| Thornhill | |
| Nearest City: | Forkland, Alabama |
| Coordinates: | 32.6883°N -87.9292°W |
| Built: | 1833 |
| Architect: | William Nichols |
| Architecture: | Greek Revival |
| Added: | May 10, 1984 |
| Refnum: | 84000618 |
Thornhill is a historic plantation near Forkland, Alabama. The Greek Revival main house was built in 1833 by James Innes Thornton.[1] The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 10, 1984.
James Innes Thornton was born October 28, 1800, at the Thornton family plantation known as Fall Hill, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was educated at Washington and Lee University and then emigrated to Huntsville, Alabama. He began to practice law there in 1820. He was elected as Alabama's third secretary of state in 1824 and remained in that position until 1834. After this he retired from public life and became a planter in Greene County. Thornton married Mary Amelia Glover in 1825, daughter of Allen and Sarah Norwood Glover of Demopolis.[1] They had two children. Her brother, Williamson Allen Glover, developed the neighboring plantation known as Rosemount. Mary died after only a few years. In 1831, Thornton remarried Anne Amelia Smith of Dumfries, Virginia. Anne died in 1864. He then remarried in 1870 for a third and final time to Mrs. Sarah Williams Gould Gowdy, daughter of William Proctor and Eliza Chotard Gould of the Hill of Howth in Boligee. Thornton died at Thornhill on September 13, 1877.[1]
Regarding the Thornton connection to George Washington, Mildred Washington Gregory, George Washington's paternal aunt and godmother, had three daughters who married three Thornton brothers. Mildred Gregory's daughter Frances (circ. 1720–1790)(first cousin of George Washington) married Col. Francis Thornton III (circ. 1711–1748) of Fall Hill. They were the great-grandparents of James Innes Thornton.
Thornhill was developed by Thornton as a cotton plantation in the late 1820s-early 1830s and extended over 2600acres.[2] It later grew to over 5,000 acres and is currently 2,000 acres.
According to the diary of Josiah Gorgas, in talking with Thornton at Thornhill on Tuesday, June 6, 1865, less than two months after the end of the Civil War, Thornton "oppos(ed) ... the doctrine of secession and necessary deduction that we fought so valiantly (in the War) and bled so freely in a cause radically wrong."[3]
William Nichols is believed to be the architect of the main house at Thornhill, hired in 1832 by Thornton.[4] Nichols was made the state architect of Alabama in 1827. He is known for designing the original campus of the University of Alabama and now-destroyed Alabama State Capitol building at Tuscaloosa and the former Mississippi State Capitol building in Jackson, Mississippi. He is also believed to be the original architect of Rosemount, neighbor to Thornhill. Thornton served as Alabama's secretary of state from 1824 to 1834 and would have been very aware of Nichols and his work.[4] The main house at Thornhill was completed by 1833. The monumental two-story portico with six Ionic columns was added circa 1850. David Rinehart Anthony, of Eutaw, is believed to be the builder who made the portico addition and second story balcony (crisscrossed lattice railing). The house measures 55feet wide. Inside is a 14feet wide by 40feet long central hall with a fine spiral staircase at the back. There are two rooms to either side. The left front room was the parlor, with the dining room behind it. On the front right was the master bedroom with the plantation office behind it. Upstairs is a matching hall and four bedrooms. All eight rooms are square. The downstairs rooms have 12feet ceilings. The upstairs ceilings are 11feet.Originally there was a brick kitchen behind the house, it later burned. Additions were made to the original structure from circa 1900 to 1949. They were razed in 1994 and rebuilt to better match the original intent of the house. The house and grounds were extensively recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1934.[5] The plantation schoolhouse was constructed circa 1845. The Thornton children, as well as neighboring plantation children, were taught there. Surrounding the schoolhouse are 250-year-old post oaks.
Buried in the family cemetery, located a few hundred feet east of the main house, are:[6]
Grandson James Innes Thornton (March 10, 1873 - July 23, 19510, third occupant, is buried in Eutaw's Mesopotamia Cemetery, next to his second wife, Helen Williamson Allison Thornton (February 15, 1890 – December 12, 1963). His first wife, Betty Woolf Thornton (April 23, 1887 – September 22, 1932), was re-interred from Thornhill (after her family learned that Innes was going to be buried in Eutaw with his second wife Helen) in the Dayton Cemetery.
Thornton's first wife, Mary Amelia Glover Thornton, is buried in the Glover Mausoleum at Riverside Cemetery, Demopolis. His third wife, Sarah Williams Gould Gowdy Thornton (June 11, 1824 – August 23, 1885), is buried in the Bethsalem Cemetery, Boligee. She was the sister of Thornton's son in law John McKee Gould.