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SBH History
The house was built around 1880 to 1884 by the Smith family, Daniel and Ada Ellis Smith. Daniel and Ada had three daughters, Kate, Rebecca and Mary. The youngest daughter, Miss Mary Smith was an old-maid school teacher who taught 5th grade across the street, at the school we now know as the Prattville Primary. She taught in the corner classroom that we see from our front door. Students in her class were chosen each day to come across the street, pick up her lunch and take it back to her. I am not sure whether they were the honor students or the troublemaker students. The Smith family is buried in the Oak Hill cemetery here in Prattville.
Daniel Smith had a mercantile business downtown and would have been considered upper middle class. The house design is what is referred to as a 4 over 4. That is, there are four rooms over four rooms. While the dining room can comfortably seat 20 people, it was not necessarily designed for large entertaining. The two front rooms that we use as our Formal parlor and gift shop would have easily been the gathering rooms for the ladies and the gentlemen, respectively.
The Smith family owned the house from about 1880 until 1960 when George and Ginger Byrd purchased the house raising their two sons here in the house. George and Ginger owned the house until 2001 selling the house to the Hale's who owned the house for a few years before selling it to the Fortiers, who lived in it until we purchased it in April 2007.
Daniel Smith had a mercantile business downtown and would have been considered upper middle class. The house design is what is referred to as a 4 over 4. That is, there are four rooms over four rooms. While the dining room can comfortably seat 20 people, it was not necessarily designed for large entertaining. The two front rooms that we use as our Formal parlor and gift shop would have easily been the gathering rooms for the ladies and the gentlemen, respectively.
The Smith family owned the house from about 1880 until 1960 when George and Ginger Byrd purchased the house raising their two sons here in the house. George and Ginger owned the house until 2001 selling the house to the Hale's who owned the house for a few years before selling it to the Fortiers, who lived in it until we purchased it in April 2007.
