SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Steeped in centuries of Greek tradition, the Malbis community southeast of Spanish Fort offers a rich and quiet agricultural history, evidenced by rolling acres of corn, cotton and strawberry and soybean crops.

It’s what isn’t necessarily visible from Alabama Highway 181, however, that’s landed Malbis Plantation on the National Register of Historic Places.

Elizabeth Ann Brown, deputy preservation director of the Alabama Historical Commission, said the original homestead of the community’s namesake and founder Jason Malbis was selected for the honor in early May because of its unrivaled and extensive maintenance of early 20th-century agricultural buildings, the largest in the nation.

Although the original plantation boasted roughly 10,000 acres, the majority of the property has been sold intermittently by surviving members of the family and a foundation that oversees the remaining 860-acre historic district.

The historical-designation request began five years ago when the Alabama Department of Transportation began a 15-mile widening project on 181 that remains unfinished.

According to the historical commission, Jason Malbis was a native of Greece who founded the local plantation in 1906, as a commune of sorts for “Greek compatriots” willing to work under his direction rather than stake their own land claims.

In addition to the agricultural buildings, the plantation includes the Big House circa 1907, the Malbis Nursery building and the Tampary-Simmons House.

Brown said the nursery and Tampary-Simmons House boast Mediterranean Revival architecture with Classical Greek elements found nowhere else in the region.

Meanwhile, the church built at Jason Malbis’ request following his relocation from the plantation is considered the development’s “architectural crown jewel” and has been called the “finest example of the Neo-Byzantine style in the state.”

The National Register of Historic Places is a program of the National Park Service and is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.

Locally, the program is administered by the Alabama Historical Commission.