The Heritage Center

The Heritage Center was the 1995 gift of Charles Rice and his sister, Mary Wood Waite, to Autauga County Heritage Association for use as a museum. The house was sold for $1.00 to the City of Prattville with an agreement that the City would renovate it and allow Autauga County Heritage Association to operate a museum there in accordance with the donors request.

The facility carries the name Heritage Center because it is the center of operations of Autauga County Heritage Association. Not only does it house the Prattaugan Museum, Autauga County Archives and a Visitor Information Center, it is also the office of the Association's executive director. In addition it is headquarters for Historic Prattville Redevelopment Authority.

Pratt Cemetery

Overlooking the town, this picturesque cemetery is the only remaining domestic component of the extensive Pratt home site and industrial complex. The earliest marked grave (1843) is that of the 9 month old infant daughter of Daniel and Ester Pratt. Other graves include those of Mr. and Mrs. Pratt, their family and closest friends. George Cooke, prominent antebellum artist whom Pratt befriended and commissioned to paint numerous works for his private art gallery, is also buried in the cemetery.

Grave monuments include excellent examples of mid-19th century funerary art. The fence surrounding the burial ground is also notable, being composed of elaborate cast iron panels of a design known as the weeping-willow-praying lamb motif, it is anchored between plain brick piers with ashlars caps.

John Slaton House

This circa 1835 structure is an example of a central hall plan with Federal or Early Neoclassical detail. The house is a notable example of a residence whose owner aspired to make a visual statement reflective of his attention to taste and sophistication.

Located just north of State Highway 14 near Simmons Road it lay abandoned and in ruin until 2000 when Autauga County Heritage Association moved it to Prattvillage in Prattville and began restoration.

Slaton House is the newest addition to the ever growing list of Autauga County Heritage Association-managed properties. According to local tradition, the 1 story, 2 room wide 1 room deep frame dwelling had its top floor removed in the latter part of the 19th century. If this information is correct the house would be properly classified as a modified I-house. Resplendent with such fine interior detailing as graciously molded door and paneled window surrounds with bulls eye corner blocks.

Buena Vista

Buena Vista is a beautiful historic plantation home that incorporates European fashions and materials in a Greek Revival adaptation of its original Federal style. Construction is purported to have begun circa 1822, but the house was not completed until the late 1840s. According to Montgomery family history much of the materials for the house were shipped from Birmingham, England. The original chandeliers were brass and unusual in that they burned pure lard as a fuel. The doorknobs and other hardware were of silver.

A typical central-hall type, the house has two rooms on each side of both the first two floors. The old structure's third floor is one large room with fanlight windows. Known for many years as Montgomery Place, the house took the name from William Montgomery who, after acquiring it in 1844, completed its construction.

Perhaps Buena Vista's most notable feature is a circular staircase spiraling twenty-four feet to the third floor. The stair has no visible means of support.

An expanded design of this style was used when the Capital in Montgomery was built. It is thought by some historians that Daniel Pratt may have had an influence on both.

The Fred Whittakers restored the house after they acquired it in 1937. It was the Whittakers who gave the name Buena Vista. Montgomery family history shares a fascinating story about a window pane in an upstairs bedroom where it is reported that Ella Montgomery tested the diamond in her ring by etching her name on the surface of the glass. For security reasons the pane has been removed to a framed wall hanging that today may be seen in the west parlor.

Learning in 1982 of a plan to relocate Buena Vista from the county, ACHA initiated a movement to block such plans. It resulted in Union Camp Corporation purchasing the stately old home. They gave ACHA the privilege and responsibility of maintaining and preserving it.  In 2001 International Paper bought Union Camp and is the present owner of Buena Vista.  They have continued to allow ACHA to play a major role in the preservation of this historic jewel of Autauga County

Buena Vista is open for tours and is a favorite setting for weddings, receptions, luncheons and meetings. Proceeds are used to help preserve the County's rich heritage.

Robinson-Smith House

The Robinson-Smith House, now located at 1401 Highway 14E, was restored by ACHA in 2003.  Its original site was at the intersection of McQueen-Smith Road and Highway 14E.  Not much information is available on the house, but what has been found was put into a brochure given out at the opening of the house in the spring of 2002.  That text is as follows:

Three names appear on the earliest legal documents for the Robinson-Smith House and the surrounding property: Thomas A. Rogers, Lewis G. Robinson, and Thomas Sanford.  Since the house was known as the Robinson House before the Smiths acquired it, most likely Lewis Golson Robinson built it.  Mary Olive Nisbett, who donated the house to ACHA, found the date 1833 carved on a house timber.  One of the dates by Robinson’s name on an early abstract is November 14, 1833.  Robinson had settled in Autauga County in 1824 and seems to have built the house about a decade later.  He was affiliated with the Protestant Methodist Church at Robinson Springs, an area named for someone with the same name but unrelated to Lewis G. Robinson.  (According to Mrs. Nisbett, the house served as a stop on a stagecoach route running from Mississippi to Georgia.)

At some point Burein Whitfield Moncrief became owner of the Robinson place.  James Brown Smith and his wife, Mary Lamar Smith, purchased the Robinson place around 1919.  James, who had attended Washington and Lee University, married Mary, daughter of Dent Lamar, a prominent Selma businessman, in 1874 (a street in Selma is named for Dent.)  Earlier they had lived on the Coleman Place, two miles west of Prattville and then at Mulberry.  James B.  Smith died in 1923 and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.  Mary Lamar Smith died in February 1934, and was buried on her 84th birthday.  According to a report in the Prattville Progress, February 15, 1934, “Despite her advancing age, she remained active in associations with her many friends until her last illness began about six months ago....”

She was survived by three sons: W.M., Dennis, and Brown Smith, all of whom lived at Prattville.  Dennis and his wife, Mary Armstrong, became the new owners of the place.  Brown lived with them.  Dennis McCarty Smith died June 10, 1967.  Mary continued living at the home place until her death on June 6, 1996, at age 91.  She had retired from the Prattville School System after 37 years of service.  Jane Smith, wife of Major Smith, knew Mary Armstrong Smith personally, often visiting her in her home.  Jane has some interesting stories about Mary, who became known around Prattville as Mary Denis Smith.  Shortly after Jane started teaching at Prattville Junior High School, Mary Dennis appeared at Jane’s classroom with a large paddle.  “This is for you,” Mary told Jane.  “Don’t bother to send misbehaving students to the office.  Take care of the problems yourself.”  Jane also recalls Mary Dennis showing her the upper level of the Robinson-Smith house.  It had been used for dancing in years past, according to Mary.  The last owner of the place was Mary Olive Nisbett, daughter of Dennis and Mary Armstrong Smith.  In 2002 Mrs. Nisbett gave the beautiful, historic home to the Autauga County Heritage Association with the understanding that the association would restore and maintain the house for present and future generations to enjoy.