Browse Items (1458 total)

The Union Gunboat raid on Florence, by vessels under the command of Commander Andrew H. Foote began on February 7, 1862. The USS Conestoga, Tyler, and Lexington had steamed up the river on February 6, in pursuit of Confederate steamers. The CSS…

Bridget Blessing Morrison lived on the southeast corner of Wood Avenue and Mobile Street. She was born in Montreal, Canada. Her father brought his family to Florence during the early 1830s to work as an engineer on the first Muscle Shoals Canal. She…

Robin Lightfoot, a mixed blood slave, help to organize the first church of African Americans at Florence, Church Spring, in 1837. Reverend Lightfoot preached on the hope for eventual emancipation for his people. While Union General Don Carlos Buell…

President elect Franklin Roosevelt visited Florence on January 21 and 22, 1933. The President was in the area touring Wilson Dam as a model for his proposal of a Tennessee Valley Authority. The design of the program, drafted by Senator George Norris…

Wilson Dam is a gravity dam spanning the Tennessee River between Lauderdale and Colbert counties in the quad cities area. The dam was originally constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers between 1918 and 1924. The project was envisioned as a part…

The residence of Mapleton was built in the Federalist style under the direction of a South American architect. During the Civil War it was known as Todd’s Hill because it was the home of local physician Levi Todd. When the Union occupied Florence…

The Greek revival mansion built in 1855 by George Washington Foster required an act of the Alabama legislature to close Court Street. Foster’s daughter Sarah Independence McDonald and her family lived there until 1900, when it was purchased by…

The Home of Governor and Confederate Brigadier General Edward Asbury O’Neal was in downtown Florence Alabama. After graduating from LaGrange College he studied law in Huntsville and married Olivia Moore. He passed the bar in 1840 and began a law…

The Cow Pen Factory was a water powered mill on Cow Pen Creek near Green Hill, Alabama. The factory had been founded in 1850. In 1860, the factory employed sixty-eight men and sixteen women and produced 117,600 yards of cloth. In the early years of…

Confederate Colonel William Johnson’s 4th Alabama Cavalry crossed the Tennessee River and attacked the 7th Illinois infantry encamped near Center Star on May 7, 1864. A six hour battle ensued. The Confederate raid caused 35 casualties and drove…

Sterling Wood was a Brigadier General for the Confederate Army from Lauderdale County. Wood passed the bar to become a practicing lawyer in 1845 and joined his brother’s practice in Florence, Alabama. Wood was elected to represent Lauderdale…

After Union General Williams T. Sherman captured Atlanta in September of 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood devised a plan to aide General Lee in Virginia by going through Ohio. The plan necessitated a crossing of the Tennessee River. Hood’s…

The first skirmish at four mile branch in Lauderdale County during 1864. January 25, Confederate Colonel William A. Johnson’s 4th Alabama Cavalry was dispatched to forage in Lauderdale County by General Philip Roddey from his headquarters at…

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest hid his men on Seven Mile Island in Florence October 5-6, 1864. General Forrest’s cavalry crossed into Lauderdale County at Colbert Shoal and rode down the Huntsville Road toward Athens. After raiding…

The battle at the Peters’ Plantation took place just before daylight on April 12, 1864. The 9th Ohio Cavalry known to the local in North Alabama as “The White Horse Company” had been foraging the local area from their base camp at the…

The oldest river bridge in Alabama connected Florence to Sheffield for more than one hundred and fifty years. The Florence Bridge Company was authorized by the Alabama legislature in 1832. It was founded for the purpose of realizing a dream for the…

Gunwaleford Road earned its name because of a Confederate gunboat becoming lodged in between sand bars on Cypress Creek. After the fall of Fort Henry at the mouth of the Tennessee River, Union gunboats under the command of Commander Andrew H. Foote…

A Union force of 1380 men under the command of Colonel Florence M. Cornyn left Corinth, Mississippi on May 26, 1863. Colonel Cornyn’s mission was to destroy the industrial capacity of Lauderdale County. The county was a leading producer of cotton…

Colonel Pickett Place, Home of Richard Oric Pickett a Colonel of the 10th Alabama Infantry under the “Defender of North Alabama” Confederate General Philip Roddey. The house is a “double-pile cottage” and rare example of Tidewater…

The Old Confederate fort in Florence was constructed by Confederate forces under General Daniel Ruggles in 1862. General Ruggles was born in Massachusetts and graduated from West Point married into a wealthy Virginia family. After the fall of Fort…

The city of Waterloo was shelled by Union gunboats in July 1862. Near the end of July 1862, older men from the town of Waterloo fired on the USS Cottage a transport vessel. The escorting gunboats returned fire, shelling the town. Union soldiers…

Gravely Springs near Oakland in Lauderdale County was the site of Union General James H. Wilson’s headquarters and camp in the winter of 1865. The final Union raid into Alabama was staged in this camp in the early spring of 1865. In January of…

The Bainbridge Ferry was the sight that Confederate General Hood’s Army of the Tennessee used to escape from the Union forces of General George Thomas who was pursuing them from Nashville. General Hood’s forces left Pulaski for Bainbridge to…

Lamb’s Ferry was one of the oldest ferries crossing the Tennessee River in Lauderdale County. The ferry was built by John Lamb from Giles County Tennessee in 1809 four miles south of where the town of Rogersville is now located. The traffic…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

The Tri-Cities Professional Directory of 1900 listed the following Jewish businesses in Florence, Alabama:

M. Coplan, Grocer
F. Cohn, Clothing
H. Kreisman, Grocer
A. Kreisman, Gents' Furnishings
Frank Perry, Grocer
Charles Perry, Gents'…

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…

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…

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

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…

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,…

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…

Jackson’s Military Road was constructed from 1816 to 1820 under the direction of Andrew Jackson. The original purpose of the road was to serve as a conduit for military supplies in the southeast. The mail route from New Orleans to Nashville was…

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…

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…

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,…

Franklin Yarborough, Jr. Store was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 1989.

Annual festival celebrating local food, music, and crafts.

http://www.leecountyhistoricalsociety.org/fair/index.html

Annual festival organized by Lee County Historical Society celebrating old-time music, storytelling, dance, food, and crafts.

http://www.leecountyhistoricalsociety.org/leecountygathering/main.html

The Lowther House Complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 16, 1993. The Lowther House Complex is located in Smiths Station, Lee County.

The Jenkins Farm House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 15, 2008. The house is located in Dupree, Lee County, Alabama.

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…

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…