus home suffered a fire, Morgan bought salvaged materials from it, using them to construct a Phenix City residence with a center hall floor plan. The first story main façade features a central entrance flanked by two sets of windows. A two-story porch wraps two of the façades, supported by two-story rusticated concrete columns. Seeing a need for space to treat patients, Morgan converted the second story of the residence into sanitorium patient rooms in 1914 and enclosed portions of the second story porch on one façade to serve as patient sunrooms. Morgan treated a variety of illnesses and delivered babies. Like many doctors of the day, he accepted a variety of payments, including artwork and chickens.
After Morgan died, ownership of the home passed to one of his daughters, Ruth Morgan Curtis, who served the town as a pharmacist. In 2000, the property was purchased with the intent to restore it. The house is currently vacant and suffers from vandalism and deferred maintenance. The interior has sustained significant water damage, and critical repairs to the roof and windows are needed. The community is seeking ways to rally support and rehabilitate this property to ensure its unique history and architectural features remain for generations to come.
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Alabama's Endangered Historic LandmarksEach year since 1994, Alabama Heritage has highlighted threatened historic sites throughout Alabama. The “Places in Peril” list has identified more than 215 imperiled historic resources throughout the state, and is compiled by the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation. The locations highlight the results of deferred maintenance, perceived obsolescence, development pressures, and lack of funding—forces that now more than ever threaten our cultural legacy. But awareness is a powerful force, too, and can cultivate a renewed determination to be responsible stewards of our heritage. For more information, visit the AHC or the ATHP websites. Alabama Heritage is proud to bring to you a selection of the places designated as perilous. Please keep your comments to information relevant to the featured place in peril. Alabama Heritage reserves the right to delete any comment that we deem inappropriate. Archives
May 2024
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