The Henry House, also known as the Lowry-Ford-Henry House, is a historic antebellum plantation house in Marion. This is just one of about 90 antebellum structures in the Marion area. It is thought that the house was built during the late 1840s or 1850s for Squire Lowry (also spelled Lowery), a wealthy planter originally from North Carolina. The two-story, L-shaped house is wood framed with a brick masonry foundation and columns. A monumentally scaled hexastyle portico spans the three-bay front facade. Another two-story, L-shaped portico spans the exposed half of the rear facade and one side of the two-story rear wing. The Bert Ford family purchased the house from the Lowry family. It then passed to the Henry family, the Ford heirs.
This home was photographed and recorded in the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) on September 24, 1935. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on September 25, 1986. The house was vacant when it was added to the NRHP in 1986. On the NRHP form, the house was identified as being in good condition but deteriorated. Mrs. Mary Katherine Blount of Montgomery, AL purchased the house and gave it to the Perry County Historical and Preservation Society for restoration.
The Henry house is located beside CR 45 at Marion approximately 0.4 mile south of the intersection of CR 45 and Ala Hwy 5 (GPS coordinates 32.610093, -87.318286).
Sources: 1) NRHP “Henry House” Nomination Form, prepared by Robert S. Gamble, The Alabama Historical Commission; 2) Perry County Heritage, Volume II, prepared by The Book Committee and Friends of the Perry County Historical and Preservation Society, page 102; 3) wikipedia.org/Henry_House_ (Marion,_Alabama).
B&W photographs courtesy U. S. Library of Congress (HABS), photographer: W. N. Manning, date: September 24, 1935. The recent photographs that are provided were taken February 23, 2012.