$1 million Gorgas House replica for sale in Georgia

Zach Johnson | @ZachJohnsonCW, News Editor

A home modeled after the Gorgas House Museum — the oldest building on The University of Alabama’s campus — is for sale in Marietta, Georgia. The property is listed at $1 million.

The nearly 5,000-square foot property was built in 1966 after its original owner, David Rambo, visited Tuscaloosa for work and fell in love with the Gorgas House. Rambo went on to hire an architect and landscape planner to build a home in Marietta modeled after the UA campus building.

The Marietta house, located at 731 Colston Road, features a few amenities that the Gorgas House lacks, including a saltwater swimming pool, a wine cellar and a three-car garage. 

In its almost 200-year history, the Gorgas House has served as a dining hall, lecture space, post office and campus hospital. It is one of four main buildings that survived the destruction of campus during the Civil War. 

The Gorgas House was designed by English architect William Nichols, who designed the original UA campus and served as the state architect for North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi throughout his career. 

Nichols designed the house based on the low-country cottage style, which features living spaces upstairs and utility spaces downstairs. 

The exteriors of both houses are nearly identical, though the interiors differ. Rambo modified the layout to fit the needs of his family. 

The house in Marietta features a wide-open downstairs area. Carly Harden, the agent for the property, said this was in line with Nichols’ original design.

“We’ve got a lot of interest and have had a couple people come to look at it specifically because it was modeled after the [house] in Alabama,” Harden said.