Browse Items (1569 total)

The Albany Heritage Neighborhood Historic District is located in the northwest section of Decatur. The residential district has retained its strong neighborhood feeling from the years when Albany was a separate city from Decatur. It was not until…

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…

Cedar Creek Furnace is a blast furnace located on a site near Russellville, Alabama. Joseph Heslip, a native of Pennsylvania, acquired the property around 1811 and used slave labor to construct the furnace. In 1820, a cholera outbreak killed Heslip…

Bride's Hill is a plantation located in Wheeler, Alabama. It is one of the earliest examples of a Tidewater-type cottage. Constructed in 1830 by the Dandridge family, the house was developed with a double-square formula that was used by colonial…

Barker Cemetery is located near Pleasant Grove Church of Christ. The cemetery has 22 recorded graves that are marked with field stones. It is well maintained and located about 200 yards off the road.

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…

Bartee Cemetery is located near the intersection of Highway 231 and Highway 36 in Morgan County. There are a total of 66 recorded graves in the cemetery. The oldest grave belongs to Nancy Rice who was born in 1831.

Ripley Cemetery is located on Friend Road west of Poplar Creek. The date burials begin at this site is unknown. The oldest grave marker is of John N. Biard, January 15, 1780-January 6, 1839. Until the 1950s, no one was responsible for the maintenance…

The city of Athens was founded in 1818 by Robert Beaty and associates, and shortly afterward these same founders persuaded Judge John McKinley to give the land for a female academy. They then recruited Daniel Perrin Bestor of Connecticut to preside…

Samuel M. Bowen owned several businesses around Athens, Alabama. He operated Yarbrough Brothers and Bowen 5, 10, and 25 Cent Store in 1909. In 1913 he operated Lerman and Bowen, located on the north side of the square where Cluxton's Jewelry is now.…

The Limestone County Archives was created in 1980 as a depository for the official records of Limestone County. Records preserved at the archives include those of the Circuit Court, Probate Court, Board of Registrars, Tax Assessor, County Commission,…

Samuel Gideon Flanagan opened a sawmill in the community of Pleasant Hill in 1904. The sawmill operated as S.G. Flanagan Lumber until 1940, when it became more of a retail lumberyard. In 1960, the company was eventually incorporated as Flanagan…

The Goode-Hall House is located in Town Creek Alabama. After several tours of Lawrence County, the home is constructed in 1824 by Reverend Turner Saunders. Saunders had been a Methodist minister and planter from Brunswick County, Virginia. Saunders…

Courtland Historic District is located in the center of Courtland, Alabama, in Lawrence County. The town was founded in 1818 and was established the following year. The citizens chose the site due to the close proximity to the Tennessee River to…

Union Grove Cemetery is located in Opelika south of Creekstone Drive and west of South Uniroyal Road.

Coordinates: 32.6287456, -85.3374448

The Blackburn House is a perfect example of a story-and-a-half "Saltbox" style home with a proportioned Italianate portico. The home was constructed around 1873 by Edward Alexander Blackburn (1840-1899). The house served as the center for the…

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…

Belle Mina Plantation is a Late Georgian-style home located in the community of Belle Mina, Alabama. The home was constructed in 1826 by Alabama's second governor, Thomas Bibb. Thomas Bibb purchased 2,500 acres of land in Northern Alabama and decided…

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…

To reach the Piney Grove Cemetery, travel highway 17 north from Cox Creek Parkway to .3 mile north of Wilson High School. Turn right onto County Rd. 224 and go 1.12 miles. Turn right onto a dirt and gravel drive between a residence and a barn and go…

The Tri-Cities Cemetery was established in 1954. The cemetery is located off Highway 72 close to Deibert Park. The cemetery contains over 8,000 burials. It has a combination of ground burials, mausoleums, and a columbarium.

For a full description…

Established in 1818, Florence Cemetery was the first city cemetery. The marker reads, "When the city was surveyed, this land described as 'outside city limits' was designated as the burying grounds for the new town. It contains the graves of early…

The first African-Americans who lived in the Shoals were slaves of the Chickasaw tribe. When the Chickasaws from Alabama and Mississippi were removed from their homes in the 1830s, the census included 1156 slaves. Tom Melton, an Irishman who lived…

John H. Rapier was a freed African-American in Florence, Alabama. Born as a slave in 1808, Rapier was emancipated in 1829 by the last will and testament of Richard Rapier. Upon receiving his freedom, John became a barber and earned an income of…

Chief George Colbert owned a ferry across the Tennessee River, connecting Colbert and Lauderdale Counties. Colbert owned many African-American slaves. One such slave was named Lem Colbert, who operated Colbert's ferry at Waterloo, Alabama.

