Theatre; Arts; University of North Alabama; Florence, AL
On March 2, 2012, the University of North Alabama (UNA) in Florence, Alabama, conducted a grand ceremony for the George Lindsey Theatre. The university broke ground for the theatre exactly a year earlier in March of 2011. One individual in the crowd during the grand ceremony was George Smith Lindsey, the individual who the theatre was named after. Lindsey attended Florence State Teachers College (now present day University of North Alabama) during the late 1940s. At Florence State Lindsey excelled both on the football field and in the theatre. After graduating in 1952 with a Bachelor Degree in second education and physical education and serving in the Air Force, Lindsey attended the prestigious New York theatre school—the American Theatre Wing—in the late 1950s. Shortly thereafter, he earned the infamous role as Goober Pyle on “The Andy Griffith Show” during the 1960s and later caused many Americans to laugh with his comedy sketches on the show “Hee Haw.” Therefore, the University of North Alabama decided to name the newly constructed theatre after one of its most acclaimed alumnus. The theatre is located on the southwest corner of UNA’s campus on the Irvine Street. In all the theatre consists of over eight thousand square feet and is the “Shoal’s are premier theatre space.” Offices, conference rooms, classrooms, and the Borgnine Performance Hall are in the George Lindsey theatre. The Borgnine Performance Hall is a black box theatre (black walls and flat floor), that provides UNA students with versatile performance space. In addition, the theatre is equipped with state-of-the-art theatrical equipment. The total cost for the construction of the George Lindsey Theatre was two million dollars.
Jesse Brock, University of North Alabama
Text: University of North Alabama, “UNA to Host Grand Ceremony for Black Box Theatre March 2,” in folder “University Architecture: Fine Arts Center—George Lindsey/Ernest Borgnine Performance Hall,” University Collection, Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama. University of North Alabama, “George Lindsey-Biography, University of North Alabama, https://www.una.edu/library/collections/george-lindsey---biography.html (accessed May 1, 2015). Michelle Rupe Eubanks, “Theater to be Named for George Lindsey,” in folder “University Architecture: Fine Arts Center—George Lindsey/Ernest Borgnine Performance Hall,” University Collection, Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama.
This company was founded in the East Florence area of Sweetwater. The initial founders of the company were R.M. Martin, President, Colonel Noel F. Cherry, Vice-President (and founder of the Mountain Mills and Cherry Cotton Mill), and S.S. Broadus, Secretary and Treasurer (founder of the short lived Broadus [Cotton] Mill in the Sweetwater area located close to present day Veterans Drive and Wilson Dam Road, also treasurer of the Merchant’s Bank in Florence as well ). Located along the railroad tracks in Sweetwater, the Florence Machine Company served as a manufacturing spur along the railroad line through east Florence. When it was founded, the capital investment within the company was ten thousand dollars.
Matthew 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. Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Florence Machine Works.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-33.
Statues/Monuments; Florence, AL; Handy, W.C.
The W.C. Handy Statue is located in Wilson Park near downtown Florence. The statue depicts Florence native and "Father of the Blues," W.C. Handy playing his trumpet with sheet music of some of his most famous songs at his feet.
Claire Eagle, University of North Alabama
Theatre; Arts; Culture; Music; Florence, AL
According to Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, an opera house operated in Florence during the late 1880s and permanently closed its doors during the early twentieth century. Between 1894 and 1905 the venue was known as Turner Opera House. During the years of operation, the opera house had numerous managers, such as John B. McClure. Many national recognized actors and artists, such as the Conklings, Mr. John Thompson, Mr. Rowland D. Williams, and General John B. Gordon, put on dramas, comedies, and musical concerts. In addition, local talent from the Shoals put on shows and events. For example, actors from Florence and Sheffield put on the opera “H. M. S. Pinafore” on January 24, 1896. On regular occasions the proceeds of events went towards local charities, such as the construction of Confederate Monument and City Infirmary.
Text: “Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps,” Florence Lauderdale Public Library, Local History Room Collection, folder “Opera House,” Florence, Alabama. “Opera House. Two Good Attractions for February 22nd, and March 15th,” Florence Herald, February 1, 1984, Florence Lauderdale Public Library, Florence, Alabama, Local History Room Collection, folder “Opera House,” Florence, Alabama. “H. M. S. Pinafore. In the Opera House Friday, January 24th,” Florence Times, January 11, 1896, Florence Lauderdale Public Library, Local History Room Collection, folder “Opera House,” Florence, Alabama. “Gen. Gordon’s Lectures,” Florence Standard-Journal, May 6, 1898, Florence Lauderdale Public Library, Local History Room Collection, folder “Opera House,” Florence, Alabama. Images: Flyer for a 1895 play at the Florence Opera House, Nolen Collection, “Florence area 1880s-1920s: Photos,” Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama.
