Five Points
Coombs House
The story
Behind the sketch.
Built around 1899, the Coombs House is a fine Folk Victorian residence with one of Five Points' best nicknames: the "Pig House". Longtime neighbors recall that a former owner, once a pig farmer, decorated the yard and exterior with pig figures and signs. It may not be high architecture, but it is excellent neighborhood folklore. The house also had an academic career. After the Coombs family sold it in 1919, the Wills–Taylor School used it as a boys' dormitory, and added a two-story rear section. Later, Huntsville College used the building for physics and chemistry laboratories. It returned to private residential use in 1928, presumably with fewer experiments and, eventually, fewer pigs.
- Neighborhood
- Five Points
- Book location
- Page 92
