
![]() For more than forty years, four of Anniston’s finest landmarks have been dodging the wrecker’s ball. The city school board has long wanted to redevelop the site where the houses of Noble Park (Crowan Cottage and the Hamilton, Johnston, and Noble-Acker houses) are located. Unable to build an educational campus on the site, the school board is now offering the buildings to the highest bidder. This site just happens to be located on one of the few remaining large tracts in the city with no preservation ordinance to protect the buildings. As a result, anything could happen to them. These buildings are tangible reminders of the two most important periods in Anniston’s early development: the late 1800s when the city became known as the “Model City of the New South” and its later boom period as the “soil pipe capitol of the world” in the early twentieth century. The 1887 Crowan Cottage is one of Alabama’s finest Queen Anne–style houses. Local preservationists are publicizing the plight of Noble Park. Their only hope is that new owners will step forward, take charge, and banish the long-threatened bulldozer and wrecking ball.
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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 2023
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