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Built in c. 1845, this lovely story and a half, frame with aluminum siding, rectangular home has a broad front-facing gable. It has a modified Palladian opening with a large two-part window and flanking sidelights in the main gable end.Its five-bay facade with double-leaf central door framed by sidelights and transom is enclosed by channeled Greek Revival patternbook facing with cornerblocks. It has nine-over-nine sashing. The house may originally have been a domestic adaptation of a pedimented temple-front, a structure popular during the Greek Revival period.
Moved from its original location on Pletcher Street in the 1890s, its subsequent changes include the present porch, a wing at the North side and rebuilt interior chimneys. The house compares with that at 130 South Chestnut Street which possibly resembled this house closely at one time.
Despite alterations, the structure is one of the earliest and most historic residences in the Prattville historic district. It was built for Dr. Samuel Parrish Smith , an early Prattville settler and father of Eugene Smith, Alabama's second State Geologist. It was at one time the home of Merrill and Julia Smith Pratt. He was a nephew of Daniel Pratt, she a daughter of Dr. Samuel Smith. The house was possibly designed by Daniel Pratt.
Located at 249 South Washington Street, Smith-Pratt-Cooper House is one of the most historic still standing homes in Prattville. When Southern poet Sidney Lanier brought his new bride to Prattville, where he taught at the Prattville Academy, Dr. Smith insisted that the new couple should share his living quarters. Lanier had been living at the Mims Hotel.
The house is listed on the endangered list because of the death of its most recent owner and the ensuing uncertainty of its future. Local businessmen have expressed interest in it and indicated that it would be turned into office space. The trend, however, is to demolish the older structures and construct new brick buildings, viz., both directly and diagonally across the street. Prattville simply can not let this trend continue in this instance. The home is a contributing property on the National Register listing of the Daniel Pratt Historic District.
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