The Florence Lumber Company was established in the early 1910s. Today, Florence Lumber Company is located on East Tennessee Street in downtown Florence. The company has been a mainstay in Florence for around a century and is one of the earliest lumber businesses in Florence to be in operation. The lumber company is operated by Uhland O. Redd III, a descendant of one of the original founders of the Florence Lumber Company. In the early twentieth century, Florence Lumber Company was at the center of a local controversy involving the construction of the Bungalow style home in downtown Florence. The controversy centered around the bungalow home being an uncommon home in contrast to the traditional homes in northwestern Alabama area since the style was a transplant from California. Many in the downtown Florence community complained about the bungalow controversy, but, in the end, the bungalow style homes were built. Florence Lumber Company built a number of bungalows, as well as houses of other styles, around Florence.
Text Sources: McDonald, William Lindsey. "A Walk Through the Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama." Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2003. Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Florence Lumber Company.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-06.
Dr. Richard Henderson Rivers was the first president of Florence Wesleyan University. Dr. Rivers was named the president of LaGrange College in Leighton, Alabama, in 1854. In January of 1855, LaGrange College moved to Florence, Alabama, where classes were first held in the Masonic Hall. The name of LaGrange College was changed to Florence Wesleyan University on February 14, 1855. Dr. Rivers’ tenure as president saw the completion of Wesleyan Hall in 1856. Dr. Rivers left Florence Wesleyan University in 1861.
A Brief Look at University of North Alabama History 1830-2005. Booklet published by the University of North Alabama. Image courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives
In 1855 by the Presbyterian Synod of Nashville opened the Florence Female Synodical College. Zebulon Pike Morrison, who constructed Wesleyan Hall, also built the two buildings that housed the college. Young women of any religious denomination could attend the school. The college trained women art, languages, drawing, painting, English, geography, arithmetic, and music. The college closed in 1893. The college stood where the Florence Post Office now is.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 89.
The Cypress Mill was located on Cypress Creek in Florence. The Cypress Mill was rebuilt from the old skeletal remains of the pre-Civil War cotton mill known as the Globe Factory. After Union Colonel Florence M. Cornyn of the 10th Missouri Calvary set the mill ablaze in 1863, it took several years for James Martin to get Cypress Mill back up and running. He advertised for at least forty able-bodied men to help in the rebuild of one of the old Globe Factory factories in 1866. But it was not until 1873 that operations were commenced at Cypress Mills, after the heirs of James Martin conveyed all their interest to the Cypress Mills Corporation in 1873. At the commencement of operation, Cypress Mill had a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars, 3,000 spindles, 60 looms. 50 employees, and consumed about 600 bales of cotton annually. The mill used hydropower from a thirty-five foot dam on Cypress Creek and that dam powered the three-story facility that sat at the edge of the Cypress. Cypress Mills Company purchased about 1,500 acres for their workers and built a mill village for them on the tract of land. Just over fifteen years later, when Cypress Mill was sold to the Cherry brothers in 1889, Cypress Mills production was drastically cut, and many of the employees followed the Cherry brothers when they relocated the mill in Barton, Alabama. In 1892, Cypress Mill had 2,500 spindles, 60 looms, and 9 cards. By 1893, Cypress Mill had ceased production and closed its doors.
Text Sources: McDonald, William Lindsey. "A Walk Through the Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama." Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2003. Wilhelm, Dwight M. "A History of the Cotton Textile Industry of Alabama 1809 to 1950." Montgomery: Privately Published, 1950. McDonald, William Lindsey. "Remembering Sweetwater: The Mansions, The Mills, The People." Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2002. Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Cypress Mill.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-03.
The Florence Main Street Program, a non-profit organization, strives to renovate the downtown sector of Florence, Alabama. One of the organization’s recent projects is the beautiful mural located on the exterior wall of Fred’s Super Dollar store located at 321 North Court St. The project required a two-step process during the years 2013 and 2014 and cost a total of $14,000. Beginning in 2013 Shoals artists Tim Stevenson, Robin Campbell, and Ronnie Riner designed and painted the mural’s panels, which according to Stevenson “captures the quality of life enjoyed in the Shoals.” The mural’s seven panels offers a glimpse into life in the Shoals and represents the rich culture in the region. The first phase of the project consisted of five panels. The first panel depicts the Forks of Cypress, the house of James Jackson. The second panel is of The University of North Alabama. The flowing waters of the Tennessee River are painted on the third panel, while the fourth panel shows a front porch scene. Stevenson designed the first phase’s final panel, which shows a Renaissance woman playing the fiddle, in order to express how “music is the heart beat of the area.” In the following year Stevenson, Campbell, and Riner completed the second phase of the mural, which consisted of two panels. The sixth panel’s design consisted of arrowheads, pottery, and feathers, and acted as an homage to the region’s Native American culture. The last panel shows a man and his dog walking along the water banks. Overall, the mural’s artwork represents five components of Florence—local history, education, music, the Tennessee River, and Native American culture.
