By Robert Hudson

The Selma Times-Journal

A local organization is making a move to bring a little more history to Old Cahawba.

Cahawba Concern, which sponsored the Cahawba Festival of the 80s and 90s, purchased the historic Kelly house and is having it moved to the Old Cahawba Archaeological Park from Valley Grande.

The move is expected to happen Wednesday, but officials were discussing the possible move Tuesday afternoon.

The home was likely built in Cahawba during the 1850s, which is considered the boom years of Cahawba, and represents the typical Greek Revival cottage that people in the era lived in.

“Most people know about the large mansions that were at Cahawba, but most of the people actually lived in these small, two-room central-hall cottages,” said Linda Derry, site director of Old Cahawba. “It will allow us to have what the typical person in Cahawba lived in.”

Derry said the house bounced around Dallas County from Hazen to what was once called Fulton, before the scheduled move back to Cahawba.

Derry added the Cahawba Advisory Committee is funding the move, but the house almost called another state home.

“A few years ago it was being sold on eBay and someone actually bought it and it was going to be taken to New Jersey,” Derry said. “Cahawba Concern was appalled that this piece of Alabama’s history was going to leave the state, so we called and talked to both the seller and the person who bought it and they (Cahawba Concern) were actually able to buy it for less than what the person had bid on it.”

To accommodate the moving of the structure to Old Cahawba, the visitor center at the Old Cahawba Archaeological Park will be closed for a week starting Wednesday.

The home will be attached to the current interim visitor center and restored.