The Alfred Hatch Place at Arcola, also known as the Arcola Plantation and locally as the Half-house, is a historic plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 house and historic district

Historic district (United States)

In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...

 on the Black Warrior River

Black Warrior River

The Black Warrior River is a waterway in west central Alabama in the southeastern United States. The river rises in the extreme southern edges of the Appalachian Highlands and flows 178 miles to the Tombigbee River, of which the Black Warrior is the primary tributary...

 several miles northwest of Gallion

Gallion, Alabama

Gallion is an unincorporated community in Hale County, Alabama. It was named in honor of Jo Gallion, a railroad official. Gallion has a post office with a ZIP code of 36742 . Gallion has one site on the National Register of Historic Places, a plantation house known as Waldwic.-Geography:Gallion...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. It is located on land first settled by Frederic Ravesies, in what was once the Vine and Olive Colony

Vine and Olive Colony

The Vine and Olive Colony was an ill-fated effort by a group of French Bonapartists who, fearing for their lives after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Bourbon Restoration, attempted to establish an agricultural settlement growing wine grapes and olive trees in the Alabama wilderness...

 town of Arcola

Arcola, Alabama

Arcola is a ghost town on the Black Warrior River in Hale County, Alabama. Named to honor the French victory during the Battle of Arcola, it was established in the early 1820s by former French Bonapartists as part of their Vine and Olive Colony, after they were forced to abandon their first town...

, founded by French immigrants in the early 19th century. This area of Hale County

Hale County, Alabama

Hale County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale. As of 2010 the population was 15,760. Its county seat is Greensboro and it is part of the Tuscaloosa Metropolitan Statistical Area....

 was part of Marengo County

Marengo County, Alabama

Marengo County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of a battlefield near Turin, Italy, where the French defeated the Austrians on June 14, 1800. As of 2010 the population was 21,027...

 prior to the creation of Hale in 1867.

History

The main house was built by Alfred Parker Hatch in 1856. The house was the center of his 3000 acres (12.1 km²) acre plantation, purchased a few years before from his brother Lemuel D. Hatch during a period of financial difficulty. Alfred Hatch was born on October 14, 1799 in Craven County, North Carolina

Craven County, North Carolina

Craven County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The estimated population in 2006 was 94,875. Its county seat is New Bern.Craven County is part of the New Bern, North Carolina, Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

. He married Elizabeth Vail Blount on May 8, 1822 in Craven County. They had three boys and three girls together, with all still living by the time of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. The Alfred Hatch family migrated to Alabama in 1840. Alfred Hatch established several large plantations, most notably the one here at Arcola and Elm Ridge near Greensboro

Greensboro, Alabama

Greensboro is a city in Hale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 2,731. The city is the county seat of Hale County. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

. Hatch owned a total of more than 200 slaves. Elizabeth Hatch died before the end of the Civil War and Alfred remarried to Victoria Jones Walker. They had one daughter together in 1873. Alfred P. Hatch died on January 30, 1879. He left most of the estate to his second wife, creating a rift between her and the children of his first wife.

Architecture

The Hatch Place is a rare Alabama example of a temple

Greek temple

Greek temples were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in Greek paganism. The temples themselves did usually not directly serve a cult purpose, since the sacrifices and rituals dedicated to the respective deity took place outside them...

-form house in the Greek Revival

Greek Revival architecture

The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...

 style. The house is a two-story brick structure, with massing suggestive of a pseudoperipteral

Pseudoperipteral

In architecture, a pseudoperipteral building is one with free standing columns in the front , but the columns along the sides are engaged in the peripheral walls of the building...

 building. The front facade features a monumental tetrastyle Doric

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...

 portico

Portico

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

 across the front, with a full-width cantilevered balcony under the portico on the second level. A Tudor arch window is centered in the pediment

Pediment

A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...

 over the portico. The plantation was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

on January 6, 1988, due to its architectural and historical significance.