Mount Ida, Talladega County

Mount Ida plantation house was built around 1840 about halfway between Sylacauga and Talladega in Talladega County. The home was built by planter Walker Reynolds, who owned some 13,000 acres of land and several hundred enslaved persons. The portico was added around 1858. The home was reportedly a location for the 1915 silent film Birth of a Nation, widely criticized, even upon its release, for its promotion of white supremacy and Lost Cause ideology. The house was documented by the Historic America Buildings Survey in 1935, when this photo was taken, and was later demolished.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey