Thomas-Dowdell House
Built ca. 1840
Oakbowery, AL
William Callahan Thomas, born 1780, and wife Catherine Dowdell Thomas built this house ca. 1840 and established a plantation of about 1,600 acres. Their youngest daughter Elizabeth married her cousin William Crawford Dowdell, and were owners of the plantation in 1860. The 1860 Chambers County Census lists 48 slaves on the place.
The house consists of two large rooms divided by a central hallway on both floors. Brick and rock chimneys on each end of the house serve the wide fireplaces in all four rooms. The original kitchen built separate from the main house in the rear yard has been torn away.
Photographed in 1981, the house is located 1.5 miles west of Liberty Cross Roads on County Road 173.