Architectural drawings; Watercolors; Courthouses; Wooden buildings; Doors & doorways; Windows; Porches; Columns; Balconies; Hand railings; Ironwork; Roofs; Chimneys; Moldings; Women; Trees; Landscapes (Representations)
This image is a watercolor painting of the Old Mobile Court House in Mobile, Alabama done by Albion W. Knight sometime between 1917 and 1942. The courthouse was built in 1824. The painting shows the front exterior of the courthouse with its doors, windows, columned porch, columned balcony with iron railing, sloped roof, and chimneys surrounded by trees and landscaping. There is a woman in period dress standing in front of the door. The courthouse is placed within framing art showing some of its architectural elements including a floor plan, the back and sides of the house, and close-ups of the molding under the roof, the columns, the door, and the iron railing. In the lower right corner, there is an Alabama Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture stamp with a handwritten inscription "1st Mention" and the artist's information block which reads: "Measured drawing, issued, due, Alabama Poly. Inst., Albion W. Knight." The painting is in good condition with minor edge wear except for two missing pieces from the top edge and is encapsulated.
Auburn University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives Dept. Architecture, School of -- Architectural Renderings Student Projects
This image is the property of the Auburn University Libraries and is intended for non-commercial use. Users of the image are asked to acknowledge the Auburn University Libraries. For information about obtaining high-resolution copies of this and other images in this collection, please contact the Auburn University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Department at archive@auburn.edu or (334) 844-1732.
National Register of Historic Places; Native American History; Early Settlement; Transportation; National Parkway
The 1976 NR nomination documents a 400 foot unpaved section of the original Natchez Trace not covered by the Natchez Trace Parkway. The original Natchez Trace was a network of trails established by Native Americans that stretched roughly from what is now Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi. The trails whenever possible avoided creek and swamp crossings and followed watershed divides. The trails shifted with weather conditions and as population centers changed. The trails appeared on French and British maps in the 1730s and 1770s and were labeled with names such as the Chickasaw Trace and the “Path to the Choctaw Nation”. White trade was documented along the trace as early as 1785. When the Mississippi Territory was formed in 1798 settlers called for improvements to the trace which was authorized by President Jefferson in 1801. Between 1800 and 1830 the Trace was used as a post road and numerous inns and stops were established along the route. Andrew Jackson and his troops traveled the Trace in 1812 to protect New Orleans from a threatened British invasion. In 1938 the National Park Service established the Natchez Trace Parkway extending 444 miles from Nashville to Natchez bypassing this small section of one of the original trails. The Park Service interprets the Trace for its significance to Native American history, European settlement, transportation, commerce, military history and local flora and fauna. The National Register nomination for this small section of the Trace, less than one acre, was written in 1976 and like most nominations from that time period could be improved by additional research. All information and photos for this Omeka entry were taken from the nomination.
Missy Brown, University of North Alabama
Cox, William E. National Register Nomination. “Old Natchez Trace (no. 310-2A)” (#76000156) (11/7/76).
Historic Businesses; Sheffield, Colbert County; Alabama; Old Opera Houses; Historic Buildings
In 1835, William Young and his brother Isaac Smoot, a contractor, bought a lot on what is today the corner of Fourth and Main Streets in Tuscumbia for the purpose of opening a carriage factory. They constructed a large red brick building with a porch supported by large columns on the west side. The roomy second floor was used as a show room for Mr. Young's carriages. This business was known as 'Young's Coach Shop” and sometimes the “Old Carriage House" until the 1880s when it was purchased by A. J. Lloyd who had moved to Tuscumbia from Kentucky. Mr. Lloyd used the first floor to house the local post office and the second floor he used for an opera house. From then on, the building was referred to as “The Old Opera House.” In addition to locals who performed plays and minstrel shows, the theater was also used by traveling theater companies and vaudeville troops. General Tom Thumb, the circus midget, was possibly the most famous to visit The Old Opera House. In 1897, the new Tuscumbia library which had been meeting at the Deshler Female Institute purchased the building through a third party. In 1897, the theater was closed for renovations and reopened two years later. The library occupied a portion of the first floor while the rest was rented to local businesses. The upstairs continued to serve as the town performance center. In 1908, the Colbert County Courthouse burned and the library offered the upstairs as the temporary court house until a new one could be built because the theater was not used during the summer. The county offices ended up remaining here until a new court house was built. The Old Opera House also housed the post office from 1915-1936 for which the U.S. Government rented part of the building. When the post office moved out, the library moved downstairs. In order to afford its new building on the corner of N. Main and N. Commons Streets, the library was forced to sell the Old Opera House building. The library hoped it would be preserved as a public meeting house or museum. The U.S. Department of Interior had recognized the building for its historical and architectural value. The architecture was reminiscent of colonial Williamsburg and throughout its history had housed a carriage factory, an opera house, a furniture store, a high school auditorium, courthouse, library, bus station, attorney's office, as well as numerous other locally-owned shops throughout the years. However, efforts to preserve the building were not successful and the building was sold to State National Bank, whose name was later changed to Central Bank of Alabama. The building was demolished and replaced with a newer bank building.
