James Wilson Jr. and his sister Carolyn Lyon would have never believed that the Mt. Olive house they lived in as children would someday stand as a testament to history.

But it happened on Sunday when a crowd of friends and family stood witness as a Jefferson County Historical Commission sign was unveiled at the J.P. Wilson house on Rosemary Road.

The house, built in 1937, is one of seven rammed-earth houses on the road. They are the only ones in existence in the country that the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps built as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program.

Beth Hunter of Gardendale headed up the effort to get the house listed on the county register. Hunter, who has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, researched the houses for many months.

During the ceremony on Sunday, Lyon and Wilson recalled stories of their growing up in the house. He was 5 years old and she

was 7.

Wilson recalled the coal pile outside his bedroom door. It was his job to keep the fireplace going. Lyon remembered the French doors being kept open in the summer, and her startled father jumping over a snake that had made its way in through the open door.

The French doors were the only part of the rammed-earth houses that were not wrought from the land where they stood, according to Hunter. Government workers felled trees on the property to build the frames, and the soil on site was packed tightly into the frames to make the mud houses. The walls are 18 inches thick.

“They were among the first green houses,” Hunter said. “They are the only ones like them in the country.”

She said that some skeptics in the 1930s expected the earth houses to melt away during the first few heavy rains. However, they remain today as sturdy as ever.

Of the seven houses, only the J.P. Wilson has been accepted onto the Jefferson County Historical Commission’s historical register. Hunter said some of the others would likely not be approved because they have been modified too much from their original design.

The rammed-earth houses all had free-standing fireplaces in the center. The fireplaces had blowers that would direct heat both to the bedrooms and to the kitchen and living room areas.

The houses were even wired for electricity within the thick mud walls.

All of the houses came with a small pump house and a barn, which were also made in the same style.

Mt. Olive’s seven rammed-earth houses were part of a colony of 71 houses originally called the Gardendale Homestead, and later changed to Mt. Olive Homestead.

The novelty of the rammed-earth houses drew visitors from across the United States as well as international visitors, including one from India who dug a knife into one of the walls to see if it was really made of earth, according to Hunter.

The houses are still drawing attention. In addition to receiving county recognition, an exhibit called “Digging out of the Great Depression: Federal Programs at Work” at the Birmingham Public Library in November and December 2009 featured the houses.

Hunter is secretary for the Gardendale Historical Society, Inc. Many members of the society attended the unveiling ceremony.