Picker House

The Picker House is the southernmost of three main buildings in the cotton mill complex. It was possibly built as early as 1850-60 (some sources say 1846). The building is two stories constructed of brick with corbeled cornices. It is rectangular in shape with a gabled roof. It has nine-over-nine sashing. Originally it had an open interior design. Bales of cotton were stored across Court Street in the building now occupied by Red Arrow Hardware and were hand trucked to the lower level of the Picker House. There they were broken opened and fed into hoppers that began a long mechanical process that ended in woven fabric. The upper story of the building contained machines called Pickers, hence the name "picker house." The picker machine formed the cotton into a continuous three feet wide sheet and rolled it into a "lap" of approximately fifty pounds. From the Picker House the laps were conveyed by specially designed trucks to the adjacent building where continued processing occurred. The Picker House is the white building next to Heritage Park at the corner of Court and Main Streets in Prattville. It is a contributing property in the Daniel Pratt Historic District and as such, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is perhaps the oldest of the remaining original Daniel Pratt-constructed buildings in Prattville.