Jacob Grandstaff, University of North Alabama
Journal of Muscle Shoals History. Tennessee Valley Historical Society 9 (1981). Young's Coach Shop Image courtesy of: "Florence Times," May 22, 1960.
Group of people standing outside of the War Eagle Supper Club waiting to be allowed in.
Morgan County, Decatur, Banks, Old State Bank
Constructed in 1833, the Old State Bank in Decatur, Alabama, served as the Decatur Branch of the State Bank of Alabama. The Alabama General Assembly passed legislation to create the State Bank of Alabama in 1830. Formed in Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County, the bank would have additional branches in Decatur and Mobile. Construction of the bank began the same year, despite the controversy of Decatur being chosen as one of the sites with only 200 residents. The benefit of being close to the Tennessee River helped change that. The bank was designed in the Jeffersonian style with a price of $10,000. Much of the construction was done by enslaved workers from James Fennell's plantation. The bank opened up for business on July 29, 1833, but unfortunately accumulated a debt of more than $1 million dollars by 1840. It remained empty until it was occupied by Federal troops in 1861. The bank served as a headquarters, storehouse, and a field hospital. The thick walls protected most of the soldiers from different forms of projectiles. After the Civil War, the bank served multiple purposes for the citizens of Decatur. It was a doctor's office and a residence. The bank was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It was donated by the American Legion, Post No. 15, to the City of Decatur and became a museum in 1984. The Old State Bank is located at 952 Bank Street NE, in Decatur.
Dylan Tucker, University of North Alabama
"Old State Bank." Encyclopedia of Alabama. Accessed June 1, 2015.
Cemeteries; Athens, AL; Limestone County, AL
Old Town Cemetery is the earliest know cemetery in Athens. Records indicate that the first burials date from the 1820s and continue through the mid-1800s, with some burials past 1900. Many markers in the cemetery are sunken below ground, while others were destroyed or removed from site. The entire block was purchased for ten dollars from Robert Beaty and John Carriel.
"Old Town Cemetery." Title Marker. http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal. Accessed May 26, 2015.
National Register of Historic Places; Florence, AL
The water tower has served as a landmark for the city of Florence since its construction in 1889 by the Jeter and Boardman Gas and Water Association. The stone buttressed masonry tower is seventy feet high and topped by a 282,000 gallon cast iron tank that is 30 feet high and 40 feet in diameter. The tower is located on a plateau two miles north of the center of town roughly sixty feet above the average elevation of the town. The water quality of the tank was reportedly exceptionally fine with the water drawn from clear Cypress Creek as opposed to the often muddy Tennessee River. The tower replaced an earlier waster system provided by the Cypress Water Company and continued to serve the Florence area until it was phased out in 1935. The water tower was built during an industrial and population boom in the late 1880s and early 1890s resulting from the completion of the redesigned Muscle Shoals Canal System. In anticipation of further growth, the current population was 12,000 to 15,000, the tower’s capacity was designed to serve a city of 35,000 -50,000 people. However, by 1891 the boom was over and the population dwindled to 6,000. The tower is significant to the history of Florence, Lauderdale County, and the region as a surviving example of 1870-1880s city water works technology. Around the turn of the 20th century elevated tanks on exposed metal trestles gained popularity due to the superior engineering and lower costs of construction. The tower also serves as a vivid reminder of the 1889-1891 economic boom and the plans and dreams to prolong the industrial and population growth. The water tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Additional information can be found on the National Park Service’s National Register data base, or on the Florence Historical Board Historic Marker on site.
Omeka Add to Collections Minimal Instructions
A summary of the requirements and steps needed to set up Omeka.
Education; Lee County, AL; Opelika Baptist Female College; Opelika, AL; Opelika Baptist Church; Langham, J.J.
Opelika Baptist Church established a school in 1873. Local members of the denomination opened the Baptist Female College inside Opelika Baptist Church and named Professor J.J. Langham as principal. It later moved to a new two-story brick building located on the corner of North Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue. The Baptist Female College only operated for two years, but the school building owners later leased and eventually sold the property to the public school system. No two-story brick building stands at any of the modern-day four corners at North Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue. Three corners sport private residences, and the fourth contains a vacant, elevated, well-maintained grass lot.
Text Source: Alexander Nunn, Lee County and Her Forebears (Montgomery, AL: Herff Jones, 1983), 35.
Opelika, AL; Lee County, AL; Industry; Textiles; Cotton
The first major industry in Lee County and the first textile mill in Opelika. It opened in 1900. Today, it is most well known as the backdrop for the 1979 film "Norma Rae" about a woman who become involved in the Labor Union Activities at the North Carolina textile factory where she works. The Opelika mill had itself unionized only a few years prior to the filming. The old mill is located at 1016 York Ave, Opelika, AL, 36801. The site was abandoned in 2004, but still stands.
