The Bankhead House and Heritage

One windy and cold day, when the temperature was about thirty-four degrees, Flat Aubrey visited the Bankhead House and Heritage Center in Jasper, AL. The house opened to the public a few years ago, but Aubrey didn’t have an interest in history then. In 2008, the house was renovated in memory of William Brockman Bankhead and his family. The renovations of the house and landscaping were beautiful. The circular garden with a nice sitting area would have attracted Aubrey on a summer day, but the weather had been too frigid to sit outside. Inside, the house had a semi-victorian décor with spacious rooms, famous paintings, and expensive area rugs covering polished floors. Portraits of family members were hung along each wall. Prized possessions of Mr. Bankhead’s were displayed at each corner of every room. His accomplishments and highlights brought attention  to the gallery wall, because of the amount hung. Aubrey’s visit had took her back in time to William Bankhead’s life.

     The three-story brick home in north Jasper was built in the 1920’s by William Bankhead himself.  His political career and personal life contributed to much of the United States’ history. Although, Flat Aubrey is an Auburn fan, she found it astonishing that Mr. Bankhead played fullback on the University of Alabama’s first football team in 1892. The personal facts of Bankhead’s life shocked Aubrey, but not as much as the facts of his political career. In his political career, Bankhead was on the U.S. Congress as a representative of Alabama from 1917-1940. He held the position of the 47^th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936-1940 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Flat Aubrey connected Mr. Bankhead’s political stance under Franklin D. Roosevelt to her visit to the Veteran’s Memorial in Oakman, AL and history knowledge. She concluded that William Bankhead had important responsibilities of his position and his political career led into the beginning of WWII.

(A link to the Bankhead house is in the first paragraph.)