Text: Jennifer Edwards, “Muralis Interruptus in Florence,” Times Daily,July 7, 2013.
Coca-Cola Bottling Plant/Pratt Bottling Company
In 1907, two men named Russell and Arthur Pratt of Huntsville, Alabama moved a Coca-Cola bottling facility from Sheffield to downtown Florence. The Pratt Bottling Company bottled Coca-Cola in addition to creating and manufacturing their own soft drinks and ice cream flavors. Two years later in 1909, Russell Pratt became the main distributor for Coca-Cola on the West Coast; meanwhile, Arthur Pratt left Florence to pursue Coca-Cola distribution in Newark, New Jersey and New York City, New York. Julia Pratt and manager Burt Snyder took over the operations at the Pratt Bottling Company until 1940 when the Pratt Bottling Company was sold to Walter Matthews Sr. in 1940. Eventually, the Coca-Cola bottling operations moved from downtown Florence to the Florence Industrial Park. Comcast Cable owns the old Pratt Bottling Company building located off of Court Street today.
Text Source: Barske, Carolyn. "Images of America: Florence." Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2014. Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Coca-Cola Bottling Plant/Pratt Bottling Company.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-56.
Early Twentieth-Mid to Late Twentieth Century
Dr. William H. Mitchell was the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Florence during the Civil War. On Sunday, July 27, 1862, Dr. Mitchell was arrested during the church service when he prayed for Jefferson Davis and the success of the Confederacy. General Don Carlos Buell’s Provost Marshal, Colonel John Marshal Harlan was present during the prayer and made the arrest. Dr. Mitchell was incarcerated at Alton, Illinois, for a number of months before he was released and allowed to return to Florence. Sallie Independence Foster recorded the incident in her diary on July 27: “The Yanks went into the Presbyterian Church and took Dr. Mitchell prisoner while he was praying and took him over the river, the Yankees sent word to his wife that she must come to see him or she would not see him again. They would not let him hoist up his umbrella. They said he could stand the sun as well as they could. Poor man, he used to be the president of our school. He said school would open again the 1st of September, but I don’t think it will as we have no president now.”
Kayla Scott, University of North Alabama
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 67. Image and diary page courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives Sallie Independence Foster Diary, 1862-1887. Unpublished, University of North Alabama Archives and Special Collections.
Festival; Arts; Culture; St. Florian, AL
The town of Saint Florian, Alabama, has a strong German heritage. It was established in 1872 by a Catholic priest named J. H. Hueser. Hueser, the director of the Homeland Security of Cincinnati, Ohio, purchased over two thousand acres of land in north Alabama, hoping to spread Catholicism into the region. He sold the purchased land for eight dollars per acre to German Catholic families. The German residents established the Saint Michael’s Catholic Church, and the town was named after Mrs. Florian Rasch because she donated the bell for the newly established church. Saint Michael’s Catholic Church also acted as a school. The wife of the first preacher at Saint Michael’s Catholic Church, Annie Merz, taught German classes at the school during the 1870s. In addition to the church, the town had a blacksmith, a boarding house, a post office, a shoe shop, a brick yard, and a cotton gin. Nearly one hundred years after its establishment, on August 18, 1970 the resident’s in St. Florian decided to incorporate the town. Beginning in 2002, the residents in St. Florian celebrated their town’s German heritage with the establishment of the Oktoberfest festival, which takes place during the first weekend in October. The two day festival is located at the St. Florian Community Park. Many attendees wear traditional German clothing, listen to music, drink from the beer garden, and eat German food such as brats and potato balls. The proceeds from the festival goes toward the town’s operating capital for the senior center.
Text: Tennessee Valley Historical Society, “St. Florian,” Journal of Muscle Shoals Vol. X (1983), 143-144. Jill Garrett, “First Catholic Church in County,” in folder “McDonald Collection: Church Information-Vol. 7: Other Denomination-Catholic, Churches 7.2,” Box 37, Bill McDonald Collection, Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama. Bobby Bozeman, “St. Florian Celebrates German Heritage with 12th Annual Oktoberfest,” Times Daily, October 2, 2014.