Image: "Whistle blows noon Opelika Cotton Mill" http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004004125/PP/
Education; Lee County, AL; Opelika High School 1911-1918; Opelika, AL; Henry G. Clift High School; Lee County High School
In 1911, the Alabama State Legislature allocated a disbursement to fund a public high school in every county in the state. Opelika solicited private funds to meet the state in the middle, and Lee County’s first stand-alone high school, Opelika High School, opened on the corner of North Eighth Street and Seventh Avenue. Elementary and grammar school students remained in the old Opelika Public School building on Avenue A and Seventh Street. In 1914, Auburn High School successfully petitioned the state high school commission to take the county flagship status as the “Lee County’s Public High School” away from Opelika, a decision that resulted in a funding shakeup and some related resentment. In 1916, Opelika Public High School burned down and its students were forced to re-consolidate with the elementary and grammar schools in the building on the corner of Avenue A and Seventh Street. During the 1916-1917 and 1917-1918 school years, due to the amount of students and size of the older building, Opelika High School and Opelika Public School educators were forced to offer classes during extended hours. Opelika High School’s student body transferred to the new Henry G. Clift High School in 1918 upon its completion.
Text Source: The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 78.
Education; Lee County, AL; Opelika, AL; Opelika High School, 1972-Present; Desegregation; Civil Rights Era; Johnson, Judge Frank M.; J.W. Darden High School; Opelika High - Southside Campus
In 1969, U.S. District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson ordered the Opelika to desegregate its school system. Observing that African Americans comprised 30 percent of the students enrolled in Opelika city schools, Johnson demanded that all of Opelika’s public schools contain a comparable percentage of African American students by the 1970-1971 school year. In the fall of 1970, Opelika High School (then located on the site of modern-day Opelika Middle School on Denson Drive) reported 37 percent African American enrollment. However, Opelika’s school board denoted J.W. Darden High School (Opelika’s black high school) a vocational adjunct campus of Opelika High School in November 1969 and renamed the school Opelika High – Southside Campus. Coincidentally, every student who chose a vocational curriculum in fall 1970 was African American, and Opelika’s high schools consequently remained segregated. The 37 percent enrollment figure included the raw total of the two separate campuses. Noting Johnson’s irritation over the violation of the spirit of his order and fearful of being censured by either him or the Department of Justice, in 1971 Opelika’s school board purchased property and quickly began erecting a new high school. They recognized that the Denson Drive campus was too small to accommodate the newly-integrated student body. Completed in less than 10 months by a Texas-based architectural firm, the new Opelika High School opened in fall 1972. No massive white flight or significant violent episodes occurred upon the school’s full integration. In the years since its opening, Opelika High School constructed an on-campus football stadium, a performing arts center, a new band room, and a video production studio. The school stands to this day at 1700 Lafayette Parkway, Opelika.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opelika_High_School Text Sources: Joseph M. Bagley, A Meaningful Reality: The Integration of the Opelika, Alabama City School System, 1965-1972 (MA Thesis, Auburn University, 2007), 5, 42-48. Opelika High School, http://www.opelikaschools.org/ohs/. The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 78.
Opelika Male School and Opelika Female Academy
Education; Lee County, AL; Opelika Male School; Opelika Female Academy; Antebellum Era; Opelika, AL; Freeman, Rev. J.S.; Bowen, Mrs. E.C.; Private Academies
After Opelika’s 1854 town incorporation, citizens concerned with the educational prospects of the hamlet’s youth opened several private academies. Two of the early private schools were the Opelika Male School and the Opelika Female Academy, both founded in 1859. Rev. J.S. Freeman served as the first headmaster of the male school, and Mrs. E.C. Bowen administered the female school as principal.
Education; Lee County, AL; Opelika, AL; Opelika Middle School; Henry G. Clift High School; Johnson, Judge Frank; J.W. Darden High School; Carver Elementary School; Jeter Elementary School; Desegregation; Civil Rights Era; Green v. New Kent County, VA;
In 1959, Henry G. Clift High School relocated to a new facility at 1206 Denson Drive and rechristened itself Opelika High School, the institutional name it bore from 1911 to 1918. U.S. District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson gave the Opelika city school system an ultimatum in August, 1969 to desegregate and redistribute the black student body of J.W. Darden High School, Carver Elementary School, and Jeter Elementary School. Opelika High School integrated minimally in 1967 as it converted to a “Freedom of Choice” school, thus allowing black or white students to attend voluntarily. After the 1968 US Supreme Court decision in Green v. New Kent County., VA rendered “Freedom of Choice” schools unconstitutional and ordered the dismantling of dual school systems and the creation of systems “without a ‘white’ school and a ‘negro’ school, but just schools.” Because the Denson Drive building was too small to accommodate the influx of black students from Darden (Opelika’s black high school) and the white high school students who opted to stay in public school, the city hastily erected a new high school on Lafayette Parkway in 1972. Since 1972, the Denson Drive building has functioned as Opelika Middle School. The Denson Drive facility housed a segregated high school and a desegregated middle school and today remains a tangible vestige of Jim Crow’s demise in the city.
