Rowan House
Leeds, United States
Thomas Rowan, son of Irish immigrants who settled in St. Clair County, Alabama, purchased his first 130 acres at auction and built a house here by c. 1854 that probably forms the core of the two northeast rooms. Heir John Thomas Rowan and his wife, Ada Scott Rowan, enlarged the house to its present turn-of-the-century farmhouse form about 1904. The Rowans were prominent farmers and landowners in the Cahaba Valley for three generations, at one time owning much of the land on this section of the Ashville - Montevallo Road. The last family member to live in the house died in 1979, after which the property declined. In 1998 builder Charles Kessler Jr. purchased the property to develop Woodruff Farms. The Leeds Historical Society convinced Kessler to donate the lot to the Society. Volunteer workers restored the badly deteriorated house. It was dedicated to the people of the community in April 2000.