Browse Items (1458 total)

Louis Rosenbaum_P2-27B2.jpg
Louis Rosenbaum was born in Lublin, Poland on May 12, 1887. He, and his brother had "to flee" eastern Poland in 1893. He married Anna Block in 1910, and their only child, Stanley, was born later that year. The family lived in Caspar, Wyoming, Little…

M Rosenbaum.jpg
Mildred (“Mimi”) Bookholz Rosenbaum was born in New York City on June 30, 1917, the daughter of Isador and Gussie Bookholz. She attended the New York public schools, Hunter College, and Columbia Teachers College where she pursued degrees in…

Rosenbaum_House.jpg
601 Riverview, Florence, Alabama

The Rosenbaum House is the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Alabama.

Louis and Anna Rosenbaum's wedding gift to their son, Stanley, and his wife, Mildred (known as "Mimi") was a two acre lot with a…

S Rosenbaum_Dio73.jpg
Stanley Rosenbaum was born on October 1, 1910 in Denver, Colorado. His parents, Louis and Anna, moved to Florence, Alabama while Wilson Dam was under construction to open the Princess Movie Theatre.

He enrolled in Harvard at the age of…

Trail of Tears <br />
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Waterloo, Al
During the forced removal of the indigenous people from the eastern United States to Oklahoma, Waterloo was a stop for the Cherokees who came by boat, from Tuscumbia, after having walked from the homelands in the Appalachians in the winter of…

Kreismans_Dio60.jpg
Kreisman's Women's Apparel, which was located at 103 N. Court Street, promoted itself as having "Nationally advertised Women's Clothing and Accessories."

Kreisman's Menswear, located at 101 North Court Street, was owned by Mrs. H.K. Levin and…

Florence PO.jpg
The John McKinley Federal Building, which was built on the former site of the Florence Synodical Female College (which closed in 1893), occupies a city block. The main entrance to
the building is on 210 North Seminary Street, a second, smaller,…

Trowbridge's.jpg
Trowbridge’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop (nee Bar), located at 316 North Court Street, is a truly a Florence, Alabama landmark. Opened in 1918, Trowbridge’s is the oldest business still operating in its original location in Florence. Still owned…

Willingham003.jpg
The site of Willingham Hall, which is located on the University of North Alabama’s campus in Florence, Alabama, and Willingham Hall (One Harrison Plaza) itself have many stories to tell. Willingham Hall is located on the site of what was once…

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The Doublehead Company was a development agency that leased thousands of acres of land in the area between Elk River and Cypress Creek to more than fifty white settlers.
The Company was founded by Chief Doublehead, his fellow Cherokee named…

AnnaRosenbaum_RFCBox1.jpg
Anna Block Rosenbaum, a native of Lithuania, was born on April 8, 1889, and was brought to the United States at the age of six months.

She married Louis Rosenbaum in 1910 and they had one son, Stanley. After living in Denver, Colorado, Casper,…

Sweetwater Creek_1-65 Back.jpg
Sweetwater Creek, located between Huntsville Road and Florence Boulevard, was given its name by the indigenous people for the pure, clear water of the creek.

The Sweetwater Mansion takes its name from the creek as did Sweetwater Mills.

The…

Court Street  2.jpg
The Florence Shoe Company, located at 122 North Court Street in Florence, was owned by Milburn Zeff (November 10, 1913 to April 2, 1989) and Morris Klibanoff (January 29, 1917 - December 13, 1996).
Milburn was married to Bertha…

Downtown Jewish Businesses 1960's
During the 1960s many of the individually owned businesses in downtown Florence were owned by Jewish merchants. Most were incorporated with family members as officers of the corporations. The opening of Regency Square Mall (in 1978) was a reason for…

Key Cave1.jpg
Several caves, located 1.5 miles apart, via Gunwaleford Road were included in archaeological digs in the late 1980s. It was believed that the artifacts of indigenous people had been stored in the area. At one time William Key owned the property,…

Lambert Transfer 2.jpg
Douglas and Virginia Lambert, owners of Lambert Transfer (which was founded in 1953), chose Wilson Dam as the backdrop for their advertising

