Home Oakleigh House Event Hosting Cox-Deasy House  Wilson Photos Friends of Catholic Cemetery Mitchell Archives Join HMPS Mobile Timeline Fourth Grade Teacher Resources Preserving tangible links to the past for the benefit of present and future generations. For information call (251) 432-6161    Oakleigh Historic House 300 Oakleigh Place Mobile, AL 36604 The Official Period House of the City of Mobile, AL Oakleigh Mansion phone: (251) 432-1281 Site Last Updated: 07/02/2009 5:22 PM

The Oakleigh Historic Complex

At Oakleigh Historic Complex, costumed guides lead you through an intimate experience of 19th century Gulf Coast living in an authentic setting. Oakleigh's three house museums interpret three aspects of daily living in mid-19th century:  society, servant and working class.

Located minutes from downtown Mobile, Oakleigh offers a pleasant experience for all ages. The complex consists of Mobile's Official Period House Museum, Oakleigh, circa 1833, listed on the National Register of Historic Places; Cox-Deasy Cottage, circa 1850, and the Cook's House, circa 1850.

Oakleigh museum is a T-shaped Greek revival mansion featuring unique architectural features including a distinct cantilevered front staircase, grand double parlors and classic six-over-six windows and galleries accessed through jib windows. The house was built by a cotton factor from Virginia and later inhabited for three generations by one of the leading society families of Mobile.

Complementing the Oakleigh mansion is the Cook's House on the southwest portion of the property. The Cook's House was built in 1850 as quarters for slaves who were the backbone of the Oakleigh property. Master craftsmen including brickmasons and carpenters lived and worked on the property from prior to the time of the main house's construction. This three-room building tells the story of every day life for craftsmen, laborers and domestic servants. The interaction between the owners and servants explains how urban slavery affected the lives in this commercial city and how interdependent these two cultural communities were in stark contrast to the elaborate plantations to the north.

Cox-Deasy, also built in 1850, tells a story seldom told about the period through museum interpretation. The house was built by a brick mason with a wife and 11 children. Because he could not afford to spare the brick from his inventory, Cox-Deasy was built as a simple four-room wooden raised cottage with a broad central hallway. Its furnishings are simple but the story of the house covers a distance from the early urbanization of the city through World War II.

Visitors are also invited to visit the Minnie Mitchell Archives at the Oakleigh complex and view a massive framed 1857 flag and the Confederate sword that was surrendered in 1864 at the Battle of Mobile Bay, then returned by its Union captor.

The story of Oakleigh is as rich and intricate as that of the old city in which it is found. Come, hear the stories and take a little bit of Old Mobile and Oakleigh with you when you leave.

When Virginia cotton factor James W. Roper made his fortune in Mobile, his goal was to build a small Greek temple in an oak grove. That dream was realized with Oakleigh, Mobile’s Official Period House Museum since 1955.

Roper loved the majestic oak trees he found in the countryside outside early 19^th century Mobile. He also loved the rolling meadow that stretched from the peak of a small hill where he planned to build his house. The name “Oakleigh” is derived from the combination of “oak” and “lea.” Lea is another name for meadow. While the reason for Roper’s spelling in unknown, his intent is clear.

Oakleigh is a T-shaped Greek revival mansion featuring unique architectural features including a distinct cantilevered front staircase, grand double parlors and classic six-over-six windows and galleries accessed through jib windows. Roper was his own architect and builder. Using slave and free labor, the house is composed of bricks made from clay dug on the grounds and timber harvested from the property. Tool marks can be seen on the siding, doors and window frames.

Roper placed his front doorway off-center for a reason. He and his wife planned to entertain lavishly at Oakleigh so he created a north hallway to accommodate large double parlors to the south.

Due to an economic downturn in the cotton trade, Roper lost his house in the Bank Panic of 1837 but, through the benevolence of a wealthy brother-in-law, continued to reside in Oakleigh until it was transferred in 1848 to the family that would put an indelible imprint on the house.

Alfred Irwin came to Mobile as secretary of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad in the late 1840s. He first rented, and then purchased Oakleigh in 1852. He and his wife, Margaret Kilshaw Irwin, a British citizen of the Irish peerage, were prominent in Mobile’s social scene. Their three children, Thomas Kilshaw Irwin – known as T.K., Lee Fearn and Corrine, lived with them in Oakleigh. Corrine died as a young woman. Lee Fearn built a fine home, as an adult on Selma Street and Thomas and his wife, Mary  Anna Ketchum Irwin, were the second-generation Irwin owners of Oakleigh, which, during the three-generation Irwin tenure was known as “Irwin Place.”

During the Union occupation of Mobile, Margaret Irwin saved the house from occupation or damage by draping a British flag on the front gallery. The Irwins occupied the house through the Golden Era of Mobile. The Irwins were leading lights of Mobile society, entertaining family, friends, neighbors, writers, actors, artists and a future president. In 1877, future-U.S. President James Garfield sipped his first genuine Southern mint julep on Oakleigh’s front gallery as a guest of the T.K. Irwins.

The last Irwin to occupy Oakleigh was Daisy Irwin Clisby, who sold the house in 1916. Poignant letters in the Historic Mobile archival collection between Mrs. Clisby’s sons detail their efforts to cover her debts as she lived in genteel poverty in the family manse.

After many private owners, Oakleigh is now open to the public. Oakleigh is furnished with some of the finest decorative arts on public display in the United States. The collection includes period silver, porcelain, furniture, paintings, and personal items.

Other facilities that operate as part of Oakleigh Historic Complex are the Cook’s House, an 1850’s slave cabin located behind the main house, the Cox-Deasy Cottage, an 1850s raised plantation house that interprets the middle-class lifestyle in 19^th century Mobile and the Mitchell Archives, a historical research facility.

Oakleigh is managed by Historic Mobile Preservation Society.

Historic Mobile Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation.  It receives principal funding through memberships and fundraising.  HMPS received funding for operations and/or special programs for the 2008 fiscal year from the following entities:

The City of Mobile

The J.L. Bedsole Foundation

The Hearin-Chandler Foundation

The Crampton Trust

The Community Foundation of South Alabama: "Friends of Oakleigh" fund