Last Updated on August 8, 2025
Staying at Bama Bed and Breakfast is like taking a step back into Antebellum times, but keeping all the modern amenities. Built in 1823, the original patent-deed for this antebellum home was signed by our fifth president, James Monroe.
The two-story, four-columned white mansion with covered porches in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is reminiscent of Tara in “Gone with the Wind.” It sits on grounds with 100-year-old crepe myrtles, a fairy garden, a fountain, and a gazebo near the event annex. It’s pet-friendly, and I met some cute resident cats here during my stay.
When I arrived, owners Kim and Marc Roberts made me feel like family. Kim led me upstairs to my 1860 Tusk Suite furnished as it would have looked just prior to the start of the American Civil War with deep green walls, hardwood floors, a wide beautifully draped floor to ceiling window, a king-sized four-poster bed with intricately worked head, footboard and dresser. However, it had all the modern amenities like Wi-Fi, a large flat screen TV, microwave, refrigerator, Keurig hot drink maker, and a tasty basket of assorted snacks.
Today, the two-story Greek revival home features seven rooms and suites, five in the historic home and two in a newer addition. Guests can enjoy a hot tub, pool, garden, game room with pool table and curved screen TV, a gazebo, fountains, an outdoor firepit, and a fairy garden.
The home has so many charming touches. One daughter, Amanda, makes jewelry and had some of her creations on display. The rocking chairs on the porch were a perfect place to relax with a cup of tea and admire the fountains on the side of the home.
The following morning, I enjoyed breakfast with the family consisting of biscuits topped with a recipe for chocolate gravy from Kim’s grandmother.
Bama Bed and Breakfast History
“We’re one of the oldest houses in Tuscaloosa, and the oldest continuously occupied house,” Kim Roberts told me. “It started off as a two-room cabin, so the living room was one room and this dining room was the other room. The foyer was actually a breezeway. It was called a dogtrot cabin because a dog could trot from the front to the back without coming into the house. You would crack your windows, open the door, and pray for a cross breeze, which I can’t imagine was very successful in Alabama.”
By the time of the Civil War, the house had been expanded and considered one of the most beautiful in the area. When the Union captured Tuscaloosa, Federal officers used it as their headquarters. The home sits only a few blocks from the University of Alabama, then functioning as a Confederate West Point, the main site the Union wanted to destroy in town.
During the Victorian era, the home was owned by Cornelia McCalla and her husband, Mitchell Neely Pride. Mitchell died young, and Miss Nela, as she was called, ran the home, cared for their twin girls and they family cows, and painted. Kim showed me old pictures of the family and said she had Miss Nela’s memoirs, which inspired the downstairs décor, all done in gold and lavender, Miss Nela’s favorite colors.
The Spirits of Bama Bed and Breakfast
Kim Roberts shared an incident when a construction worker was building a gazebo on property in 2024.
“We already had four of the columns for the gazebo, and realized we needed two more,” she said. “They arrived and sat outside the garage doors just as the other ones had for several days. One morning my housekeeping manager pulled up, then called asking, ‘Kim, why is this column blocking the driveway?’”
I responded, “What are you talking about?”
She said, “Someone’s moved the column.”
Large, heavy columns.
“I’m sure one of our college friends has been pranking around,” Kim Roberts assumed. “Let me get the camera and see what I can figure out.”
Viewing Ring camera surveillance, at roughly 2:30 a.m., one of the columns begins rolling across the driveway.
“I thought, well that’s really odd,” Kim recalls.
Initial inspection of the video didn’t reveal a cause for the column to move.
“We ended up catching a spirit floating around from the front of the house,” Kim said.
Additional phone video subsequently showed what appeared to be a male figure floating from one side of the column to the other, then walking away. The family called a paranormal group that explained that the only reason she could see the apparition was because the figure went between two sources of light.
“We had the garage lights on and we had the front porch lights on, and it came between them, and that illuminated it,” Kim said.
One of Kim’s daughters pulled up another video.
“I told Brittany to get the staff and move the column back up by the garage door,” Kim continued. “They rolled it up like a rug and set a box on top of it. That afternoon, we caught this on camera in broad daylight.”
The spectral form appears to rise over the rug, flops down on the other side, and rolls it back to the same location.
Over the years, there were other paranormal experiences in the home. One man saw a little boy in the kitchen who disappeared after grinning at him. The ghost investigators did a full report, and finding a number of unexplainable phenomenon, ultimately determining they were happy spirits helping protect the home.
Things to Do in Tuscaloosa
I wished I’d had more time in Tuscaloosa to soak up history and culture.
Will Hawkins at Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion, one of the last grand mansions built in Alabama before the Civil War, gave me a tour of the historic home built by Senator Robert Jemison Jr. as his city residence. It’s furnished as it would have looked in the 19th century.
Will explained that Jenison built it to impress people with his wealth.
“All the walls are one and a half to three feet thick with a stucco overlay,” he said. “The outside is painted to look like large granite blocks used in the construction process of the home. It was the most technologically advanced home in the state, and it was the first house to be fully lit with gas lighting. It had the first fully functional indoor bathroom in 1859.”
The Battle-Friedman House was built in 1835 in Federal and Greek Revival styles by Alfred Battle. The first phase, the front of the house, was constructed in 1834 as his weekend town home. In 1844, when he decided to use it as a full-time residence, the back half of the house and the front porch were added.
Tuscaloosa features Civil Rights Movement stops. The First African Baptist Church founded in 1866 became the foundation of Tuscaloosa’s civil rights campaign. Visitors can take a self-guided tour of 18 sites that are part of Tuscaloosa’s Civil Rights Trail.
Going back in time much further, Moundsville Archeological Park interprets the Mississippian era, around 1200 AD. The mounds’ main purpose was to hold structures. Elites and the chiefs lived on the top of some mounds; others held temples and some artisan workshops. The Jones Archeological Museum tells the story of the people who lived here along with over 200 ancient artifacts, several recreated scenes of life at the mounds, and a multimedia show.
More Tuscaloosa Ghost Stories
Drish House, another historic home built for Dr. John Drish and his wife Sarah in 1837, has its own resident ghost. Nika McCool and her husband purchased the home in 2014 to use as an event venue.
John Drish died in 1867 and was laid downstairs in one of the parlors. Sarah wanted the same candles from his funeral to be saved and used at her own funeral. Sarah lived another 17 years, though when she died, no one could find the candles. The story goes that Sarah Drish’s ghost haunts the tower searching for the candles.
“People see flickering candle lights up here through those windows and there have been several times the fire department was called,” Nika McCool said.
She showed me a photo, taken when the building was empty, where a tiny face peeking out the upstairs curtain is visible.
Alabama Museum of Mental Health is part of the Catherine and Pettus Randall Welcome Center at the University of Alabama. Downstairs, there are exhibits preparing a potential student for life on the university campus, but upstairs exhibits tell of the building’s history as a mental hospital.
Dining in Tuscaloosa
The Sanctuary on 25th combines the décor from a 1920s church with a speakeasy style. Dinner at Urban Bar and Kitchen combined the best of urban-style with great food. City Cafe offers breakfast and lunch with comfort-food staples since 1931. Southern Ale House combines classic Southern cuisine with craft beer, and popular Rama Jama’s is a classic diner abutting Bryant Denny Stadium, serving breakfast all day.
