James Ogletree residence

The James Ogletree residence (also known as the Ogletree-Wright-Ivey Home) is a historic Greek Revival style house, probably built in the 1840s and located where North Gay Street terminates at Drake Avenue just north of downtown Auburn.

The home was built by James Ogletree, one of the original settlers of the Auburn area in the 1830s and one of the first trustees of the East Alabama Male College that later became Auburn University. The house, on a 20-acre lot, served as his in-town residence. He and his wife sold the house on June 2, 1860 to Adam Hardin, who sold it at a steep loss a year and a half later, just as the Civil War was breaking out, to W. S. J. Lumpkin.

William Wilmot Wright bought the property from Lumpkin in 1887 and added a second floor to the house. Wright's Mill was located on a pond that was a popular recreation spot even before it was developed into Chewacla State Park.

The house remained with Wright's descendents, two unmarried daughters, until it was purchased by zoology professor William Ivey in 1950. A 1953 tornado destroyed the upper level and Ivey restored the house to a single floor (keeping the foot of the Victorian-style stairway, though).

The home was later converted into a day care center, and then was bought as investment property by Yonhua Tzeng, a scientist and emeritus professor currently residing in his native Taiwan. The house was subdivided into student apartments.

In 2009 the Ogletree residence was added to the "Places in Peril" list compiled by the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation and the Alabama Historical Commission.

References

• Kochak, Jacque (June 11, 2009) "Why is the Ogletree-Wright-Ivey home important?" Auburn Villager