Green Bottom Inn (Currently Buchanan Hall, Alabama A&M University)
Travis Martin, Fall 2024
Formerly located in Normal, Huntsville on Meridian Pike, Green Bottom Inn was one of Huntsville’s first hostelries. Green Bottom Inn was first built in 1815 by John Connelly, who also operated the Inn during the 1800’s. The building was thirty-five by sixty feet and had three foot high walls and was constructed of gray limestone, pine clapboard floors, and paneled oak doors. Attached to the Inn was its own personal horse racing track, also owned and maintained by John Connelly. The site is now where A&M University’s Walter S. Buchanan Hall (formerly known as Bibb Graves Hall) is located on Buchanan Way.
During the hostelry’s prime Green Bottom Inn was referred to as a “Mecca for sportsmen”, being host to numerous Cockfights and horse races that gathered and garnered attention from many horse racers and statesmen. Being a lover of horse races himself, Connelly also raced on his own track with his horse named “Gray Gander”, praised for being the “champion thoroughbred stallion of the south”, netting him a hefty haul of winnings. One person in particular drawn to the Inn was General Andrew Jackson. General Jackson was oft seen on his trips down from Nashville to Huntsville bringing his horses and cocks to participate in the sports the Inn had to offer. On the thirteenth of December in 1819, while on a meeting of the Legislature in Huntsville, Jackson had even decided to make his headquarters at the Green Bottom Inn. In that very same year on the first of June, President James Monroe had also made a stay at the Inn, doing so during a lone trip to the Huntsville area.
After the Inn had since ceased its duties, it was adopted and incorporated in 1891 by the Huntsville State Colored Normal and Industrial School which would go on to be known as Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University. From then on up to 1930 the building served as the housing for the presidents of Alabama A&M University, beginning with the first president William Hooper Council. Despite its renewed purpose the building still maintained certain aspects, such as the dining room where Andrew Jackson ate, were preserved as the former Inn continued to serve its function for the University. A historical marker serving as a memorial was eventually erected in front of the building on February eleventh of 1930 by the Garden Club. The historic building met its end in 1931, when the building was ravaged by a fire of unknown cause, The marker installed the previous year left surviving.
Since then the Bibb Graves is what remains at the site, eventually being renamed to Walter Solomon Buchanan Hall.
The postcard for the Green Bottom Inn actually depicts the Bibb Graves Building during the 1950s from its left side, showing the green grass and stone brick structure adjacent to the building as well as the power lines stretching across the road. The Building was composed of red brick and accented by white windows and lines running along the sides of the building. As it stands currently the building has remained unchanged as an educational site, but the same can’t be said for its surroundings. The stone brick structure has been expanded to stick out further and more shrubbery has been planted, likely to make up for the loss of greenery due to expansion of paths and such.