We’re Jake and Sidney — the current stewards of Lakewood.
Sidney grew up in this house back when it was simply home. Days were shaped by ordinary things: homework at the dining table, Christmas trees in the parlor, and most afternoons in the kitchen alongside her Aunt Pie — learning family recipes, talking over running dishwater, and picking pecans in the yard.
Jake came along later, fell in love with Sidney, and inherited the rest — the house, the history, the work, the worth of it.
When it came time to restore Lakewood, we poured our soul into it. Every floor in every room was sanded, finished, and brought back to life by our own hands — evenings, weekends, sawdust, trial and error. It mattered to us that the boards kept their age and charm.
In 2017, we were married right here on the front porch — a small moment in the long timeline of the house, but a pivotal one for us.
Now, we care for this place the same way it cared for us: personally, attentively, and a little bit reverently.
This is our home.
Thank you for letting it be part of your story, too.
Freemans
Meet the
In 2012, the home was listed on Alabama’s Places in Peril, a designation highlighting historically significant structures at risk of loss—Lakewood threatened not by time, but by the possibility of development. That moment marked a turning point: a reminder that preservation isn’t passive, and legacy isn’t guaranteed.
Today, the house still stands rooted on 10 original acres, no longer endangered, but purposefully cared for—proof that history survives best when it’s lived in, not locked away.
Lakewood was built in the 1830s for Joseph Lake, a North Carolina native, by master builder Hiram W. Bardwell. What began as a family home has remained exactly that for nearly two centuries.
From 1881 to 1910, the house periodically served as home to educator and reformer Julia Strudwick Tutwiler, a member of the Lake family and president of Livingston Normal College—now the University of West Alabama. Her time here connected the home not just to family history, but to Alabama history.
History
Though the world modernized around it, Lakewood remained in the hands of those who built it. It has never left the Lake family lineage.
Lakewood
Through the Years
2018
Hosting begins!
2017
Sidney and Jake get married!
2015
Renovation begins and continues today.
2012
Lakewood Listed on the Alabama Places in Peril
1980
Sidney's parents were wed on the front porch
1936
Lakewood was photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey
1881
Julia Tutwiler resides at Lakewood during her tenure at Livingston Normal College
c. 1830
Construction begins
