Cullum, George W., House
a.k.a. Jones House;Caffey House
1915 Old County Rd., Daphne, ALThe George W, Cullum House is significant under National Register Criterion C as one of the finest Gulf Coast/Greek Revival houses in Baldvirin County. Its formal arrangement and architectural details, including eared architrave door and window surrounds and marble mantels, are rare elements in a county dominated by the vernacular.
The house is further significant in its evolution from a Gulf Coast Cottage to a formal house with flanking wings, all tied together by the porches. This transformation from a vernacular to a higher style, while still remaining a summer house, is unprecedented in Baldwin County.
Despite these high style elements, the George W. Cullum House is well within the tradition of the Creole/Gulf Coast Cottage folk type. The Creole and Gulf Coast Cottages of Baldwin County are significant as distinctive regional forms of Alabama vernacular architecture. The Creole style is distinctive for its massed floor plan with no interior passageways, a French building preference, whereas the Gulf Coast Style is distinctive for its central hall and exterior chimneys, Eastern Seaboard influences.
The Creole Cottage derives from a long tradition stretching back to the 17th century houses in Normandy. French settlers in the West Indies and Canada added full length galleries and more steeply pitched gable roofs to the house form they had known in Europe and concentrations of these houses remain in New Orleans and Saint Genevieve, Missouri. These houses featured central chimneys, one on the front slope and one on the rear slope of the roof. The lack of interior passageways was one of the most distinctive features of the style; four interconnected square rooms with smaller "cabinets" at the rear, often containing a stairway to the half story. Benjamin Henry Latrobe commented on this plan in 1819 and rioted that the French employed their space to better advantage by excluding interior hallways. These Creole Cottages were popular in Mobile and New Orleans from 1790 to 1850 and continued to be built all along the Gulf Coast well into the 20th century.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.