Farrington Hall, Shelby County Road 203, Aldrich, Shelby County, AL

Significance: Farrington Hall was built as a library, office building and club house for William F. Aldrich's personal use. The basement was designed to allow Aldrich's mechanically-minded 18-year-old son Farrington to work on then-newly-invented automobiles. In 1908, Farrington attempting to clean one of the coal mine reservoirs, developed typhoid fever and died just as the building was being completed. It is named for him. ... Farrington Hall brick entrance gates and a gardener's residence are the only surviving structures on the former "Rajah Lodge" estate, an 1890 multi-turreted 30-room frame residence surrounded by gardens, fish pools and walks designed by a German landscape architect brough from the botanical gardens in Washington D.C. The Aldrich family name was spelled out on a bank alongside the driveway leading to the carriage house. Area residents considered the private grounds and the conservatories among the most magnificent private gardens in the South.
Survey number: HAER AL-127
Building/structure dates: 1908 Initial Construction