Image Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opelika_Middle_School.JPG Text Sources: Joseph M. Bagley, A Meaningful Reality: The Integration of the Opelika, Alabama City School System, 1965-1972 (MA Thesis, Auburn University, 2007), 40-42. The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 78.
Education; Lee County, AL; Opelika, AL; Opelika Public School; Private House Schools; Ware, Mrs. O.W.; Mrs. Gorman; African American Schools; Giddens, Columbus; Hawthorne, L.; Smallwood, R.W.; Opelika Baptist Female College
On November 23, 1869, Opelika citizens petitioned the City Council to create a public high school. A Board of Trustees formed, and in 1873 the Alabama State Legislature empowered the city government to collect taxes to subsidize public education. The Opelika Public School System took almost seven years to initiate operations, primarily attributable to the success of local private schools. By 1880, four public schools opened in the homes of some of Opelika’s citizens. White schools operated in the homes of Mrs. Gorman near Young Lake and Mrs. O.W Ware on Chambers Street. African-American public schools were operated in the homes of Columbus Giddens and L. Hawthorne. When Professor R.W. Smallwood was designated superintendent of Opelika schools in 1887, he reorganized the school system and oversaw the purchase of the facility that previously housed the Opelika Baptist Female College, on the corner of North Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue. His twelve-year superintendancy witnessed an exponential growth in the student body, as enrollment increased from 25 students in 1887 to 200 in 1899. The municipal government originally divided the system into three subdivisions – elementary, grammar, and high schools. In 1902, the city erected Opelika Public School, a three story brick building on the corner of Avenue A and South Seventh Street to house all three programs. The citizenry wanted to build separate facilities to house the high school and the elementary-grammar schools, but a lack of funding inhibited the plan. After the 1911 creation of Opelika High School, Opelika Public School continued to house the elementary and grammar schools. From 1916 to 1918, the building at Avenue A and Seventh Street briefly subsumed the student body from Opelika High School due to a fire that destroyed OHS’s building. After the completion of Henry G. Clift High School, the city’s high school students left Opelika Public School again. Opelika Public School continued to serve elementary and grammar school pupils until 1929, when the student body divided into two new institutions, Northside Elementary School and Southside Elementary School. The structure that housed Opelika Public School no longer exists, and the corner of Avenue A and South Seventh Street is now home to Opelika’s City Hall.
Text Sources: Alexander Nunn, Lee County and Her Forebears (Montgomery, AL: Herff Jones, 1983), 36-37. The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 78.
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Opelika, AL; Rousseau, General Lovell Harrison; Auburn, AL
The city of Opelika, Alabama was incorporated on February 9, 1854. Because of the many rail lines that snaked through the city, warehouses were built during the war to store cotton and other goods. When General Lovell Harrison Rousseau’s men stormed through Auburn and Opelika in July 1864, they destroyed railroads and other property including Opelika’s warehouses.
Vol. I, No. 1, November 7, 1894 issue of the Orange and Blue, the student newspaper of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University.
Auburn University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives
Original Site of FAME Recording Studio Marker
Historic Markers; Florence, AL; Lauderdale County, AL
This historic marker is located at the intersection of Tennessee St and Seminary St, Florence, AL. The text on the side one of the marker reads: "This marks the site of the pioneering music company of Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (FAME), a name which became renowned worldwide is the home of the Muscle Shoals Sound. FAME was founded in the early 1960s by three young local entrepreneurs (Rick Hall, Billy Sherrell and Tom Stafford) who improvised a makeshift studio in a vacant room above the city drugstore that once stood here. FAME’S earliest recording sessions launched the careers of such music business legends as Arthur Alexander, Rick Hall, Billy Sherrell, Norbert Putman, David Briggs, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and many others." Side two reads: "Following limited success, the partnership dissolved. Rick Hall took the publishing company and FAME name in return for the studio equipment. He relocated the studio to an empty tobacco warehouse in Muscle Shoals. His next recording of “You Better Move On”, by Arthur Alexander, was acclaimed as the Shoals first worldwide bestseller. Over the next several decades FAME recording studios became one of the most successful producers of rhythms in blues, pop and country music in the world. Rick Hall became known as the “Father of the Muscle Shoals Sound”. "
“Original Site of the FAME Recording Studio Marker”. Accessed 11/04/2015. http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal/
Opelika, AL; Lee County, AL; Industry; Manufacturing; Magnetic Tape; Audio Equipment
Orradio produced magnetic tape. Major John Herbert Orr founded Orradio in 1949 using information given to him by German scientists during World War II. This business became the first producer of commercially available audio, video, and computer tape. Purchased by Ampex in 1959, the company was repurchased in 1995 and named Quantegy Recording Solutions. Quantegy was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2005 and finally ceased production in 2007.
