The following house history was written by Richard Raleigh as part of his application for an Old Town sign. The entire application is also available.

427 East Clinton Avenue, Huntsville, Alabama
Old Town Historic District

Milton Humes, as administrator of the estate of George Steele, sold the lot where the house at 427 East Clinton Avenue presently stands to Benjamin E. Bailes on April 18, 1881.

The lot is Lot 12 on the map of the Estate of Geo. Steele, which map was prepared by James H. Mayhew. (The lot is also called Lot 17 of Block 325 of the Quigley Map).

Benjamin E. Bailes was married to Mary L. Bailes.

Mary L. Bailes sold the land with a house on it to Katie A. Bost on March 14, 1910. The lot did not have a house on it in 1881.

The records of the Madison County Tax Assessor's Office for 1900 do not list a house on Lot 17 of Block 325, or the Bailes family being taxed for a house. However, the tax records for 1901 list a Lot with a House upon it, with a total assessed value of $500. The Bailes family paid taxes in 1901 for the lot and house in the amount of $62.56. (This is in the 1901 Assessment of Taxes Book for Huntsville Beat No. 1, on page 4).

Thus, the lot was not assessed in 1900, and it was assessed in 1901, and therefore the house was built during the year 1900.

From the time the house at 427 East Clinton Avenue was built, it has been owned by:

1. Benjamin E. Bailes and Mary L. Bailes (At Book GGG Page 42 is the record of the transfer from the estate of Geo. Steele to Benjamin E. Bailes)
2. Katie A. Bost (Book 102 Page 85 is the transfer to Bost in 1910)
3. Chalmers F. and Katie A. Bost
4. Sam C. Womack
5. Luquire Funeral Home Ins. Co., Inc. (to whom Sam C. Womack apparently owed money)
6. Len Womack and Margaret Womack and J.B. Womack and Nancy T. Womack (the relatives of Sam C. Womack who bought it back from Luquire a year after Sam C. Womack lost it to Luquire)
7. Vivian Hester Donovan (she apparently owned a number of homes in town - including the "Goldsmith-Donovan" house on Franklin; she had them divided and rented them out as apartments apparently)
8. Ruby Smith McKay
9. Vivian Hester Donovan
10. Lauren Clare Burlison (who later married Douglas C. Martinson II; Doug is presently an attorney in Huntsville and a member of the Huntsville School Board; Lauren and Doug live in Huntsville presently)
11. Douglas C. Martinson II and Lauren Burlison Martinson
12. Ralph Wesley “Wes” McCurry Jr. and Angela McCurry (presently of Athens, Alabama)
13. Joseph J. Houser III and Katherine W. Houser (presently living in Birmingham, Alabama)
14. Richard J.R. Raleigh Jr. and Shannon Ellinghausen Raleigh (present owners)

Thanks to Chad W. Ayres, Esq. for his help with the history of the house at 427 East Clinton Avenue.

Additional notes with regard to 427 Clinton Avenue East:

• Vivian Hester Donovan owned the home after the Womack’s, apparently sold it to Ruby Smith McKay, and then purchased it again from McKay, and owned it until she sold it to Lauren Clare Burlison Martinson.
• During the Donovan ownership, from the mid-1940s until the mid-1990s, Huntsville experienced a great deal of growth. Vivian Hester Donovan also owned other property in town, including the 1887 Goldsmith-Donovan House at 506 Franklin. See A Model Restoration, The 1887 Goldsmith-Donovan House, The HISTORIC HUNTSVILLE Quarterly of Local Architecture and Preservation, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, Spring 2002, pp. 7-8. As the city grew in the 1940s and 1950s, apparently a number of owners of downtown homes “took in boarders and rented bedrooms to the [new] workers.” Id., Donna Castellano, History of the 1887 Goldsmith-Donovan House, p. 8. According to one of the former owners of 427 Clinton Avenue East, Doug Martinson, Donovan subdivided that house, and rented it out not unlike she had done with the house at 506 Franklin. Both Lauren Martinson and her father, Doctor Pat Burlison, have explained that when Lauren purchased the home from Vivian Hester Donovan, it was in a real state of disrepair, and was about to be condemned by the City of Huntsville. Harvie Jones, “Huntsville’s late premier restoration architect” (see id., Frances Osborn Robb, Joe Watson’s Restoration of the 1887 Goldsmith-Donovan House, p. 11) assisted Doug and Lauren in restoring and renovating the home at 427 Clinton Avenue East, according to the Martinsons.