The Cherry Cotton Mill was one of the largest cotton mills in Lauderdale County at the turn of the twentieth century. Cherry Cotton Mill has an industrial genealogy in Lauderdale County that is traceable to before the Civil War. Cypress Mills Company and the Mountain Mills were both precursors to the Cherry Cotton Mill. Cherry Cotton Mill came to Florence in the Sweetwater area by way of Barton, Alabama and Colbert County and the movement of Mountain Mills to east Florence. Located in Sweetwater at the sight of where an old cotton mill used to be in 1832, Colonel Noel F. Cherry (and primary stock holder), Nial C. Elting (founder of First National Bank of Florence), and Charles M. Brandon (who the Brandon School was named after) founded Cherry Cotton Mill in 1893. The Cherry Cotton Mill produced high quality yarns, amongst other textiles, until the doors of the mill closed during the Great Depression. During the boom years of the early twentieth century, the Cherry Cotton Mill employed over 400 people and had a running capacity of 12,000 spoolers. Just before the turn of the twentieth century, the average wage for the common worker at Cherry was fifteen to seventy-five cents a day. Specialized mechanics and skilled craftsman would earn anywhere from a dollar to a dollar fifty a day. A master mechanic would make a dollar fifty a day and a supervisor two dollars a day. Even children were employed at the mill at as young as six years old. The majority of the employees at the mill were women, but both the children and women tended to be paid the lowest, which is indicative of factory work at the beginning of the 1900s. The mill did provide housing to its employees on close by Cherry Hill in Sweetwater. From 1893 to 1929, Cherry Cotton Mill is said to have consumed 150,000 bales of local cotton in production. Prosperous until the Great Depression, the number of people employed in 1936 by Cherry Cotton Mill was 300 workers, a strong number for an economic downturn. The payroll by 1936 averaged two hundred twenty-five thousand dollars annually. Unfortunately, Cherry Cotton Mill did not last much past 1936 and the Great Depression claimed the largest cotton mill in Florence.
Text Sources: McDonald, William Lindsey. "A Walk Through the Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama." Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2003. McDonald, William Lindsey. "Sweetwater: The Story of East Florence." Florence, Ala.: Florence Historical Board, 1989. McDonald, William Lindsey. "Remembering Sweetwater: The Mansions, The Mills, The People." photos by L.D. Staggs, Jr. Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2002. Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Cherry Cotton Mill.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-29.
Burrell Normal School stemmed from Carpenters High School. In 1904 an extra year of training was added to the school for those who wanted to be teachers. This was the first higher education institution for African American students in Lauderdale County. The first president was G.N. White. After a year of study students would take an exam, if the exam was passed a state teacher's certificate was granted.
Elizabeth Womack McDonald. History of the Florence City schools, 1820-1967, 1900. UNA Library Catalog, EBSCOhost (accessed April 29, 2015).
Festival; Arts; Culture; University of North Alabama; Florence, AL
One of the world’s oldest spoken art form is storytelling and the Communication Department at the University of North Alabama acknowledges this. Beginning in 2011, UNA communications professor Dr. Bill Huddleston started to offer the course COM 480/580, which focuses on storytelling. Also beginning in 2011, the University of North Alabama and the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, co-sponsored an annual event known as Front Porch Storytelling Festival. The festival takes place in May on the University of North Alabama’s campus and various places in the city of Florence, such as Wilson Park and McFarland Park. During the festival, national, state, and local orators and musicians provide entertainment. In 2015, the first “Story Slam” took place. The Story Slam is an open competition to high school and middle school students, who share a five minute personal stories from their lives based on a themed subject. The winner of the Story Slam competition receives a five hundred dollar award.
Text: “A Class Act,” in folder “University Events: Front Porch Storytelling Festival,” University Collection, Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama. Terry Pace, “Front Porch Storytelling Festival,” The Quad-Cities Daily, May 13, 2013. University of North Alabama, “Story Slam,” UNA Front Porch Storytelling Festival, www.una.edu/storytelling.student-competition-html (accessed May 1, 2015). Images: folder “University Events: Front Porch Storytelling Festival,” University Collection, Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama.