Image: http://museumofmagneticsoundrecording.org/RecordersAmpexIrishTape.html
Franklin County, Hodges, Farm, Overton Farm, National Register
Overton Farm is one of the earliest remaining pioneer sites in Northwest Alabama. The farm is located four miles northwest of Hodges. Abner Overton, who was a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, visited Alabama in 1815. During his visit to Alabama, he peddled tobacco. He returned in 1817 to discover 160 acres of rich soil near Bear Creek. He registered the land in Pontitoc, Mississippi, sold his wagon and built a shed. He married Judy May in 1819 and began construction on a one-room log cabin. Abner died in 1877 a year after his wife died. The house was then passed to their children and other family members until 1946. The farm was restored by the Northwest Alabama State Junior College in the 1970s and was used as an educational center until 2013. In 1973, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Accessed June 1, 2015.
Colbert County Alabama; Sheffield Alabama; P.B. Swoopes Dry Cleaners; African American History; Business; African American Business; P.B. Swoopes
P.B. Swoopes Dry Cleaners was a business run by P.B. Swoopes in Sheffield Alabama. Swoopes was a graduate of Sheffield school. He would go on to open his dry cleaning business in downtown Sheffield. Swoopes started his dry cleaning business in 1927. The building was later moved in 1942. The building is in a severe state of disrepair and the inside has growing plant life. His business sign can still be seen through the front window.
Arthur Graves interview by Sam Keiser. November 11, 2015 Frederick, Lorene. "Sheffield Businessman Endures 54 Years of Ups and Downs In Downtown District." Florence Times, April 26, 1981. 5
Historic Businesses; Drug Stores; Colbert County; Alabama
This building was built in 1833. It was originally known as "The Railroad Hotel." and later as "The Major Pope Railroad Hotel." The word railroad was added because the hotel became a popular resting place for rail travelers even before the Civil War. The soda fountain was established in 1906 and appeared much the same as it does today. Early in the 20th century, it became a favorite meeting spot for Deshler High School students and was even owned at one point by Tuscumbia's own David Deshler. Harvey Robbins frequented the location with fellow Deshler students in the 1950s and it is where he also met his future wife, Joyce McKinney. In later years, dismayed at the idleness and dilapidation of their former hang-out spot, they purchased the store and remodeling began in 2000. It opened for business in 2001, restored to its former 1950s look and offering the same fast food, shakes, and ice cream sodas that were served there in decades past.
The Heritage of Colbert County. Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc., 1999, 7.
Pathways: Walk through the History of Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals; Colbert County; Alabama; Museums; City Hall; Muscle Shoals Music; Muscle Shoals Sound; FAME Studios; Natchez Trace Parkway; Shoals; Tennessee River; Wilson Dam; Tennessee Valley Authority
“Pathways: Walk through the History of Muscle Shoals” is a corridor of historic displays in the Muscle Shoals City Hall. It covers the history of the city of Muscle Shoals, the Wilson Dam and Lock, and Muscle Shoals Music with exhibits of original documents and photographs. Admission is free and it is open from 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m Monday-Friday.
“Natchez Trace Parkway,” Accessed November 17, 2015, http://www.scenictrace.com/pathways-walk-through-the-history-of-muscle-shoals/. “Muscle Shoals Music,” Muscle Shoals Area, Alabama, Accessed November 17, 2015, http://www.colbertcountytourism.org/index.php/2012-11-08-15-06-08/2012-11-12-01-58-07. “Pathways: Walk through the History of Muscle Shoals,” Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, Accessed November 17, 2015, http://msnha.una.edu/plan-a-visit/?a=18.
Patton Elementary School (1891-1958) Marker
This historic marker is located on Dr. Hicks Boulevard, Florence, Alabama. The text on the marker reads: "First school in Florence Public school system built 1890 on land given by Governor Robert M. Patton. It was occupied in 1891. Designed originally to serve all white elementary school children of Florence. Usually served six grades divided into nine sections. The building was remodeled several times and also housed the Superintendents Offices. Cloakrooms, safety doors, fire escapes were added, and the third floor was removed in 1921. Ada Coffee, leading Alabama educator, joined the facility in 1896, and served as principal from 1910 to 1944. She established the first school lunchroom and parent teachers association in Florence. White children moved to JW Powell School in 1958 when the Negro high school burned. About 360 African American junior and senior high school students used the Patton building form January 5, 1959 until Burrell- Slater High school building was completed in 1960. The Building was razed, and grounds are now occupied by Florence Utility Department."
“Patton Elementary School (1891-1958) Marker”. Accessed 11/04/2015. http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal/
Colbert County, Alabama; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Paul Kelly; Muscle Shoals Sound
Paul Elisha Kelly (born on November 10th, 1924; died on May 25th, 1997) was a broadcast engineer, who built and maintained many of the studios and radio stations (notably WLAY and WQLT, which was owned by Sam Phillips) responsible for the Muscle Shoals Sound. Kelly was also affiliated with Chips Moman at American Sound Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.