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Louis Rosenbaum, who moved to Florence from Douglas, Wyoming (in 1918) during the building of Wilson Dam and the TVA government plants, opened the Princess Theatre on September 1, 1919. He lived and worked in Florence for over forty three years. At…

Temple.jpg
A significant Jewish community has existed in the Shoals area since the 1840s. One of the earliest references to the Jewish community in Florence, Alabama was in September 1882 (Rosh Hashanah) in the Florence Gazette reminding readers that “our…

Bootery_Dio59.jpg
The Bootery, which was located on 111 North Court Street, was a locally owned business and landmark for eight decades in Florence. (The last incarnation of the store was Kaye's Shoes in Regency Square Mall.) Owned by Morris Klibanoff and Melburn…

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Jean Schulman, artist and art teacher, has been working in clay and batik since the 1970s. Originally from Russellville, Alabama, she lives in Florence, and retired from teaching at Muscle Shoals. Her most recent exhibit was with Robin Wade.

A Faulk.jpg
Alexander Falk was born in Prussia on October 14, 1811. He moved to England at the age of fourteen, where he learned the jewelry business. After a brief trip to his homeland in 1841, he left for America. He arrived in New Orleans and lived in…

Chisholm.pdf
John D. Chisholm (1737 -1742?, d. 1818), who was Chief Doublehead's legal counsel and liaison, arrived in North America around 1777. He was involved in multiple land scams before and after his partnership with Chief Doublehead. After Doublehead's…

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Hank Klibanoff, the former managing editor of the Atlanta-Constitution and the James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism, was born in Florence, Alabama. Klibanoff, who co-wrote The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of…

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Jonathan Rosenbaum, who was the head film critic of the Chicago Reader from 1987 to 2008, has had a lifelong interest in movies and the arts. Born in Florence, Alabama on February 27, 1943, his grandfather and father ran a small chain of movie…

Alvin.jpg
Alvin Rosenbaum, who was born on January 14, 1945, has worked as a research scholar, conducted tourism and opportunity studies and workshops, and is the author of several books, including: A White House Christmas, The Complete Home Office:Planning…

Harvey1.jpg
The Harvey Cemetery, located in Toonersville, Alabama (which is near the Whitehead Community and the town of Rogersville) is located off of the Bettie Anne Highway (aka Highway 51). Go north on Highway 51 for approximately three miles; at the…

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WLAY-AM (1450 -AM) was one of the first broadcast radio stations in the Shoals. Licensed in 1933 (as WNRA), the station stopped broadcasting in 2014.

The station's original broadcast was a variety format featuring gospel, country, and "race music"…

Oak Hill Cemetery Jewish Section.jpg
The highest point in Oakwood Cemetery in Sheffield was given to the members of the Jewish Synagogue in appreciation for their contributions to the communities of Sheffield and Florence, Alabama.

Families who are interred there include: the…

Mars Hill School.jpg
Mars Hill Bible School is a private preparatory day school for boys and girls in Florence, Alabama. The school begins at pre-kindergarten goes through the twelfth grade.

Mars Hill Academy was opened by Thomas Brown Larimore in 1871. The academy,…

Heritage Christian.jpg
Heritage Christian University, located at 3625 Helton Drive, in Florence, Alabama, is a private Bible college affiliated with the Church of Christ.

Founded in 1971 as International Bible College. the school is co-educational, has approximately…

Paul Kelly WVNA AM Transmitter site 1984.JPG
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…

Andrew Friar.jpg
Andrew Freear, the Wiatt Professor of Architecture at Auburn University, became the Director of the Rural Arts Studio in Newbern, West Alabama in 2002.

Freear, who is from Yorkshire, England, was educated at the Polytechnic of Central London and…

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Samuel Mockbee - who was born on December 23, 1944 in Meridian, Mississippi and who died on December 30, 2001 - was an architect and the co-founder of Auburn University Rural Studio.

