Encore: The Lowe House

UAH LOWE HOUSE – A LASTING LEGACY ON WILLIAMS AVENUE

Written by Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh Photo & photos of articles by Richard Van Valkenburgh

Every residence and site tell a story of the past. Some continue that story into the present day and make it relevant to the future. One such is the magnificent Fletcher-Lowe House at 210 Williams Avenue listed as Resource #189 on the National Register of Historic Places in the Twickenham Historic District. It is also known as the President’s home for the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

The owner and resident for about 50 years was Jane Knight Lowe, a diminutive lady of great kindness, intelligence, character, and generosity. I was privileged to meet her about 1970, when charities raised funds block by block, with assigned neighbors collecting. This duty always fell to me as the only volunteer on the street young enough to walk the route. When I knocked on that imposing front door, Mrs. Lowe always contributed considerably more than the typical donation of a dollar or two. She was always pleasant although she could hardly walk because of her arthritic pain. I admired her very much.

The Fletcher-Lowe House was not the first house built at its site on Williams Avenue. It succeeded a house built in 1817 by Henry Minor. He was the attorney general of the Mississippi territory and a delegate to the 1819 Constitutional Convention. In 1823, Minor sold the property. In 1882, A. S. and Mattie Lowe Fletcher bought the property and in 1901 replaced the circa 1817 home with the one Huntsvillians admire today. Fletcher was a delegate to the 1901 Constitutional Convention and also was a representative in the Alabama state house.

The Fletchers’ 1901-1902 home was built in the Chateau style. The 1825 Federal dependency remains as a reminder of the property’s earliest structures. Architect for the new home was Herbert Cowell (1858-1943) of Joliet, Ill., who is also credited with designing the adjacent circa 1902 Van Valkenburgh-Johnston House at 501 Franklin Street.

After Fletcher’s passing, the property passed to their nephew, Robert Joseph Lowe (Jane Knight Lowe’s husband), who also served in the Alabama legislature. He developed Lowe Hereford Farm in Madison and Limestone Counties into a farming and cattle operation which Mrs. Lowe continued after his death in 1951. She also developed investments of her own.

Mrs. Lowe was one of Huntsville’s most magnanimous and civic-minded leaders, and her keen grasp of the long view in philanthropy and civic work continues to benefit this area to this day. In addition to her generous donations to my simple charitable requests, she contributed to the community and the region at large. School of Medicine as well as an annual retreat for UAH faculty and fellows to present and discuss research and clinical development in rheumatology.

Mrs. Lowe left most of her estate to The Jane K. Lowe Charitable Foundation to carry out its purposes and oversee the trust. The named charitable organizations are the Huntsville Boys Club Trust and Endowment Fund, Girls Incorporated of Huntsville, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Randolph School, Agnes Scott College, Vanderbilt University, and other charitable organizations chosen at the discretion of the Trustees.

One of her most visible gifts to the Huntsville community was her magnificent home which, upon her death at the age of 95 on August 21, 1997, was given to The University of Alabama in Huntsville Foundation with a significant donation to allow for its renovation. The Foundation established it as a residence for the UAH President and for UAH and community business and social functions. It has been a welcoming venue for events held by community leaders to entertain officials of business and industry seeking to move to our area. As such, it has played a part in cultivating the economic boom our area enjoys today.

The ongoing success of the 1999 renovation in improving the University’s presence in the community and civic outreach led to a renewed commitment by the Foundation to renovate and refurbish the property for the coming decades. New construction is now underway in 2021 for this purpose.

The Fletcher-Lowe home at 210 Williams Avenue, the generous gift to the community by Mrs. Jane Knight Lowe, continues to be an incomparable architectural and historical treasure of North Alabama. That visible legacy is another example of the spirit of this wonderful city and the characters who are indelible parts of its story. n