Since 1986, the city of Florence has hosted an annual two day festival dedicated to highlighting the local area’s rich art culture known as Arts Alive. Each year, the event has is organized through the hard work and efforts of a volunteer committee. During the event local, regional, and national acclaimed artists set up booths at Wilson Park and the Kennedy Douglas Center for the Arts in downtown Florence.The festival does not focus on one particular style of art. Instead, the festival showcases artworks from various categories—painting, stained glass, jewelry, sculpture, pottery, fiber art, needle work, photography, music, and more. One local artists claimed that the festival is both unique and important for the artist and community because provides the two different spheres an “opportunity to meet and talk.” In addition, the festival stresses the importance of art among the younger generation with the inclusion of a dedicated area for children artwork. Overall, the admission is free and the art is beautiful.
Text: Arts Alive Alabama, “Information,” Arts Alive, www.alabamaartsalive.com/information (accessed May 2, 2015). “Arts are Alive: Annual Festival Returns to Downtown,” Times Daily, May 12, 2014. “This Year The Arts Live,” Courier Journal, April 22, 2015.
Florence Cotton Oil Company/Ashcraft Cotton Mill/Florence Cotton Mill
The Ashcraft Cotton Mill began not as a cotton mill for the weaving of textiles, but as a refinery for cotton oil. In the spring of 1898, C.W. and Erister Ashcraft founded and incorporated the Florence Cotton Oil Company. The distance of other similar facilities in Nashville, Memphis, and Birmingham, made for a lengthy treks for local farmers, hence the formation of the company and the refinery. In 1898, cottonseed had a going rate of five dollars per ton. So the elimination of distance created a rise of about 500 percent in the amount paid for local cottonseed to process into cotton oil. In the single year of operation for Florence Cotton Oil, they employed in between 50 to 75 workers. About a year later, the Ashcraft clan decided to stop producing cotton oil and start producing cotton textiles. John T., C.W., Lee, Erister, and Fletcher Ashcraft, all brothers, in addition to Andrew J. Ashcraft, their father, formed a partnership in creating the Ashcraft Cotton Mill. The mill was located at the intersection of South Cherry and Terrace Streets in the Sweetwater area of Florence. At the time of incorporation in 1899, Ashcraft had an organized capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, then in 1900 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, giving the company a well-capitalized beginning. One of the largest cotton mills operating in Lauderdale County, the mill had over 3,600 spindles and 100 looms ready for operation in 1899. Upon the opening of the mill in 1900, the city of Florence celebrated in grand fashion, having a large celebration for the local citizens and dignitaries with a big brass band to boot. By 1903, the Ashcraft mill was valued at two hundred thousand dollars. By 1903, Ashcraft Cotton Mill employed at least 250 men and women and provided housing for the employees. The production of the workers helped the mill use 4,000 bales of locally grown cotton annually, which the finished product was sent across North America. In 1927, the Ashcraft Cotton Mill was renamed the Florence Cotton Mill. The Florence Cotton Mill survived the Great Depression and paid a decent wage during the economic depression at about fifteen dollars per week. Even though the mill survived the Great Depression, it could not survive the foreign textile industry and closed its doors at the end of World War II.
Text Sources: McDonald, William Lindsey. "Remembering Sweetwater: The Mansions, The Mills, The People." photos by L.D. Staggs, Jr. Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2002. McDonald, William Lindsey. "A Walk Through the Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama." Killen, Ala., Bluewater Publications, 2003. “Florence As She Is.” "The Florence Times." 1903. Image Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Ashcraft Cotton Mill." Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-36.
Festival; Music; Arts; Culture; Florence, AL
During the early 2000s, award winning American fashion designer Billy Reid established his flagship store in downtown Florence. In addition to his good taste in fashion, Reid also loves music. He has recognized that the town of Florence and the surrounding area has a rich music culture, both in the past and in the present with up and coming artists. Therefore, in 2008 he organized a weeklong event during the Fall of each year in downtown Florence that celebrated and exposed this unique culture. Local bands play concerts at Wilson Park and vendor booths line the streets selling art, food, and clothing. In all the event is full of “good music, good fashion, good food and good times.”
Text: Bobby Bozeman, “Billy Reid Shindig Introduces Shoals to Out-of-Towners and Vice Versa,” Times Daily, August 14, 2014. Lauren Ferguson and Ashley Williams, “Shindig Features Music, New Billy Reid T-Shirt Line,” The Daily South, August 15, 2014.
