‘Ghost structure’ now marks foundation of the first state house at Old Cahawba

When Alabama became a state in 1819, the town of Cahawba was being carved out of the wilderness to be the first capital. Naturally Gov. William Wyatt Bibb needed a State House in which the business of the state could be carried out.

Archaeologist Linda Derry, director of Old Cahawba Archaeological Park, explained that Gov. Bibb’s plan was to build a grand capitol building at the end of Capitol Street on the top of a mound built by Native Americans who had occupied the area.

Derry said since the land on which Cahawba was built was owned by the state, money from the sale of the lots went to the state and created the first treasury. Bibb did this intentionally, but when Bibb asked the legislature for money to build the grand capitol building he had envisioned, they said no. They gave him the grand total of $10,000.

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