By Sherri Blevins
On February 2, 2023, around 10:00 pm, Jerry Clifton, owner of Mentone’s historic Hitching Post, received a not-so-happy birthday message. He was told the historic building was on fire.
The Hitching Post was a 100-year-old icon for the Mentone Community, and sadly it turned to ashes that night. On March 1, 2014, the Mentone Springs Hotel, the largest 19th Century remaining large-scale resort in Alabama, also burned to the ground due to an electrical fire. Both the Hitching Post and the Mentone Springs Hotel were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
MVN spoke with Clifton, the owner, and the man with a vision for restoring the establishment to its original glory. Clifton had been working on the restoration project for the past year and was one day away from seeing new life enter the doors. Clifton said several businesses were scheduled to move into the building the next day on February 3. The upstairs of the building was two weeks away from completion. The top portion originally hosted community dances. Stephen and Michelle Smith were opening a merchandise shop, Terry Patterson a coffee and sandwich shop, Jessica Brown a bakery, and the Gordie Shop was already established.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Clifton said that because the building was classified as a historic building, the state fire marshall must conduct an investigation. The Mentone Police Department and the Alabama State Fire Marshall placed crime scene tape around the scene. They asked the public to respect the scene and property until the investigation was complete and the property was turned over to the insurance company and property owner.
Clifton talked about the emotional impact of the loss. He was most concerned about its toil on the Mentone community. Clifton stated, “I am heartbroken for the people of Mentone. It was the oldest structure that was left. I hate it so much for them. We had so much support in what we were doing. I knew it would be special when it was opened.” Clifton thanked the community for its support and all the area first responders for battling the fire. Even though the building burned to the ground, no one was injured during the emergency.
Clifton said he had been amazed at the outpouring of love and support he had received during the past few days from people from many different places. He added one final thought, “If you’ve never renovated a historic property, you can’t understand what it means to do that. It is just different. When you buy a historic property, you must bring it back to what it was one hundred years ago. That’s a big thing. It is really emotional when you start working on a historical building to keep it what it was. We had so much support in Mentone, and I hate it so much.”