The Larimore House was a historic residence and school in

Florence, Alabama Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner. It is situated along the Tennessee River and is home to the University of North Alabama, the oldest college in the ...

that was home to Theophilus Brown Larimore (died March 18, 1929), an influential Christian evangelist in the United States. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1974.

History

The house was built as a residence for Theophilus Brown Larimore, and served as the center of a school, known as Mars Hill College. The school operated from 1871 until 1887, and Larimore lived in the house until his first wife's death in 1907. His son, Virgil, lived in the house until 1946, when it was acquired by the Lauderdale County Bible School, which opened in the house in 1947. The school's name changed to

Mars Hill Bible School Mars Hill Bible School is a private, college preparatory Christian day school for boys and girls located in Florence, Alabama. The school begins at pre-kindergarten and continues through the twelfth grade. The school also operates a pre-school. ...

in 1951. In the following years, new buildings were built to house the school. The Larimore Home continued to be a fixture and symbol of the school, which hosted special events and weddings. On the night of July 19, 2018, the Larimore Home was intentionally set on fire by an arsonist. Only a few items of T.B. Larimore's were saved, and only a burned structure was left. In the following months, Restoration Experts determined the home could not be restored. In February 2019, the home was torn down. Only a historical marker remains where it once stood.

Architecture and fittings

The house featured

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

influences, and had a nearly full-width, double-height

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''vera ...

across the façade, supported by six square columns. The front entrance was flanked by pairs of four-over-four

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s with

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

-influenced arched tops; the windows were repeated on each side of the house. The upper floor has single six-over-six sashes. The house had a

center-hall plan The central-passage house, also known variously as central hall plan house, center-hall house, hall-passage-parlor house, Williamsburg cottage, and Tidewater-type cottage, was a vernacular, or folk form, house type from the colonial period onward ...

with two rooms on either side of a central hall on each floor. Two interior chimneys lead to six fireplaces with hand-carved

mantel Mantel may refer to: *Mantel, Germany, a town in Bavaria, Germany * Fireplace mantel, a framework around a fireplace *Mantel Corporation, a fictional organization in the video game ''Haze'' * Mantel theorem, mathematical theorem in graph theory ...

s. ''See also:''

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Lauderdale County, Alabama Victorian architecture in Alabama Houses completed in 1870 Houses in Florence, Alabama