Born in 1824, Dr. Robert A. Young was the second president of Florence Wesleyan University and served from 1862 to 1865. Dr. Young, along with Professor Septimus Rice managed to keep the college open throughout the Civil War years. Enrollment was low during the Civil War. Confederate and Union troops occupied Wesleyan Hall multiple times. Dr. Young distributed the University’s library books to Florence citizens for safekeeping until the war’s end. Dr. Young is credited with saving Florence Wesleyan University and Florence from being burned by Union Colonel Florence Cornyn and his troops in 1863. Although Colonel Cornyn refrained from destroying the town, he and his forces torched a block of downtown structures before Young’s entreaty, and torched several old houses as they left Florence. Dr. Young not only helped protect the college, but also helped citizens like General Edward A. O’Neal’s wife Olivia when she and her children were accosted by solders. In 1866, Dr. Young moved to take a position at Vanderbilt University and the college operated on a limited basis until 1868.
Robert S. Steen, History of Foster House- Courtview- Rogers Hall and Early City of Florence . Florence: University of North Alabama, No Date, 41. William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 52, 71. Jill K. Garret, History of Lauderdale County, Alabama, 1964, 229. A Brief Look at University of North Alabama History 1830-2005. Booklet published by the University of North Alabama. Image Courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives
Festival; Theatre; Film; University of North Alabama; Arts; Florence, AL
George Smith Lindsey attended Florence State Teachers College (now present day University of North Alabama) during the late 1940s. At Florence State Lindsey excelled both on the football field and in the theatre. One of the theatrical plays in which Lindsey performed was Oklahoma!. After graduating in 1952, Lindsey attended the prestigious New York theatre school—the American Theatre Wing—in the late 1950s. Shortly thereafter, in 1962 he signed a contract with the William Morris Agency and got roles on numerous television shows such as “Twilight Zone” and “The Alfred Hitchock Hour.” Following these minor roles, he earned the infamous role as Goober Pyle on “The Andy Griffith Show” for five years during the 1960s. After the cancellation of “The Andy Griffith Show,” Lindsey caused many Americans to laugh with his comedy sketches on the show “Hee Haw” for nearly twenty-years. In order to promote the art of theatre and to highlight talented individuals, George Smith Lindsey along with deceased UNA Communications and Theatre established the competitive George Lindsey Film Festival in 1998. For the past eighteen years, the University of North Alabama has hosted the film festival in the Spring. In March of 2015, the University of North Alabama (UNA) hosted the eighteenth Annual George Lindsey UNA Film Festival. Over three thousand local, national, and international entries were submitted at the 2015 festival, at which only one hundred were chosen to be screened. Awards are given to the first place winner in each category, and a special award is given to the best film made in the state of Alabama. Overall, according to Lindsey the festival strives to “take the energy that is in Hollywood and bring it to north Alabama.”
Text: University of North Alabama, “George Lindsey-Biography, University of North Alabama, https://www.una.edu/library/collections/george-lindsey---biography.html (accessed May 1, 2015). “George Lindsey TV & Film Festival set for April 1998,” in The 1st George Lindsey Television & Film Festival Memorabilia Book, compiled by Lisa Darnell, The George Lindsey Collection, Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama. George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, “About the Festival,” Lindsey Film Fest, www.lindseyfilmfest.com (accessed May 1, 2015). “UNA Hosts First Lindsey TV, Film Fest,” in The 1st George Lindsey Television & Film Festival Memorabilia Book, compiled by Lisa Darnell, The George Lindsey Collection, Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama. Images: Folder “Alumni: Lindsey, George,” University Collections,Archives/Special Collections, Collier Library, University of North Alabama, Florence, Alabama.
Bellamy Planning Mill Company/Acme Lumber Company
The Bellamy Planning Mills of the East Florence area of Sweetwater was incorporated on May 1st, 1901. The founders chose to situate Bellamy Planning Mills near Sweetwater Creek on present day Veterans Drive. The founders of the Bellamy Planning Mill were President, A.D. Bellamy (also the founder of Florence Wagon Works); Secretary, W.M. Richardson (who would own his own lumberyard in Florence eventually); and Attorney, John T. Ashcraft, who was one of several founders of the Ashcraft Cotton Mill. By 1903, the Bellamy Planning Mill was doing about seventy-five thousand dollars’ worth of business per year while using about three million feet of lumber per year and employing a force of thirty men. Bellamy’s mill did business across the South and Midwest selling building materials for framing, ceilings, porch columns, and balusters to name a few. They also sold Sherwin Williams Paints and Acme Cement Plaster in addition to the wood products. Eventually, Bellamy sold the planning mill to a partnership of Lewellen and Robbins. When A.M. Lewellen and Robbins bought the Bellamy Planning Mill, they renamed it Acme Lumber Company. Acme Lumber Company had an important, albeit tragic, role in Florence during the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak that occurred while Wilson Dam was under construction. Because of the influenza outbreak, Acme ran three full shifts a day to build enough coffins for the countless numbers of deceased workers since the lumberyard was located across the river from the camps of the workers building Wilson Dam. The majority of the deceased were immigrant Cuban workers buried in common graves, and most had no known immediate relatives or survivors. After the end of the Spanish influenza, not much information can be found on Acme Lumber Company on the fate of the lumber company itself.
