Pine Apple Bungalow

The Pine Apple Bungalow was built circa 1915 for newlyweds Hayden Jenkins Lewis and Lois Grimes Lewis by Lois’s father, William Henry Grimes. According to family stories, Mr. Grimes was not particularly pleased that his daughter had eloped, but he accepted the marriage and was especially pleased when the couple named their first son William Grimes Lewis.

The Lewis family later moved to Fairhope, and the bungalow became home to another generation of the Grimes family. William Henry and Josephine Watts Grimes’s son, Harold Watts Grimes, married Frances Donald Dudley in 1927, and the young couple made the bungalow their first home. In the 1930s, Frances named the home “The Bungalow,” a name that has remained with the house ever since.

Architecturally, the house is a one-story, frame, front-gabled vernacular Craftsman-style bungalow. Decorative shingles accent the front and side gables, while an off-center, single-bay porch gives the facade its characteristic bungalow appearance.

The interior retains several notable original features, including tongue-and-groove walls and ceilings, beadboard wainscoting, and pocket doors separating the living and dining rooms. At the heart of the original house is an unusual three-sided fireplace served by a single interior chimney. Additional rooms were added during the 1940s and again in the 1970s as the house evolved to meet the needs of successive generations.

The Pine Apple Bungalow was included in the Pine Apple Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. With its Craftsman details, largely intact historic interior, and connections to several generations of the Grimes family, the bungalow offers a glimpse into everyday family life in Pine Apple during the early twentieth century.