Browse Items (1458 total)

Old Shelby Courthouse.jpg
Our extensive and growing collection of research materials includes books, periodicals, microfilm, microfiche, family folders and much more. We have the index and records from 1957 through 1994 of the Bolton Funeral Home located in Columbiana,…

What remains of the Shelby Hotel, adjacent to Shelby Iron Works, is closed to public and on private property. It is believed to be the first in Alabama to have running water and electric lights. Originally built in 1863, it was totally destroyed by…

Shelby Iron Works began when Horace Ware purchased land south of Columbiana, Alabama from Green B and Sarah Seale on December 29, 1842.  Ware acquired other properties in the area with available timberland and hematite ore.  The Shelby Iron…

Shelby Springs Resort Hotel is believed to have been built sometime around 1839 providing accomodations to tourists coming to avail themselves of the mineral waters.   In about 1856 Mr. Jasper J. Norris of Selma leased the property consisting of…

022715-national-sheyann-webb-christburg-the-smallest-freedom-fighter-in-selma-11.jpg
Appears in Eyes on the Prize. Wrote a book about Selma civil rights movement.

Construction began on the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama in 1996. The Our Lady of the Angels monastery was consecrated in 1996. Mother Angelica, who also founded the Eternal World Television Network, established the…

Coby Brubaker.jpg
Coby Hall is located on North Court Street in Florence, Alabama.

Funds for its purchase in 1990 were provided by Mr. David Brubaker. Brubaker purchased what was then Irvine place for $375,000. At a ceremony on December 7, 1990 Brubaker donated the…

Between the 1950s and 1980s the success of Shoals recording studios, such as FAME Recording Studio and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, earned the Shoals region’s music industry national attention. Artists such as Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, and…

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, located in Birmingham, became a national symbol during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. Having been built in 1873, the church was the first Colored Baptist Church. In the early twentieth century, the…

General John Adams.jpg
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…

m-5297.jpg
Skyline Farms was an effort to build a “new world” in rural America. It would be a world in which tenant farmers, hit hard by the Depression, would become self-sufficient landowners and live in an idyllic village. The program was started by the…

William F Slaton.jpg
In 1857, this institution opened on the corner of what is now Tichenor Avenue and North Gay Street. Slaton’s Academy functioned as a preparatory school for young men pursuing admission to East Alabama Male College. William F. Slaton, a local…

This academic institute, one of the county’s oldest, started out as a log cabin in 1826, near where Smith’s Station Elementary School currently stands. This school never had more than thirty students. Much like the consolidations in the Beulah…

A popular sport among the children of Red Bay was "snipe hunting." The hunts would always take place at night on a new moon. The "hunter" is armed with a tow-sack. This weapon is used to catch the "snipe" once it escapes the safety of its domicile.…

This historical marker is located on South Magnolia Street, Florence, Alabama.

The text on the marker reads: "This area is the military cemetery for Confederate Soldiers. After an 1862 skirmish in the streets of Florence, it was used to bury…

SoulStock is an annual outdoor Christian music and worship event that happens at Point Mallard. The event is free for the general public. SoulStock is sponsored by churches, businesses, and individuals mostly in the surrounding area.

The festival…

Southall Drugs Building - Omeka 4 - PH.pdf
Southall Drug is significant to the history of Florence for its architectural style and as a leading business in the downtown area owned and operated by the same family for over 50 years. The 1900 building is a prime example of a late 19th century…

This historic marker is located at the intersection of North Court Street and East Mobile Street, Florence, Alabama.

The text on the marker reads: "Charles Morton Southall (1864-1952) constructed this Commercial Italianate style building in 1900…

Southeastern Bible College (SBC) was organized in 1933 as a four-year, nondenominational, evangelical institution. The school was created by northern fundamentalists as a training school in Christian ministry. Classes began in October 1934.…

This historic marker is located on Seymore Avenue, Florence, Alabama.

The text on side one of the marker reads: "The Southern Female University located in this vicinity was created in 1889 by Florence businessmen led by Judge William B. Wood and…

Southern Poverty Law Center.png
The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded by Morris Dees, Joe Levin, and Julian Bond in Montgomery, Alabama in 1971.

