Coby Hall

Simpson was sent to Florence by James Jackson, builder of the Forks of Cypress, another prominent antebellum structure in the Shoals area, to buy land and to operate a mercantile business.

[1] The Simpson House—Irvine Place, as originally named, was later purchased by George W. Foster for his daughter, Virginia, and her husband, James Bennington Irvine.

Foster was the builder of Courtview, the present day UNA Rogers Hall.

[2] Following World War II, the Kings restored the home, incorporating many architectural features still present today.

In the early 1980s then-owner Ellis Coats allowed Project Courtview, the group responsible for the Rogers Hall restoration project, to use the mansion for Florence’s first Decorator’s Showcase, as part of the restoration’s fundraising effort.