Greensboro became prosperous as part of the cotton boom of the mid-19th century. In 1850 William Murphy, a lawyer and legislator, sold a prime lot to David F. McCrary, a prominent cotton broker and planter. McCrary had originally come from North Carolina. He married Elizabeth Cowan Lowry, daughter of a prominent Alabama family. McCrary had Murphy’s house removed. He hired the architect B. F. Parsons to design a new mansion. The house was completed in about 1855. The "Alabama Beacon" reported that the house cost $10,000. It was a very large sum at the time.