Hamilton House
1415 Woodstock Avenue
1924/1925

The Hamilton House was built in 1924 and 1925 for industrialist Charles A, Hamilton. An excellent example of the Tudor architectural style, the house is one of the few grand mansions to survive from Anniston's period of growth as the "soil pipe capital of the world" in the early twentieth century. The house is also thought to have been designed by noted Birmingham architectural firm of Warren, Knight and Davies.

Charles Anglin Hamilton, known to his family as Tobe, was born in Anniston on January 28, 1876. He began his career at the age of eight "as a water boy at the old Hunter's ore bank in the western part of the city and rose in his industrial pursuits to the head of one of the largest soil pipe companies in the world." In 1897, Hamilton married Marjorie Embry and the couple had four children: Charles A., Julia, Frank, and J. Ralph. Charles and Frank were both later involved with pipe foundries and other businesses in Anniston. Ralph became a banker and business leader in Anniston prior to moving to Florida.

After sixteen years of laboring in the foundries of Anniston, first as a ropemaker, then as a molder, C.A. Hamilton became the superintendent of the Anniston Foundry in 1905. In 1912, he and W.F. Johnston purchased the foundry from bankruptcy and continued its operation. They were in a position to expand by 1915 when they purchased first the Standard Foundry and later the Ornamental foundry. In 1920, they acquired the Lynchburg Pressure pipe foundry and became the first local manufacturers of soil pipe. Along with Johnston and former Governor Thomas E. Kilby, Hamilton organized the Alabama Pipe Company which eventually grew to encompass plants in Gadsden, Talladega, and Kansas City and warehouses in Chicago and New York.

In addition to serving as Anniston Pipe Company's president, Hamilton was the president of the Superior Pipe Company; was for a time an owner of the Birmingham Smelting and Refining Company; was a principal stockholder in the Alabama Ice Company, the Anniston Land Company, Crescent Stages, the First National Bank, and the Anniston National Bank; and served as a director for both the Allstate Life Insurance Company in Montgomery and the Birmingham Fire Insurance Company. In addition to his business interests, Hamilton owned the Anniston Motor Company building, the Bosworth Building, the Alabama Gas Company building, 1111 Noble Street, Rudy's Bowling Center, and the Fred William Oil Company building.

"Text © 2006 Schneider Historic Preservation, LLC"

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