Gaineswood, the grandest plantation house ever built in Marengo County and one of the most significant remaining examples of Greek Revival architecture in Alabama.

Whitfield is known to have designed most of the house from pattern books by James Stuart, Minard Lafever, Nicholas Revett and others.

The grounds had been the site of a notable historic event while owned by George Gaines.

When Gaines was serving as the US Indian Agent, he is said to have met with the famous chief Pushmataha, of the Choctaw Nation, under an old post oak tree on what would become the Gaineswood estate.

Mary Foscue Whitfield inherited the nearby Foscue-Whitfield House in 1861 upon her father's death and used that as a residence as well.