Pam Kingsbury, University of North Alabama
Jones, Roben. The Memphis Boys: The Story of American Studios. University of Mississippi Press, Oxford, Mississippi. 2011. .
Photographs and notes courtesy of Jeffrey Z. Vaughn, Sr.
Promotional Graphic for the ISO Peace Dinner 2018 (Original Graphic Created 2014)
Architectural drawings; Watercolors; Houses; Dwellings; Doors & doorways; Windows; Shutters; Porches; Columns; Stairways; Balconies; Hand railings; Arches; Ironwork; Roofs; Chimneys; Moldings; Women; Trees; Landscapes (Representations)
This image is a watercolor painting of the Pease Home in Columbus, Georgia done by Elwyn B. Richey sometime around 1934. The year the house was built in is unknown. The painting shows the front exterior of the house with its doors, windows, shutters, columned porch, exterior stairs, balcony, iron hand railing and decorative iron arches, flat roof, and two chimneys surrounded by trees and landscaping. The house is placed within framing art showing its architectural features including the iron hand railing and decorative iron arches; the molding around the doors, a side view of the house, various scales, and a floor plan. In the lower right corner, there is an Alabama Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture stamp with the handwritten inscription "2nd Medal" and an artist block which reads: "Elwyn B. Richey, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, fourth year major II, 'a colonial house.'" The painting is in good condition with a minor piece missing from the lower right edge and is encapsulated.
Richey, Elwyn B. (rendering) ; Unknown (house)
Library of Congress (Historic American Buildings Survey): http://www.loc.gov/item/ga0274/ ; Georgia Archives: http://cdm.sos.state.ga.us:2011/cdm/singleitem/collection/vg2/id/10466/rec/5
Columbus -- Muscogee County -- Georgia ; 908 Broadway, Columbus, Muscogee County, GA (Broad and 9th Streets)
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Pebble Hill; Historic Home; Scott, Nathaniel J.; Rousseau, General Lovell Harrison; Yancey, William Lowndes; Union Army; Auburn, AL
Pebble Hill was the home of Nathaniel J. Scott and his family from 1847 to 1871. When Rousseau’s men swept through Auburn in July 1864, William Lowndes Yancey’s widow resided at Pebble Hill and Union soldiers looted the building because of her presence. It was reported that Nathaniel Scott’s family had silver near a spring on the property and though Union soldiers watered their horses at this spring, the silver was never found.
History of Pebble Hill Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities
Peerson Cemetery was restored in the summer of 1990 by Mason Ingram and more relatives of the Peersons. To reach this cemetery from Florence, turn northwest off Cox Creek Parkway onto Savannah Highway. Then go 2.9 miles and turn left on Mud Road. Continue on the road for 2.5 miles until the cemetery is in view. The cemetery is on the left side of the road. The cemetery is labeled as Pearson Cemetery on maps. Ten graves have been documented. This source contains a full description of the graves: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder/cem-peerson.htm
Irons, Olan. "Peerson Cemetery." Rootsweb. September 12, 1990. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder/cem-peerson.htm. Accessed April 11, 2015.
Business; Moulton, AL; Lawrence County, AL
The Pencil Slat Mill, located south of Moulton, operated during the early twentieth century. Northern transplants to the south made up the bulk of the workforce. After factory workers made the pencil slats in Moulton, they shipped the slats to another location to add the lead. The mill closed after the owner killed an African-American worker during an argument. The owner fled Moulton and never returned.
"The Heritage of Lawrence County, Alabama." Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc. 1998.
Located in Opelika along Spring Villa Road. Coordinates: 32.5893026, -85.3129995
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Constructed in 1925, allegedly after Opelika city officials paid the company a significant sum in bribes, the Pepperell Mill would become one of Opelika's most iconic industrial sites. The mill produced cotton textiles under a number of names until its closure in 2008. The site was burnt to the ground during demolition work in 2013. The plant was located at 2401 1st Ave., Opelika, AL.
Image: http://notdarkyet-commentary.blogspot.com/2011/03/moving-toward-common-good-or-slouching.html
Education; Lee County, AL; Pepperell Village School; Opelika, AL; Pepperell Manufacturing Company; Textile Production; Henry G. Clift High School
A factory community appeared after the opening of Pepperell Manufacturing Company’s Opelika textile mill in 1925. A school founded in the new neighborhood under the aegis of the county school system served the first- through sixth-grade students of white mill workers. Sometime in the 1930s, the school added seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade curricula. Children in the community too old to attend Pepperell Village School were zoned for Henry G. Clift High School.
Image Source: http://ohsclassof52.bizland.com/id321.html Text Source: The Heritage of Lee County Book Committee, The Heritage of Lee County, Alabama (Clanton, AL: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2000), 43.
