This beautiful old structure is the historic Gregory House. Now located on the high bluff overlooking the Apalachicola River at Torreya State Park in Gadsden County, the home originally stood across the river at Ocheese in Calhoun County.
Constructed during the antebellum years by Jason Gregory, the home was the centerpiece of one of Calhoun County's largest plantations. Ocheese then was a prosperous community and important cotton shipping point.
The house was often visited by Confederate troops during the Civil War and members of the Gregory family served military duty as did most of their neighbors. The C.S.S. Chattahoochee often tied up at Ocheese and following the tragic explosion of the ship's boiler at Blountstown, some of the victims of the accident were brought here.
In later years the home fell on hard times and by the years of the Great Depression it was in bad repair. As Torreya State Park was being developed across the river, however, note was taken of the home and it was disassembled and carried across the Apalachicola on barges. Restored on the top of Rock Bluff, it is now a focal point of the park. Located just down the slope from the home, which provides a spectacular view of the Apalachicola River and Calhoun and Jackson Counties beyond, are the remains of a Confederate artillery battery constructed to protect the river during the war.
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