Triana landmark added to register
A Triana landmark is now a part of the national list of historic places.
The Warden’s Residence in Triana was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 17. This modest, stone building and its stone garage were constructed in the early 1940s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Wheeler was one of 42 national wildlife refuges developed by the CCC for the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the only one in Alabama.
The residence was home to the warden responsible for this area of the refuge and his family until 1947. Beginning in 1950, it became the only public health clinic for blacks living in the rural areas of Madison County during the post-WWII period of segregation.
The Warden’s Residence and its garage represent the “rustic park architecture” that was being constructed in national and state parks, as well as in other New Deal projects in the 1930s. Other examples of this type of architecture constructed by the CCC can be found in Alabama’s Cheaha State Park, Monte Sano State Park and Wheeler Dam State Park.
The first public health clinic for blacks in Triana began in a parsonage kitchen in 1946. It was moved to the Warden’s Residence four years later. At this time, Dr. Harold Fanning Drake ran the clinic with the assistance of Nurse Johnnie LouJean Dent. Dr. Drake continued to see patients at the clinic up through the 1970s. Nurse Dent worked there until it closed its doors in March 1990.
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