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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 366
The Harris Family: Life at the Big House (“Lee Mansion”) and the Harris House (built by Sam Harris Sr.),
Pond Beat 1920-1941
The life of the Harris family on the land that was once owned by Charity Cooper began in 1920 when Joseph Brown (J. B.) Harris bought the property from the First National Bank in a foreclosure sale. He farmed 1000 acres on property that extended from North of what is now Buxton Road to the Tennessee River. The road once ran from east to west from Whitesburg Pike (now called Memorial Parkway) in Farley to Triana so it was called the Farley-Triana Road. This was the main road through Pond Beat. Buxton Road was built along the old road for the most part; however, a comparison of old maps with the RSA map shows that the curves were taken out when the new road was built.
J.B. Harris and his family moved into what has been called the Lee House. In this discussion of the Harris tenure on the property, the house will be called the big house, which is what the Harris family and their neighbors called it. It is reasonable to suggest the family may have begun calling it “the big house” instead of just “the house” after another structure was built nearby in 1927.
The Harris House
The Fall of 1941. Sam Sr. and his wife Jennie Harris and their children, Sam Jr., Corrine, and Jimmy pose for a farewell photo in front of the home that Sam Sr. built. Known as the Harris House, it is the only remaining home that is still intact in its original location on Redstone Arsenal.
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