MOBILE, Alabama — Since 1862, Chinaberry has been a fixture on Old Shell Road, near the bottom of the hill in Spring Hill. But in recent decades, despite its close proximity to the road, it’s been covered by a tangle of trees and vines, its front porch slowly rotting even as the romantic name “Chinaberry” is painted in script over the door.

“It’s amazing how many people don’t notice it,” said John Sledge, architectural historian with the Mobile Historic Development Commission. “It’s a hidden gem.”

For several months, Chinaberry has been for sale. It’s currently listed with Billy Heath of Roberts Brothers, with an asking price of $297,500. The price has been reduced from $350,000.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the home itself is small, with just four rooms, one bathroom and a kitchen tucked into a closed-in porch. But it has beautiful hardwood floors and solid plaster walls. Heath points out that there are no cracks in the walls—which is unusual for such an old home built on brick piers.

Sledge was “impressed by its condition,” he said. “The bones are good inside.”

Still, he admits that it needs “significant work.” “It depends on your threshold for decrepitude,” he laughed. “And mine’s pretty high.”

Painted dark red, the one-and-a-half-story Creole cottage is easier to see from the street these days, thanks to the efforts of Heath, who is trying to sell it for the owner’s son. He has spent several weekends cleaning up the overgrown grounds. “We started raking and found all these trails,” he said. “When we started on this, you couldn’t even see the road.”

In addition to the house, there are two other buildings, one that was originally the kitchen and another that Heath calls a “chapel” because it incorporates a stained-glass window that, according to an architectural evaluation from a Mobile City Planning Commission inventory of Mobile landmarks, was rescued from St. John’s on Church Street when it was demolished.

Brick walkways lead from one building to another, at one point forming an oval where, Heath said, a rose garden once grew. Where the bricks form a circle, someone once tended an herb garden.

The lot, at the corner of Old Shell Road and Wacker Lane, is 190 feet deep. The home was built by Philip Pfau and is one of Spring Hill’s last remaining “summer homes.” According to the architectural evaluation, it was “typical of the early summer homes of the inhabitants of Mobile who left the low-lying city during the summer for the healthier high ground of Spring Hill.”

Anne Randolph Crichton—the last remaining descendant of Hugh Randolph Crichton, who founded the Crichton community in Mobile—lived there in the 1950s and lovingly developed the gardens. The home was named “Chinaberry” for the chinaberry trees that surrounded it.

Crichton signed her name on the eastern side of the house, an act that showed “a lot of personality,” said Sledge. “She seemed like such an interesting character.”

Heath is among those who would like to see Chinaberry restored. “It needs someone to spend the next five years working on these grounds,” he said. “If I had the money and the time, I’d tackle it.”

He knows it’s an unusual listing. For that price, a buyer could purchase a much larger home, even in Spring Hill, that doesn’t need any work.

“It’s not like your regular real estate project,” he acknowledges. “But I found it unique and so intriguing.” 

Heath envisions Chinaberry as a welcome center for the Village of Spring Hill, or possibly as a law office. He can imagine the work of local artists displayed on the walls, or see it as a local history museum.

One thing’s for sure, though: Chinaberry won’t be torn down to make way for new construction. Mobile Historic Development Commission has an architectural preservation easement on the property, so nothing can be done to it without approval from the property committee.

“The committee wants to be open-minded,” Sledge said. “We’re interested in the integrity of the gardens and the buildings. The easement doesn’t mean they can’t add on, or even move the house back.

“We’re committed to helping get a good result, but they have to play ball with us.”