"The Black Spies in a Confederate White House"

[Linda Anderson]

This is from the First White House of the Confederacy's website.

"With litigation complicated, demolition imminent and circumstances intolerable, a sympathetic governor came to the rescue. In 1919, Governor Thomas E. Kilby signed into law a bill appropriating $25,000 for the purchase and relocation of the House and created a White House Commission to administer it. By this time, the old home was a boarding house for trainmen and was in sad condition. The White House Association was able to purchase the House for $800 with $5.00 down. The White House Commission purchased a lot in the shadow of the Capitol and a Montgomery city engineer, after photographing and documenting it inside and outside, skillfully dismantled the House by thirds, numbered the lumber, moved it the ten blocks to its new site and reassembled it.

"Judging from the front-page newspaper accounts, spread over several days, the dedication ceremony at the opening of the restored First White House of the Confederacy on June 3, 1921, must have been one of the most thoroughly relished and enjoyable occasions in Alabama history. Hundreds of persons participated in an elaborate parade which ended on the south lawn of the Capitol grounds, where the ceremony took place. The White House Association gave the House, fully refurbished, to the people of the State of Alabama. The Governor accepted it and there was a banquet that night with a reception following, in which thousands of Montgomerians, Alabamians, Southerners and Americans participated."

http://www.firstwhitehouse.org/history/