Text Sources: "Florence As She Is." The Florence Times. 1903. McDonald, William Lindsey. "Sweetwater: The Story of East Florence." Florence, Ala.: Florence Historical Board, 1989. McDonald, William Lindsey. "Remembering Sweetwater: The Mansions, The Mills, The People." photos by L.D. Staggs, Jr. Killen, Bluewater Publications, 2002. Garrett, Jill Knight. "A History of Lauderdale County, Alabama." Columbia, Tenn., Privately Published, 1968. Picture Source: UNA Archives & Special Collection. William L. McDonald Collection. “Bellamy Planning Mill/Acme Lumber Company.” Florence, Alabama. Box 12: Florence Industry, 12-32.
National Register of Historic Places ; Wilson Park; Architecture; Florence, AL
The National Register nomination covers three houses facing Wilson Park, the only remaining houses from what was once a prominent Florence neighborhood. The houses were built between 1890 and 1918 and represent typical upper middle class residential architecture of the time. The original plans for Florence, as surveyed and plotted by Ferdinand Sannoner, set aside a city block as a “public walk”. This allotment was adjacent to the lot designated for a school and which was subsequently developed as the Florence Synodical Female College, the “public walk” became the City Park complete with gas lighting, cedar plantings, and a bandstand. Building lots around the park became highly desirable for residential development. During the city’s economic boom from the 1880s through the 1920s, fashionable upper-middle class homes were built around the remaining three sides (north, east, and west) of the park. Over time the college was demolished and the post office and larger park footprint expanded on to the site of the Florence Synodical Female College. Commercial structures took the place of the late 19th early 20th century residential structures to the east and west leaving only three houses on the north side as a reminder of the earlier neighborhood. The house at 209 Tuscaloosa Street was constructed around 1890 and in 1894 became the home of local pharmacist, Charles Morton Southall. The Southall Drug building on Court Street is also on the National Register. The two and a half story asymmetrical frame house has Queen Anne and Shingle style features including a hipped roof, projecting front gable with Tudor revival detailing, a second story clad in wood shingles, and a one story wrap around porch supported by paired round columns on brick piers. The two story brick Georgian Revival house at 217 Tuscaloosa Street was built for James Josephus Douglass about 1910. Douglass was a prominent local businessman and farmer. The house passed to his son Hiram Kennedy Douglass, an Episcopal minister and genealogist, who left the house and the adjacent Wright – Douglas House to the city of Florence in conjunction with the Kennedy-Douglass Trust for public use as an Arts Center. The Wright-Douglas House (223 Tuscaloosa Street) was purchased by Hiram Kennedy Douglass in 1939. The one and half story frame Victorian house is currently part of the Florence Arts Center. The National Register nomination for the Wilson Park houses was written in 1978 and lacks much information that would be required of a current nomination. It is advised that this nomination be updated.
Missy Brown, University of North Alabama
Floyd, Warner W. and Sally Moore. “Wilson Park Houses – National Register of Historic Preservation Nomination,” Montgomery: Alabama Historical Commission, 1979.
Florence Wesleyan University began when LaGrange College's students and teachers sought a new location in Florence. The majority of the faculty and students left the original site of LaGrange College - across the river from Florence (4 miles south of Leighton, Alabama) in 1855. The college began holding classes at the Florence Masonic hall because construction on their building, Wesleyan Hall, had not been completed yet. The tuition was listed as $25 for a ten month semester. The college closed from 1861-1869 due to the fact that over 100 students and faculty left to fight in the Civil War. After the Civil War had ended the school reopened but closed three years later due to lack of funding. In 1872 the school was deeded to the state of Alabama and reopened as State Normal School.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 90-91. University of North Alabama, "Brief Look at University of North Alabama History." Florence, Alabama, 2005.
