Battle-Friedman House

This historic home and garden is operated by the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society as a house museum with artifacts and furnishings from the antebellum period. The home dates back to 1835 when planter Alfred Battle, owner of three plantations in Hale County, built a home for himself in Tuscaloosa--the state capital at that time. Battle was the son of a Revolutionary War soldier who came to this section of Alabama in the early 1800s when cotton production and slave-holding spread to this region. He was listed as owning 190 slaves in 1860. Battle owned several slaves who were skilled carpenters, and several of these men likely led the construction of this home which features a combination of Federal and Greek Revival architectural styles. Millicent Battle oversaw the creation of the estate's gardens in the 1840s. Historians believe that the estate's garden is the only remaining garden from the period before the Civil War in the state of Alabama. The estate was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

The failure of the Confederacy and the end of slavery reduced the Battle's fortune, leading to the sale of the home to Bernard Friedman, a wealthy Hungarian immigrant. The Friedman family held the home for nearly a century until Hugo Friedman donated the property to be used as a space for social and educational activities. Today, the home is operated by the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society 

"The Battle-Friedman House and Gardens." Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society. Accessed June 12, 2015. http://www.historictuscaloosa.org/properties/the-battle-friedman-house-and-gardens.

"Friedman Civic and Cultural Center." Accessed June 12, 2015. http://www.historictuscaloosa.org/properties/the-battle-friedman-house-and-gardens.