Horace King 

The west bedroom is named in honor of this famous Alabama bridge-builder, engineer and carpenter. 

Horace King (1807-1885) was the most respected bridge-builder in Alabama, Georgia and northeastern Mississippi during the mid-nineteenth century. As a slave until 1846, King and his master John Godwin worked as partners on major construction projects. During the early 1850s, the state of Alabama hired King to perform carpentry work, including elegant circular staircases, on the new capitol building in Montgomery. By 1860, he was one of the wealthiest free blacks in Alabama. Both as a slave and a free black, King traveled without any restrictions throughout the Deep South. After reluctantly working for the Confederacy, he served as an Alabama legislator during Reconstruction. His role as an engineer and contractor, during a period when few professional opportunities existed for African Americans, earned him a legendary status that was enhanced over time by towns eager to claim, sometimes erroneously, their own Horace King covered bridge, warehouse, mill, courthouse, church, elaborate Gothic house or staircase. Locally, King is sometimes associated with the exquisite twin cantilevered stairs at the Sterrett-McWilliams Home in Camden. More about King and his amazing story on the Encyclopedia of Alabama.