Percy Casey was born in Florence in 1872 to Willis and Mary Casey. Percy worked two jobs--one as a boss repairman for the Florence Cycle Company and second as a pressman for the Florence Herald until his death in 1902. Percy was also a member of the Colored Knights of Pythias.
Ashley Pentecost, University of North Alabama
University of North Alabama archives; Florence Herald obituary
Colbert County, Leighton, Music, Alabama Music Hall of Fame
Percy Sledge (November 25, 1940-April 14, 2015) Percy Tyrone Sledge was born November 25, 1940 in the poor farming town of Leighton, Alabama. Sledge worked on many local farms then was hired as an orderly at the hospital in Sheffield where he delighted patients and staff by singing on the job. On weekends, he sang in an R&B combo called the Esquires. Sledge was discovered when a patient at the hospital where he was working introduced him to record producer Quin Ivy in 1965. His first recording for Atlantic Records, “When a Man Loves a Woman,” reached No. 1 on the pop charts in 1966 and became the label’s first gold record. After his first album was released, Sledge released three more in the 1960s: “Warm and Tender Soul”, “The Percy Sledge Way”, and “Take Time to Know Her”. Sledge never again reached the success of “When a Man Loves a Woman” which became an early highlight of the Muscle Shoals music scene and was used in several movie soundtracks in the 1980s. Although he said he had hummed the melody of the song all his life, he was not listed as a co-writer, so he never received any royalties for his most successful song. He may not have reached the success of “When a Man Loves a Woman” again, but he did spend the next fifty years recording and performing. Songs like “I’ll Be Your Everything” hit the charts well into the 1970s. He released his final album, “The Gospel of Percy Sledge”, in 2013. Sledge was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. He died April 14, 2015 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at age 74. Click the link to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMgFK_GPaw0
Joy Caitlin Monroe, University of North Alabama
Coscarelli, Joe. “Percy Sledge, Smooth Wailer in ‘When a Man Loves a Woman,’ is Dead at 74.” The New York Times (2015). http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/15/arts/music/percy-sledge-who-sang-when-a-man-loves-a-woman-dies-at-74.html?_r=0 “Percy Sledge.” Alabama Music Hall of Fame (2016). http://alamhof.org/inductees/timeline/1993/percy-sledge/
Pesthouse and Cemetery / Pestilences Marker
This historic marker is located at the intersection of Wildwood Park Road and Waterloo Road, Florence, Alabama. The text on side one of the marker reads: "Following an outbreak of the dreaded plaque, smallpox (Variola), at Florence during the winter of 1865-66, the Board of Alderman adopted a resolution on January 2, 1866, that a Pesthouse be “erected at the vineyard as soon as possible.” According to tradition, this Pesthouse, believed to have been a simple two-room log structure, was located in this area where people with infectious diseases could be isolated from community. Also located nearby is a small cemetery where victims of these diseases were sometimes buried in unmarked graves." The text on side two read: "Prior to 20th Century During its early history, this area was faced with periods of infectious epidemics. One of the most feared was the small pox plague. It became a serious threat at the end of the Civil War, believed to have resulted from the frequent movements of troops here during the war. Yellow fever, a rare plague in the northern hemisphere, appeared here in the fall of 1878, resulting in 42 deaths in Florence. Four nurses from the Howard Association, a New Orleans charity organization, were sent here to assist with the sick and the dying."
“Pesthouse and Cemetery/Pestilence Marker”. Accessed 11/04/2015. http://www.lat34north.com/historicmarkersal/
National Register of Historic Places; Tidewater Cottage: Multi-Property Nomination; Architecture; Florence, AL
The Peter Fontaine Armistead Sr. House is significant to Lauderdale County and northern Alabama as an excellent example of migration and settlement patterns in the area in terms of population, plantation economy, and architectural styles. Peter and his wife Martha Henry Winston Armistead were natives of Culpepper County, Virginia and moved to the area in the early 1820s. It was common during this period for settlers to migrate from the older states along the middle/Southern Atlantic seaboard many making their homes temporarily in middle Tennessee before settling and establishing plantations or farms in northern Alabama. Some, like Peter, continuing on to Mississippi or Texas in search of better or additional land in a progressive western migration pattern. The Armisteads developed a large slave-based cotton plantation in the fertile lands five miles northwest of Florence. Mrs. Armistead remained in the area until her death in 1870 but Peter Armistead Sr. moved to Mississippi in the late 1840s. The architectural style of the Armistead house also reflects those western migration patterns being very similar to homes of Virginia and Maryland dating back to the colonial area. There are numerous houses in the Tennessee Valley that reflect the style and configuration and are known as “tidewater cottages”. The remaining, largely intact examples of the style were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as part of a thematic nomination entitled “Tidewater Cottages in the Tennessee Valley”. The house has remarkable similarities to Mrs. Martha Armistead’s ancestral home in Virginia, Glen Ella, built in 1799. The Armistead House is unusual as the only wood frame double pile (two rooms deep and two rooms wide) example in the nomination. The house is also different from the others in that a central room is located behind the front stair hall. Tidewater Cottages are recognized by their simplicity of design, side gables with exterior end chimneys and the proportion ratio of their front elevation. The houses are twice as long as they are tall. The Armistead example has three gabled dormers. The house has lost some original material, chimney and siding, and one story wings and porches were added but the overall integrity of the house remains. Interior features are largely intact including doors, chair rail, and baseboards. Another Lauderdale County example of the Tidewater Cottage can be found in the William Kroger House on the Smithsonia - Rhodesville Road about 4 miles northeast of Smithsonia. The information above was found in the National Register nomination and additional information can be found on the National Park Service’s NR data base.
