Click image to enlarge. The Oaks is among the Tuscumbia area's earliest and most important plantations. The complex includes the original ca. 1820 house, the attached ca. 1825–32 main house, and a very early log kitchen. Although the current owner restored the buildings in the 1960s, she is unable to maintain them today. Deteriorated siding, broken chimneys and shutters, peeling paint, and sagging floors illustrate the critical need for repair.
The Oaks Plantation has a rich history. Some time between 1820 and 1825, Abraham Ricks and his family arrived in Alabama from North Carolina along with about thirty other families. Ricks moved into a two-room log house on the site and later added a second floor and a porch. Around 1825 a new house on a raised “English basement” was constructed about twenty feet to the rear of the existing structure. Much of the work was done by slave labor, including the carved stairway, doors, and windows. A wide open hall, later enclosed, connected the old and new houses.
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