It is best known as the 1871-1877 home of Raphael Semmes, captain of the Confederate States Navy sloop-of-war CSS Alabama, a commerce raider during the American Civil War.

The 1858 brick townhouse of Federal and Greek Revival styles of architecture, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 26, 1970.

On April 22, 1946, they donated it to the adjacent First Baptist Church of Mobile in memory of their son, Lt. Joseph Linyer Bedsole Jr. of the United States Army Air Forces, who was killed in action over Nazi Germany in Europe during World War II.

[2][3] The two-story, white-painted brick townhouse is in a simple Federal-style architecture, with an added Greek Revival-style doorway and surround.

The parlor and dining room retain their original fireplace mantles of cut-and-polished black marble.