A non-profit, public interest law firm the a Southern Poverty Law Center specializes in civil rights cases that include hate…

Southern_Union_SCC_Opelika_Campus.jpg
Southern Union State Community College began its institutional life as Bethlehem College on June 2, 1922. John M. Hodge, a Wadley banker, donated forty acres to the Southern Christian Convention of Congregational Christian Churches as a site for the…

Southern Union 2002 Upholstery.pdf
Graduation diploma for Linda Day Saxon from Southern Union State Community College

Southern Union Associate Child Dev. 2020.pdf
Associates diploma in Child Development from Southern Union State Community College for Linda Day Saxon Class of 2002

Southern Union Associate Office Management 2017.pdf
Diploma for n associates degree in Office Management awarded to Linda Day Saxon from Southern Union State Community College class of 2017

Spielberger Headstone.jpg
Jacob Spielberger, who was born in Hungary in January of 1856, came to Alabama around 1888. He opened a dry goods store and clothing store, Spielberger and Sons, at 217 and 219 Mongomery Avenue in Sheffield. His three sons, Jacob, Harry, and Ben…

Oldham Spooner.jpg
Spooner Oldham (June 14, 1943 - )

The writing credits of Spooner Oldham read like a jukebox selection. From Percy Sledge to Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett to Janis Joplin, Spooner is at the heart of what has come to be called “The Muscle Shoals…

In 1830, Spring Hill College was founded by Mobile’s first catholic bishop. Originally most of the students were male from wealthy families in the Mobile, Pensacola, and New Orleans areas. However most of the students were not catholic. In 1954,…

Spring Park is in downtown Tuscumbia. The main feature of the park is the spring and waterfall. The waterfall is made of natural limestone rocks. An fountain show is put on during certain times of the year. The area is often used for festivals and…

Spring Park.jpg
In 1815, Michael Dickson and a group of white settlers sailed in a keel-boat down the Tennessee River and up Spring creek, settling where Spring Park is now. Dickson purchased this land from the Indian chief Tashka-Ambi for two pole axes and five…

This historic marker is located at the intersection of Old Jackson Hwy and Co Rd 47, St. Florian, Alabama.

The text on the marker reads: "In 1872, Father A. J. Houser, Director of the Homestead Society of Cincinnati, Ohio founded St. Florian. He…

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.…

Prior to 1898 the Catholic population in Florence, Alabama, traveled to Tuscumbia’s Our Sacred Heart. The pastor of Our Sacred Heart, Father Bassen, characterized Florence as a mission of the Catholic Church. As a result, St. Joseph Catholic Church…

St. Luke’s church, commonly known as St. Francis at the Point Church, was constructed in 1898. The building was modeled in a vernacular interpretation of the late Gothic Revival style. St. Luke’s church was the first Episcopal Church on the…

image.jpg
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.

Established in 1872, St. Michael’s Catholic Church was the first Catholic Church in Lauderdale County. The church was organized in St. Florian, Alabama, a community founded by German Catholic settlers. A prominent Catholic minister in the southwest…

This historic marker is located on Church Road (County Road 30) west of Old Jackson Highway (County Road 61), St Florian, Alabama.

The text on the marker reads: "In 1872, Catholics of German ancestry settled on the former Wilson Plantation and…

St. Paul African Methodist Church was established in the early 1840s. A group of African Americans from a congregation called First Methodist left to form what is now known as the St. Paul African American Methodist Church. The original name of the…

This historic marker is located at the intersection of Burrell Street and White Street, Florence, Alabama.

The text on the marker reads: "In early 1840s about 14 African-American members from First Methodist formed own congregation “Church…

Formed in 1867, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church served the people of Decatur until 1930. Located in Old Decatur, the church served a thriving population who prospered from the trade that the Tennessee River generated. However, in 1888 two events worked…

St. Paul's Lutheran Church was founded on October 9, 1898. The congregation originally met in homes, and later in 1901, they built a house of worship at 4th Avenue and Sherman Street. Reverend W. G. Hussman was the first pastor for a congregation of…

Staggs_12-11.jpg
A place of business in the Sweetwater area that still exists and serves the community today is Staggs Groceries. Originally, Staggs Grocery was founded as Taylor Wylie’s Meat Market at the turn of the twentieth century. Taylor Wylie moved to…

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…

The State Normal School began in 1872 after Florence Wesleyan University closed and the building was deeded to the State. This university was the first normal school south of the Ohio River. The college consisted of a two year program to train…

20151205_150815.jpg
Southland, located at 1309 S. Jackson Highway in Sheffield was founded in 1950 primarily as a BBQ place and evolved over the years to offer a more diversified menu. In 2012, the building that housed Southland was bought by Steve Gaskins who now owns…

Sterling High School was another prominent school for African Americans in Colbert County. The origin of the school is in a Baptist Church on East 20th St. Originally, the school only served five students and a man named Henry Hopkins was hired as…

m-3681.jpg
Stevenson's importance as the junction of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and the Memphis and Charleston Railroad predates the Civil War. The town and its railroad junction were of strategic importance during the war for both sides. …

The original congregation of the group of Baptist was organized in Mobile in 1835 settling in a plain brick church building. This group disbanded in 1840 before immediately reorganizing under the name St. Anthony Baptist Church. This group moved to a…

Located in Smiths Station at County Road 179 and Lee Road 246.

Coordinates: 32.5504161, -85.1643831
Output Formats

atom, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2