Sweetwater Mansion

General John Brahan, a War of 1812 veteran and large landowner in eastern Lauderdale County, Alabama, began construction of Sweetwater Mansion in the late 1820s. Brahan owned more than 4,000 acres in the surrounding county; the bricks for the eight-room residence were manufactured on the property by people enslaved on his plantation. The house takes its name from the adjacent Sweetwater Creek.

The mansion was completed in 1835 by Brahan's son-in-law Robert M. Patton, who later served as governor of Alabama during the early Reconstruction period from 1865 through 1867. Patton occupied Sweetwater through the Civil War and post-war years.

During the Civil War, the mansion's basement was converted into a field hospital that treated wounded soldiers from both Union and Confederate armies as the war moved through northern Alabama. The basement also functioned at various points as a temporary county jail. Local tradition records that one of Patton's sons died during the war and that his funeral service was held within the mansion before his casket was moved for burial.

The house remained in the Patton family through subsequent generations and underwent periodic alterations. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. By the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, the mansion had fallen into significant disrepair, with sections of the roof failing and floorboards becoming unsafe across the ground floor. A preservation foundation maintained limited public access through paranormal tours and seasonal events for several years before suspending operations due to structural safety concerns.

On April 27, 2023, Sweetwater Mansion was sold to Baron Hospitality, a hotel and management company, for $1,350,000. The new owners have publicly described intentions to restore the property; the timeline for any return of routine public access has not been published.