Council approves funding to move Judge Horton home to Decatur

Feb. 21—A plan to move the home of Judge James E. Horton, who presided over the landmark Scottsboro Boys trial in Decatur in 1933, from Greenbrier to Decatur can go forward after the City Council met Monday's deadline to approve funding for the move.

The City Council voted 4-1 Monday to allocate up to $888,774 for the move from Greenbrier that's expected to cost about $1.2 million. The Celebrating Early Old Town with Art (CEOTA) organization wants to use the historic home as part of a civil rights museum.

The Morgan County Hospitality Association pledged $250,000 and Decatur-Morgan Tourism is adding $50,000 to finance moving the 6,000-square-foot home to 212 Church St. N.W.

CEOTA founder Frances Tate said the Horton home will become a legal learning center in a partnership with colleges, universities and the Alabama State Bar Association.

"Everybody knows the importance of this trial here," Tate told the council. "They know the story here. We have a rich story that no one has. There's no question the economic value that the city would incur years after we're gone. There should be no question that we should do this."

Tate said the colleges and state bar "will come and learn legal ethics and about all civil rights trials. We will do mock trials. We're already in preparation to create a courtroom in the house."

Tate said she applauds the council for approving the allocation.

"They want to be on the right side of history," Tate said. "It takes courage to do that."

However, not everyone was on board with the project. Councilman Hunter Pepper cast the lone vote against the proposal. He said the Horton home is a "great opportunity" but "the $888,774 is too much money."

Pepper said he supports creating a civil rights museum, but he pointed out that Horton, an Athens native, never lived in Decatur. The Horton home originally sat at the location where Athens City Hall now sits on West Hobbs Street. It was moved to Greenbrier when the Hortons chose to move into the country and the former judge chose to become a farmer.

"I don't believe it's historically viable for Decatur," Pepper said.

Pepper said the city has many needs that could be funded with that amount of money.

Councilman Billy Jackson said he "can't speak to how Mr. Pepper voted" but he sees the Horton house "as an important part of our history."

Jackson said he visited the Morgan County Archives' Scottsboro Boys exhibit last week to remind himself of the trial's details, including Horton's rulings.

The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers, ages 13 to 20, accused of raping two white women on a train in Paint Rock in 1931. They were convicted less than a month after they were charged. All but the youngest defendant were sentenced to die in the electric chair.

The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the convictions because the defendants weren't given adequate counsel, and the second trial of defendant Haywood Patterson was held in Decatur.

Horton presided over Patterson's retrial in 1933. Even though one of the alleged victims, Ruby Bates, testified that the original allegations against the Scottsboro Boys were false and several witnesses provided conflicting testimony, the all-white jury convicted Patterson of rape and again sentenced him to death in Alabama's electric chair.

Horton set aside the verdict on June 22, 1933, in a decision he read at the Limestone County Courthouse, ordering a new trial for Patterson and indefinitely postponing trials for the rest, ruling they could not get a fair trial.

"The trial was a part of sweeping rulings (by Horton)," Jackson said. "It established that we have a right to a jury of our peers and a right to adequate legal representation."

Decatur resident Dorothy Gordon said she is very happy with the council's decision.

"I just prayed about it and God gave it to us," Gordon said. "It's going to bring so much to Decatur. People just don't know yet the greatness that this is to bring."

Gordon said the Horton home and a planned civil rights museum will show "there's a lot of history in Decatur that most people don't know about" and it will become north Alabama's connection to the national Civil Rights Trail.

Tate said CEOTA has been working on phase 1, renovating the home at 818 Sycamore St. N.W. where Victoria Price, one of two alleged victims in the Scottsboro Boys case, is thought to have stayed for two weeks during the Patterson trial.

Phase 2 is a multi-million-dollar civil rights museum, but Tate said it became necessary to act quickly on moving the Horton house. CEOTA has been working two years to acquire the Horton home but the Horton family began setting deadlines on the transfer of the property that forced the group and the city to make an immediate decision.

Horton's granddaughters, Susan Faulkner and Jenny Horton, said they are willing to donate the house but they want it done quickly. They set Monday as the deadline to get a commitment.

Faulkner said after Monday's council meeting that her grandfather's home has been vacant for two years and they're paying a caretaker to oversee the property on Old Highway 20 in Limestone County.

She said there is a competing offer to purchase the home so they wanted to be able to give that person an answer quickly without losing the option if the Decatur City Council chose not to provide funding.

"They (CEOTA) already have a contract with the mover, so we hope the move happens quickly," Faulkner said.

Mayor Tab Bowling said at the work session prior to Monday's meeting that he understands the Horton family needed an answer Monday and he supports the purchase.

However, Bowling said he drove along the proposed route for the move with an electrical engineer who has done similar moves, and the engineer believes the cost of moving utilities to clear the route the house will take can be reduced.

The estimate on the cost of moving the house includes $448,600 payable to Athens Utilities for route assessment and the cost of moving utilities during the move. The cost estimate for Decatur Utilities to temporarily move utilities to clear the route is $48,700.

Jackson suggested adding the cost of hiring an electrical engineer may increase the total cost of the move if the engineer fails to identify savings. Bowling admitted this is a possibility but he believes hiring the electrical engineer would save money.

Tate said she's OK with an electrical engineer seeing if the cost of relocating utilities can be reduced.

"If the city can get some in-kind services or savings, that's great, but we're moving ahead," she said.

Council President Jacob Ladner voted for in favor of funding the move but said he still has a lot of questions, including how CEOTA "will get to day 1 of the opening" and then sustain the museum long term.

He said CEOTA indicated it has found a new executive director but he doesn't know anything about the person and whether that person has experience opening and running a museum that could cost $15 million to $20 million.

"Tabling is not an option. A decision has to be made," Ladner said before the vote.

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.