The Freeman  House

Downtown Historic Huntsville
205 Lincoln Street
Huntsville, Alabama 35801
256-534-1255 or 256-534-8446
Fax: 256-539-2471

Freeman House History

The 1907 Freeman House stands on land originally granted to LeRoy Pope in 1815. The house was purchased in 1922 by Tom Freeman and his wife Sarah Mason Freeman. Mrs. Freeman, better known as “Miss Sallie,” ran the city’s foremost boarding house. It was a house filled with ‘cotton boys’ (brokers in town trying to sell cotton crops to buyers downtown on Cotton Row), Army generals sent to oversee the building of Redstone Arsenal, teachers, school children, and lots and lots of Huntsville people looking for a home-cooked meal and fellowship. Alice Freeman, a daughter of Tom and Sarah Freeman, was a teacher who taught a first-grade class, called “Beginners School,” in the house after her mother quit taking in boarders.

Central Presbyterian Church, adjacent to the house, purchased it in 1991 with funds received from the Hawthorne Trust. Then in 1996, the congregation fulfilled its vision of restoring the house and using it for the Glory of God. This historic and gracious house provides the setting for several innovative ministries of the church. The Hawthorne Conservatory office and studios are housed in the Freeman House. The downstairs provides a lovely setting for traditional meetings and small receptions for church and community groups. Each of these activities brings back to the Freeman House the enjoyment of Christian fellowship, learning, laughter and music.