William Hassinger residence
- This article is about the Highland Avenue residence, for the home on Carlisle Road, see Hassinger Castle.
The William Hassinger residence is a 12,500 square-foot Victorian / Queen Anne style house located at 2028 Highland Avenue near 20th Street South now operating as a bed and breakfast.
The house was constructed in 1897–1898 for industrialist William H. Hassinger, his wife, Virginia, and their growing family. Hassinger had founded the Alabama Rolling Mill Company at Gate City 10 years earlier and sold it to Republic Iron and Steel. He remained with the company as a vice-president, and also served as a director of the Henderson Steel Company and the First National Bank of Birmingham.
The house was designed by Thomas Walter III. It is faced with light-colored brick trimmed with Indiana limestone, and features prominent turrets and dormers punctuating its slate roof. A wrap-around veranda terminates at a molded gable over the front steps, which lead to an iron gate facing Highland Avenue. On the interior, a circular staircase is lit by stained-glass windows. The house has eight fireplaces and four chimneys. The kitchen was orignally in a separate building on the alley, and a servant's house, also at the rear of the property, was inhabited by Milton Jones.
The house was originally outfitted with a coal-fired boiler and with indoor plumbing to three bathrooms, and lit by gas. By 1908 the home had been adapted for electrical lighting. A new kitchen was incorporated into an addition on the back of the house, featuring a 3-compartment soapstone sink.
The Hassingers moved to the massive Hassinger Castle on Carlisle Road in Redmont Park in 1929, leaving the Highland Avenue house vacant through 1934. Foreman Grover Seale and his wife Vera took up residence as tenants of the Hassingers that year. but soon moved to 13th Avenue North. Mrs Ada Jones, a widow, lived there from 1938 to the early 1940s. Elizabeth Manning was operating the house as a "tourist home" by 1944.
In 1949 the house had been divided into offices. Howard and Paul Hinton's bookkeeping firm Mail-Me-Monday, Charles and Roy Daniels' Daniels Opticians, physician Leo Bashinsky, and dentists Jack Nolan and William Crandall all shared the address. Alma Johnson occupied the second building at rear.
By 1953 the Hintons had broken their partnership and were operating two businesses from the house, while the two dentists had left and a branch of O K Rubber Welders had joined the list of tenants. By 1957 just the opticians and bookkeepers were still using the address. By 1960 Roy Daniels had branched out by opening the R. H. Daniels Real Estate & Insurance Co. and the parent company of the neighboring Toddle House restaurant, had opened a business office in the house.
The Hassingers' heirs sold the property to Roy and Venoa Daniels in 1975. He kept the property as his residence until his death in 1998. It remained the home of his wife Venoa until her death in 2010.
The Alabama Historical Commission and Alabama Preservation Alliance named the Hassinger residence to its 2003 "Places in Peril" list, due to the ever-increasing threat of commercial redevelopment. In July 2007 the residence was appraised by the Jefferson County Board of Equalization and Adjustments at $459,300.
In 2010, at Venoa Daniels' request, the Hassinger residence was acquired by Sheila and Ira Chaffin, owners of the Cobb Lane Bed & Breakfast, for $456,000. They renovated the property as the 10-room Hassinger Daniels Mansion Bed and Breakfast. The Chaffin Carousel Carving School moved to the home's basement from space in the Terrace Court apartment building.
Ira Chaffin died in 2016. In 2022 Sheila Chaffin placed the home and business up for sale. The county's 2023 appraisal was $1,620,800.
References
- Coumanis, Keri (Fall 2003) "Alabama's Endangered Historic Landmarks for 2003." Alabama Heritage
- Coman, Victoria L. and Jeff Hansen (September 24, 2006) "Five Points paying price of success." The Birmingham News
- Erdreich, Jeremy (December 15, 2010) "Five Points Reviving." Bhamarchitect's Blog
- Swant, Martin (April 21, 2011) "5 questions with Ira and Sheila Chaffin of Birmingham's Hassinger Daniels Mansion Bed and Breakfast." The Birmingham News
- Watson, Nathan (November 4, 2022) "Historic Hassinger Daniels Mansion Bed & Breakfast listed for sale." Bham Now