McAlpine Place

The McAlpine Place is one of the oldest homes in Talladega County and predates the founding of the City of Talladega by several years. It used to be the centerpiece of a large farm for one of the area's earliest settlers. The "bones" of the house are the original log cabin. The house faces one of the oldest roads in the State, which became East Street with the founding of Talladega.

Built for Judge Eli Sportridge, the house was purchased by Dr. August McAlpine in 1868. Notables who lived here were William Chilton, a Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Franklin Bowden, Sr., one of Alabama's first orators and for whom Bowden College and the town of Bowden, Georgia are named. Robert E. B. Baylor, who resided here as a young lawyer, went on to be ordained a Baptist minister and a driving force in the founding of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.