POWERGRAMS

18 the ceiling was copied on a smaller scale by Lexington Furniture about 20 years ago and sold nationwide. The bookcase was made by slaves on a plantation near Old Spring Hill. "I joke with friends that all roads lead back to Demopolis," says Brooker. "When I was in college, I visited a friend's house in Atlanta and as I walked into his parents' dining room, his mom was showing her new china cabinet and saying it was reproduced from a historic house in Alabama, Bluff Hall, and I said, 'What did I tell you?'" THE BIRTHPLACE OF 'THE LITTLE FOXES' Kirk Brooker does believe the long-repeated rumor that Lyon Hall is the inspiration for Lillian Hellman's classic play "The Little Foxes," which in the 1939 Broadway production starred Tallulah Bankhead and the 1941 movie starred Bette Davis. "It matches the description," says Brooker. "I feel certain when she named the home 'Lionnet,' she was referring to the Lyon family." Demopolis natives are proud that the popular play has its roots in the 1850 two-story white frame house that takes up a city block near downtown Demopolis. Yet, the majestic 5,000-square-foot structure given by Lyon ancestors to the MCHS in 1997 can stand on its own among Alabama's significant antebellum homes. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. Available for tour only by appointment, Lyon Hall was built in 1850 by Francis Strother Lyon's nephew George Gaines Lyon and his wife Anne Gaines Glover Lyon. It remained in the family until great- granddaughter Helen Nation handed it over lock, stock and barrel. In the 20 years since, much of the furniture and many other things original to the "townhouse" have been returned by family members, or by people who bought items from the Lyons and their descendants. Four large 18th century Dutch painted panels were donated to line the entrance hall but there is a treasury of beds, sofas, tables, chairs, cabinets, nickel-plated heating stoves, a piano, china, books, vases, quilts, toys and "an unbelievable textile collection" of drapes, clothing and other items that were here before and after the Civil War. The original six massive square stucco-covered brick columns still rise from the ground to the roof, with porches and a belvedere lined by original detailed wrought-iron railings. Lyon Hall has been preserved rather than restored. It is today much like it would have been for visitors nearly two centuries ago, with unpainted walls and unvarnished heart pine flooring. Peeling paint has revealed that all the interior doors were faux-grained to appear as natural wood patterns. "That, was an amazing artist," says Brooker. Uncovered during cleaning was a 4-foot-tall wood carving that is the only remaining part of the gazebo "summer house" that was set up on the grounds and then dismantled each fall. Although only the first floor is open for rental functions, visitors sometimes are allowed to get a glimpse of the second floor, where volunteers still are cleaning and preparing the rooms and furnishings for future exhibition. "It's like they are discovering Lyon Hall themselves when they go upstairs," says Brooker. Above the second floor is a large, tall U-shaped attic where servants lived and family travel trunks and other items were stored for safe keeping behind bars and a locked door. A dropdown stairway in the middle leads to an "awesome view" high above the city. Perhaps, before giant oaks lining the river began blocking the view, George and Anne could see their relatives' homes in the distance. The carved post, leaning on the wall, is all that remains of a gazebo erected each summer a century ago. Cabinet contains Lyons' books.

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