Click image to enlarge. The Forks of Cypress, a mansion named for its location between the forks of Big and Little Cypress creeks, was the only plantation house in Alabama completely surrounded by a classical colonnade. It was also one of the first such houses in North America. Evidence suggests that its architect was the English-born William Nichols, who is credited with both the original University of Alabama campus and the elegant 1827 state capitol in Tuscaloosa.
The Forks burned in 1966, but twenty-three of its twenty-four columns still stand-a picturesque reminder of one of antebellum Alabama's most notable estates. The current owners have cleared the grounds of underbrush, enhancing the view of the ruins, but the columns themselves, constructed of brick with a tough cement-like finish that is said to have included molasses and bits of charcoal, are eroding away.
"People have been enjoying ruins as romantic landscape features since at least the Renaissance," notes one preservationist. Some Alabamians see the same potential in the ruins of the Forks of Cypress, pointing to other places in the South where historic ruins have become the focal point of private or public landscaped areas: in Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia, for example. Perhaps the most famous of these ruins is Windsor plantation, on the Mississippi River near Natchez. Stabilizing the ruins of the Forks would preserve for future generations a romantic symbol of the past while safeguarding for those living today a pleasing and unusual landscape feature.
"People have been enjoying ruins as romantic landscape features since at least the Renaissance," notes one preservationist. Some Alabamians see the same potential in the ruins of the Forks of Cypress, pointing to other places in the South where historic ruins have become the focal point of private or public landscaped areas: in Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia, for example. Perhaps the most famous of these ruins is Windsor plantation, on the Mississippi River near Natchez. Stabilizing the ruins of the Forks would preserve for future generations a romantic symbol of the past while safeguarding for those living today a pleasing and unusual landscape feature.
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