A 1974 graduate of the School of Architecture at Auburn, Mockbee…

Old Lexington Post  Office.jpg
The old Lexington Post Office (circa 1940) had fallen into dis-repair and disuse after the new post office was built. Several businesses attempted to make the space usable without major updates.

When Dr. Paul Corfman, who grew up in North Alabama,…

The Factory.jpg
Natalie Chanin, a native of Florence, Alabama, is the founder and creative director of Alabama Chanin.

Her work has been featured in Vogue, Time, The New York Times, Town & Country, Bon Appetit, and Gun and Garden. She has been interviewed by…

Athens Church.jpg
Athens First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1829. After meeting an interdenominational building, the church was built on Washington Street.

The building was badly damaged during the Civil War and the Presbyterians met at the First Baptist…

Harris Pryor house.jpg
Limestone County, Alabama; Tanner, Alabama; Harris-Pryor House; Antebellum Trail;

Ritz1.jpg
The Ritz Theatre, which was built as a playhouse opened on July 9. 1928, with the production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."

Louis Rosenbaum, a prominent Jewish business owner who lived in Florence and who owned a chain of movie theaters in North…

Sheffield Land Iron and Coal.jpg
Alfred Hugler Moses, who was appointed the first mayor of Sheffield, Alabama by the governor of the state, moved to Sheffield in order to build the Sheffield Land, Iron, and Coal Company.

Moses, who had been a captain during the Civil War and a…

St. John's.jpg
St. John's Episcopal Church, in Decatur, was built in 1890. The original structure was constructed for approximately $2,000.

Through the years the building and the congregation have grown. Descendants of the first parishioners still worship at St.…

Trenholm2.jpg
Trenholm High School, which is located on Trenholm Memorial Drive, was the last African-American High School in Tuscumbia, Alabama before desegregation.

The school, which opened in 1870 and closed in 1969, was subsequently torn down.

A movement…

Trinity School, Athens, Al.png
The Trinity School Cistern, which is located on Market Street near the railroad track in Athens, Alabama, is the last remnant of the Trinity School.

Trinity School, which was in operation from 1865 to 1997, was a school for the children of…

Veteran's Memorial Sheffield.jpg
The residents of Montgomery Avenue and the citizens of Sheffield, Alabama have preserved several spaces for public use on the historic street. The Veteran's Park, which is maintained by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, is the home to several monuments…

Village One1.jpg
Village One, located in Sheffield, Alabama, is a subdivision of stucco homes built around 1918. The village was designed in the shape of a handbell. At completion, the village had 112 houses, two schools, and one large apartment building. (Maud…

Athens Library.jpg
The Athens-Limestone Public Library solved two problems very creatively with their 2014 move to the old Kroger building at 603 South Jefferson Street. The old library (located near Julia Newman School) was approximately 10,000 square feet and the new…

Friendship Comm. Church.jpg
Friendship Community Church, an Evangelical Church, is located at 800 North Atlanta Avenue in Sheffield, Alabama.

Friendship Community Church is housed in what was once the first Jewish Temple in the Shoals area.

Sheffield was the home of what…

Henry Ford Muscle Shoals.jpg
Henry Ford, in 1921, wanted to buy the unfinished Wilson Dam and two nitrate plants in Muscle Shoals. The United States government was willing to sell both to a private company with the intention of producing nitrate fertilizer.
Ford's dream was to…

Tenn River Water Tower View.jpg
Montgomery Avenue, in Sheffield, Alabama, has maintained several spots along the street for the citizens of the area to enjoy the natural beauty of North Alabama. A water tower marks the end of the street and a small park with an overlook allows…

FLW inspired house.jpg
Tom Arlin Dean, an engineer who admired the Rosenbaum House in Florence very much, followed many of Frank Lloyd Wright's ideals in creating the house located at 509 Clinton Street in Athens, Alabama.

The house, which is a neighbor to two of the…

Coldwater Books.png
Harvey Robbins who founded National Floor Products in Florence with his father, Stanley Robbins, in 1957, is credited with restoring downtown Tuscumbia, Alabama.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, he and his family moved to the Shoals while he was still…
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