Lane House

The story

Behind the sketch.

Built around 1835, the Lane House is associated with George Washington Lane, a lawyer, judge, and outspoken Alabama Unionist. After Alabama seceded, President Abraham Lincoln nominated Lane to the federal bench in March, 1861, a remarkable appointment in a state that had just left the Union. According to a frequently repeated account, when a crowd came to the house demanding that he resign his judgeship, Lane answered by raising the United States flag above it. He is also rumored to have quietly supplied information to Federal forces. Whatever embellishments the story may have gathered over time, Lane's Unionist convictions were real. The raised brick cottage has changed over the years, including the addition of its present twentieth-century porch, but its best-known resident gives the gracious house a surprisingly defiant Civil War story.

Neighborhood

Twickenham

Book location

Page 55