Alabama Historical Commission. National Register Nomination."Armistead, Peter F., Sr. House (Tidewater Cottages in the Tennessee Valley TR)" (#86001540) (7/9/86)
Petit Larceny Charge Dismissed On Auburn Pair
Newspaper article on the 1962 petty larceny case. Auburn students and faculty stole at least 6 rolls of toilet paper from a restaurant in Phenix City, AL.
Opelika, AL; Lee County, AL; Industry; Health; Vitamins
Pharmavite manufactures soft-gel vitamin tablets under the Nature Made name. The business opened in 2013 and still operates today. The plant employs around 250 people, and is located at 4701 Northpark Dr., Opelika, AL.
Image: https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/company/globalnews/2013/0607_01.html
Lee County, AL; Civil War; Phenix City, AL; Columbus, GA; Wilson, Major General James Harrison; Union Army; Russell County, AL
Formerly known as the city of Girard, Phenix City, Alabama (along with Columbus, Georgia) was the location of one of the last land battles of the Civil War. On April 16, 1865, Bvt. Major General James Harrison Wilson swept through Auburn and Opelika and then into Phenix City with three divisions of Union soldiers. After crossing over the 14th Street Bridge from into Columbus, the once mighty industrial city would fall within mere hours.
Located in Smiths Station along Lee Road 246. Coordinates: 32.5159735, -85.0943803
The Philadelphia Furnace was located on Sweetwater Creek to the south of present day Veterans Drive. Originally owned by the father of the Sweetwater boom, Judge William Basil Wood, the furnace was known as the W.B. Wood Furnace in 1889. The W.B. Wood Furnace was one of the first industries in the Sweetwater area, but it was incomplete. John W. Norton of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was hired as its manager. While Norton was manager, he oversaw the completion of the W.B. Wood Furnace in 1891 and the furnace was renamed in honor of his home city of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Furnace could produce 45,000 tons of iron a year. By 1892, the Philadelphia Furnace fell into financial trouble because of the economic depression of 1892 and was subsequently sold to the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company a few years later in 1899. The Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company owned the Philadelphia Furnace from 1899 to 1926 when in 1926 the furnace was blown out. In 1901, the Sloss-Sheffield Company resumed operation after the company upgraded and remodeled the furnace that was ten years old. Under the direction of the Sloss-Sheffield Company, the Philadelphia furnace employed 175 men in 1906 and could produce up to two hundred tons of iron a day. At the peak of production for the furnace, it produced about 70,000 tons of iron a year. Unfortunately, production stopped in 1926. The workers for the Philadelphia furnace lived in a company-owned village along what is now Veterans Drive and what was and is Aetna Street. The Sloss-Sheffield Company provided a two-story brick commissary for food, dry goods, and other necessities for the families of the Philadelphia furnace workers. When in operation, the furnace was a remarkable sight. The furnace had the highest smokestack in all of Sweetwater. The furnace operated around the clock with three shifts per day. When the night shift would clock in, they would be the men who began the process of dumping the molten red slag along the railroad tracks by the furnace. Stories abounded over the sight of the molten red slag being dumped. A story of an immigrant Irish worker to east Florence, Pat McClutchin, described him being awoken from sleep around midnight to the glow of the molten red slag. He was staying at the Kiddy Hotel at the time in Sweetwater and was heard moaning by the other guests in the hotel. According to the story told about McClutchin, he thought he had died and gone to the gates of Hell. McClutchin's fear was not true, but the slag was always that hot.
M.C. Fesmire, University of North Alabama
Text Sources: McDonald, William Lindsey. "A Walk Through the Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama." Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2003. UNA Archives & Special Collection. McDonald Collection. Factories and Mills. Box 25, Volume 3, Factories and Mills File 3.1. Florence, Alabama. William Lindsey McDonald, “Untitled Manuscript." McDonald, William Lindsey. "Sweetwater: The Story of East Florence." Florence: Florence Historical Board, 1989. Sheridan, Richard C. “Industrial Growth in the Shoals Area 1818-1933,” Journal of Muscle Shoals History, vol. 7 (1979). Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Philadelphia Furnace.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-29.