During the Civil War, Sherman's men raided the Sweetwater Plantation. One slave, named Edmund managed to warn the family of the raid. When the soldiers attempted to make their way upstairs to the rooms of the Patton's daughters, Edmund blocked their…

Born in 1837, Sam grew up with William "Billy" Patton, his young master. Because Sam's mother was the cook for the Patton family, he lived in the kitchen behind the big house. When Alabama seceded from the Union, Billy took Sam with him to war. In…

Richard Alphine was born a slave on the Alphine plantation in Mississippi in 1853. Richard was 12 years old at the end of the Civil War and often told stories about his memories of the war. In 1918, Richard moved to Florence for work and lived with…

The congregation of Eastside Church of Christ was formed in Florence Alabama in the 1920's and was the first African-American Church of Christ congregation in the area. The church purchased its current building in 2004.

In 1951, Florence city schools named an elementary school after its native son WC Handy. The school was considered very modern, was built during the administration of JW Powell, and had a faculty of twenty-six.

Jackson Cemetery is located about four miles northwest of Florence. The cemetery is due east of the ruins of the Forks of Cypress, located on the Old Jackson Road, which stretches from North Florence to the Savannah Highway. Separating the ruins…

The Dred Scott Historic District was proposed as a national historic district. The historic district consisted of one square block between Court St., Tennessee Street, Seminary Street, and College Street. It was nominated on the basis of historical,…

University of North Alabama was established in 1830 and for much of its history was an all-white institution. However, the University, then Florence State College, officially desegregated when Wendell Wilkie Gunn attended classes in 1963. The…

Harrison Ingram was well known in the Rogersville community. He was a stonemason and a carpenter and according to his family he was one of the first in his community to have electricity. Ingram and his father established an African American cemetery…

Locust Dell Academy was established by Nicholas Hentz and his wife Caroline in the 1840s. The school for girls was built by two slaves, Charles Gray and Washington Farris, who had been "rented out" by their masters. The school was absorbed by…

The Hopewell Church near St. Florian was the site of tragedy when, in 1865, the grandfather of WC Handy, Christopher Brewer, was shot and left for dead by Elias Thrasher, "Mountain" Tom Clark, and their gang. They also tortured and killed Brewer's…

A former slave, Ruben Patterson was taken to war by Colonel Josiah Patterson as part of the fifth Alabama Calvary. After the war Ruben owned a shoe shine stand and was known to the community as "Uncle" Reuben. He and his wife are buried In the…

Dred Scott was born as a slave in Virginia. In 1820, he came to Florence with the Peter Blow family. Seven years later, the Blow's Inn was established and Scott served as a stable hand. In 1830, the Blow family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri and…

The Shoals Theatre, located in historic downtown Florence, Alabama at 123 North Seminary Street, first opened in 1948. At the time of its grand opening, the art deco style theatre was one of the finest in the Southeast. It originally sat 1,350 people…

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…

The site of St. Mark's missionary Baptist Church has been in continuous use by the African-American community of Florence since 1859. Originally, the church body met under a brush arbor. The current church building was built in 1901.

To reach Antioch Cemetery, travel to Cloverdale on Alabama Hwy. #157 and continue 4 miles north. Turn right onto County Rd. #10 and travel 2.3 miles to the cemetery. The cemetery is located on the left behind the church.

Sweetwater plantation was built between 1828 and 1835 and it was inherited by Patton family. As working plantation, Sweetwater had many slaves; however, Sweetwater hold a place in African-American history, not just for its leave history, but also for…

John Coffee was born in 1772 and served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. John Coffee was one of the founding fathers of Florence and had a plantation northeast of Florence. Two acres were deeded separately to contain the family cemetery, as…

To reach this cemetery, from Florence, Alabama, travel west on Alabama Hwy. 20 14.6 miles. Turn right onto County Road 5 and travel 1.8 miles. Turn left onto County Road 8. Go about 1/2 mile. This cemetery is on the right side of the road west of the…

Wendell Wilkie Gunn was the first African-American student to enroll at the University of North Alabama. He was also the first African-American student to earn a degree from UNA. Gunn went on to work in banking and became the vice president for Chase…

Cloverdale Cemetery is located off of Cloverdale Rd. To reach this cemetery turn north off Cox Creek Parkway onto Ala 157 (Cloverdale Road); Go 10.9 miles to the cemetery. The cemetery is on the right side of the road, in back of the Cloverdale…

When founded, Burrell Normal School was a high school for African-American students and included a year of teacher training for those who wanted to become teachers. In 1937, the school moved into the building that housed Slater Elementary School, and…

Oak Grove African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1870 by Charles Weems, Joe Person, and Jim Simpson. At the time of its founding, the church only had 12 members. The church was originally built in Oakland, a community just west of…

WC Handy was born in Florence in 1873. Handy became internationally known as the "Father of the Blues" and his songs include "Memphis Blues", "Beale Street Blues", and "St. Louis Blues". The log cabin in which Handy was born has been moved to 620…