Although this cottage was not built by Warren Reese, he occupied it at the time he was serving his two terms as mayor of Montgomery from 1885 until 1889. This was during the exhilarating and progressive 1880s when Montgomery was experiencing its second “urbanization” when the electric street car began to run and the magnificent Court Square fountain was installed.
Dating from the mid 1850s, the Mayor Reese Cottage is a beautifully proportioned Greek Revival dwelling, typical of many which once dotted the landscape of central Alabama towns. The Historic American Building Survey of the 1930s noted the Reese Cottage as the best example of a Greek Revival cottage in Montgomery. A one-story clapboard cottage, it originally stood at the southwest corner of Alabama and Decatur Streets.
A low, hipped roof extends over a full-length inset front porch with six columns hall. A large central hall widens at the rear, creating a fifth room which frequently served as the dining room. A back door would have led to an outside kitchen. Descendants of Mayor Reese donated the house to Landmarks Foundation which moved and restored it in the early 1970s to Old Alabama Town.