About Us
A JEWEL IN MIDTOWN MONTGOMERY
Located near Cloverdale with its quaint shops, one-of-a-kind restaurants and nightlife and just minutes away from downtown and its hotels, bars and dining establishments, is a Midtown Montgomery jewel. It’s called Lockwood.
A picturesque 62-acre development with single-family homes, townhomes and cottages, Lockwood offers a peaceful lifestyle with parks and walkways. It’s where you literally run into neighbors who actually know your name. It’s pedestrian friendly.
It’s where children can enjoy a walk in a park and hours at a playground.
It’s where homeowners can play on one of two tennis courts.
It’s where residents can swim to their hearts content.
It’s where people can exercise at a fitness center.
It’s where you can have a picnic at a central park with benches, walkways and a pond.
It’s where tranquility is in abundance.
It’s where you can fish at one of four-stocked ponds.
It’s where you can enjoy the lifestyle you always dreamed about and still live near Cloverdale and downtown.
It’s where you do not face the traffic jams and hustle and bustle of East Montgomery and being stuck trying to exit or enter Interstate 85. One homeowner said, “Not everybody wants to go to East Montgomery.”
Another homeowner said, “It’s an island inside Montgomery. You have a neat community. With all the parks and ponds … there’s an opportunity for you to walk around and see your neighbors. It has a community kind of feel.”
And when you’re walking around the neighborhood, you will be walking on sidewalks and not just any sidewalks, but brick sidewalks.
It is a meticulously planned gated community with a 24-hour guard. In the heart of Montgomery. You will see only a few driveways and even fewer
garages. Or mailboxes in the front of houses. Everything is behind the house in an alley. It’s even where the trash is picked up and where you get your mail. Here is something else you won’t see – utility poles and wires because the utilities are underground. There are even gas street lights.
It’s about aesthetics, but Lockwood is so much more than living in a serene, beautiful place. You’re near churches, a synagogue and a temple. It’s near two colleges – Alabama State University and Huntingdon College. It’s near Montgomery Country Club. “You can get to anywhere really quick,” said a Lockwood homeowner. “It’s convenient. It’s in the middle of town. And we have a guard 24 hours a day.”
And it’s about options. Most of the 40-plus homes at Lockwood were custom built. There are also cottages and townhomes. Cottages are about 1,700 square feet and cost around $240,000 while townhomes range from 1,600 to 2,000 square feet and cost from $250,000-$450,000. The custom homes have a wide range of 1,600 square feet to 6,000 square feet and range from $300,000-plus to $1 million.
Current plans call for 35 to 40 additional cottages and 20 townhomes in addition to about 80 or so houses on lots with widths ranging from 60 feet to 100 feet. The largest lots are by Gunster Road and along the clubhouse, which was designed in 1929 by the famous architect Frank Lockwood. The development was built on the former site of the Standard Club property.
At Lockwood, an architectural review board must approve design plans and the builder. Requirements include building certain-sized houses on specific lot sizes.
Contractors must abide by extensive Lockwood regulations, which impact waste disposal, vehicles and equipment and protecting irrigation lines. There are five wells on the property and a portion of the homeowner’s fees provide water for irrigation.
The first home in Lockwood was built a dozen years ago and through September the property contained 40 homes, six townhouses and two cottages.
Another four cottages will be constructed by different builders for the 2019 Parade of Homes in April. Lockwood is the central site for the event.
LOCKWOOD SITE MAP
Architect Had Impact on Capital
by Tom Conner | July 29, 1992 | Montgomery Advertiser
If dinner conversation lags to an embarrassing stall, there’s always a sure fire starter to crank things off again. Just say “I’m not sure, but I believe that was a Lockwood house.”
That’ll usually do it, and you’ll inevitably learn more than you want to about the architect of English parents who was born in 1865 in New Jersey and spent most of his youth in New York City. His father came to this country as engineer for the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Young Frank Lockwood graduated from Princeton, did post graduate work at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and went to work for an architectural firm that sent him almost immediately to Anniston, where he designed Grace Episcopal Church. Then, for two years, he lived in Columbus, Ga., before settling in Montgomery in 1894.
His talents were immediately obvious to discerning Montgomerians, and his name became synonymous with the best of his profession.
His talent in the field of music probably would have led to an equally significant career had his mother not pushed toward architecture. (In Montgomery he was choir director at the Holy Comforter).
Before he left New York he had established an enviable reputation as a singer in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and was offered a contract with the Metropolitan Opera.
Arriving here just before the turn of the century with his wife, Marguerite, Lockwood began his 41-year career in Montgomery, designing such memorable landmarks as the old Post Office at Dexter and Lawrence, wings for the state Capitol, Baldwin Junior High School, the Greystone Hotel, The Standard Club, the old Memorial Hospital on High Street, a major addition to the First National Bank, and several buildings on Huntingdon’s campus.
Lockwood inspired and helped establish several young architects in the city. Among them were
Raymond Sizemore, whose widow, Louise, and their daughter, Tonia Darby, still live in Montgomery; and Ben Dawson, father of Montgomery businessman Taylor Dawson.
During Lockwood’s long career he designed scores of residences in the city, including the Algernon Blair home (now home of the Spears Rhodes) on Felder Avenue, the John Blue home (now the Porter McCollisters) on Felder.
The John T. Clark home on Thomas Avenue is now home to the Truman Hobbs Jr. The L.B. Whitfield mansion on Perry Street is now the McGregors’; Emma Jean and Chet Brown live in the Ralph Quisenberry house on Woodley Road; and the Lucian Loeb house on Gilmer Avenue is the residence of the Billy Williamsons.
On LeGrand Place, the LeGrand house is now the home of the Tommy Thaggards. The Rod Nachman home on Thomas, and the Bob Steiners’ on Gilmer Avenue are still occupied by the original owners.
Montgomery owes a lot to this man, who was a cousin of the personal physician to Queen Victoria, and cousin of noted author Rudyard Kipling.
Mr. Lockwood came to our city and liked it enough to take root, raise a family, and leave his mark in such splendid ways, all over our town. Mr. Lockwood died in 1935 at his home on Adams Avenue.
He never had to resort to an idea projected by his famous colleague Frank Lloyd Wright, who said, “The doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.”
