History
The former residence was built by John Simpson on the site of his earlier home in 1843. Simpson was sent to Florence by James Jackson, builder of the Forks of Cypress, another prominent antebellum structure in the Shoals area, to buy land and to operate a mercantile business.
The Simpson House/Irvine Place, as it previously was known, later was purchased by George W. Foster, builder of Courtview (now Rogers Hall), for his daughter, Virginia, and her husband, James Bennington Irvine. The residence later was inherited by the Irvine’s great granddaughter Mrs. Madding King.
Following World War II, the Kings restored the home, incorporating many architectural features still present today. In the early 1980s, then-owner Ellis Coats permitted Project Courtview, charged with the restoration of Rogers Hall, to use the mansion for Florence’s first Decorator’s Showcase as part of the project’s fundraising effort.
After serving briefly as a corporate headquarters, the mansion was purchased by David Brubaker and given to the University of North Alabama in memory of his young wife, Coby Stockard Brubaker, who lost her battle with cancer.
The newly refurbished structure was dedicated as Coby Hall in 2005.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Place, Coby Hall currently serves as the headquarters of UNA’s Continuing Studies and Outreach. The former residence also is the site for the annual Festival of Trees and is also a popular site for weddings, receptions and dinners.
Read more about this topic: Coby Hall
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)