William Basil Wood was born on October 31, 1820. Wood was a LaGrange College graduate, and practiced law in Florence before the Civil War. Wood served as a colonel of the 16th Alabama Infantry Regiment and was recommended for promotion to brigadier general, but worked as President of the Military Court when he was assigned to General James Longstreet’s Corps. Besides being a lawyer, Wood served as circuit court judge and a Methodist minister after the war. Wood was instrumental in the movement of La Grange College from Leighton to Florence in 1855. Wood was also one of the first historians of Lauderdale County. William Basil Wood passed away on April 3, 1891. He is buried in the Florence Cemetery along with his wife, Sarah. Wood Avenue in Florence is named in his honor.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 45-46. Jill K. Garret, History of Lauderdale County, Alabama, 1964, 228. Image Courtesy of Collier Library Archives
National Register of Historic Places ; Architecture; Florence, AL
The Karsner-Kennedy House at 303 North Pine Street is located on lot 7 of the original Florence plat purchased by James Gadsden for $350. The house was built sometime before 1831 when it was purchased by Oscar Karsner. The Karsner family owned the home until it was acquired by the Carroll-Kennedy family in 1902. The property was subsequently owned by the City of Florence and was used as the Florence Housing Authority and currently by Florence Main Street program. The building is significant for its architecture and is one of the few remaining small nineteenth century Federal buildings in the Tennessee Valley. Over time the structure was altered with many additions including a front porch, shed dormers, and assorted wings but the defining fabric remained and the building was restored in 1971-1973 by the City of Florence under the direction of Karl Tyree, Jr. Executive Director of the Florence Housing Authority. The one and a half story brick cottage is laid in Flemish and English common bond and is 13 inches thick. The double front doors (replacement) are in the left (south) bay and are remarkable for their brick arch and intricate fanlight. Much of the interior woodwork is intact and mirrors this delicacy of design: staircase, doors and surrounds, and mantels. The rear wing, rear porch, and dormers were added or altered during the restoration but are based on design style or remnants found during the restoration process. In 1971 the building was one of the first in Florence and seventeenth in the state of Alabama to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was also included as part of the Ferdinand Sannoner District in 1976 as a contributing structure. Information for this Omeka entry was obtained from the National Register of Historic Preservation nomination. Additional information can be found in the nomination on the Alabama Historical Association website or National Park Service database. Due to changes in condition, use, and ownership of the property as well as the limited information required of early nominations, this National Register nomination requires updating.
National Register Nomination (#70000104)
James Martin House (Martin-Bounds House)
National Register of Historic Places; Architecture; Florence, AL
The James Martin House was listed on the National Register in 1981 for its significance in architecture and its association with James Martin, an early Florence industrialist. The story and a half frame cottage was a common form in its time period (constructed around 1843) but overtime the numbers have diminished and the surviving Martin house is a notable example of the style. Other local examples include the Wood House on Wood Avenue and the Edward A. O’Neil House and the Abraham Dean House both on North Court Street. The simple cottage form originally consisted of two rooms separated by a central hall and bracketed by exterior end brick chimneys. The interior woodwork is largely intact and has Federal style detailing mixed with some Greek Revival aspects. The original hall doors are exceptional for their Carpenter and Company locks. At the time of the National Register nomination in 1980 the house had a three room rear addition (construction date not known) and a three room addition on the west elevation which included 20th century partitioning and a kitchen and bathroom. A photo made in 2015 shows the rear addition in place but the western addition removed. The front Doric porch columns on the single bay pedimented porch were also replaced during that time period and reflect the older engaged fluted columns that flank the double front doors. The roof was also replaced with modern asphalt architectural shingles. The cottage is also significant for its association with James Martin a leading businessman who first worked in the building trade and then in 1839 as a textile mill owner. Martin, in partnership with Levi Cassity, established the Globe Cotton Mill employing 150 people by 1844. The mill was located on Cypress Creek close to the Martins house. The mill burned in 1844 but was rebuilt by Martin with a new partner Samuel D. Weakley. The mill prospered and the company also operated a grist mill and sawmill. The site also included a mill village with housing, a day school, and church for the workers. In 1863 the mill site, but not the house, was burned by Federal troops. After an attempt to rebuild and the death of James Martin the mill site was sold to the Cypress Mill Company. Information for this Omeka entry was obtained from the 1981 nomination. Due to the obvious changes in the exterior of the house and the early date of the nomination, the National Register listing could benefit from an update.
Gamble, Robert. “James Martin House National Register of Historic Places nomination.” Montgomery: Alabama Historical Commission, 1981.
Florence University for Women was also known as Baptist University and Hawthorne's College. Work began on the college in 1890 by the Florence Educational, Land, and Development Company headed by J.B. Hawthorne. The building had three floors, 88 bedrooms, a chapel that could seat 750, a dining hall, sixteen classrooms, and a gym.The school was going to be a Baptist university if a $100,000 endowment could be paid within the first year. After the endowment was not paid the school was given to Rev. L.D. Bass to establish a secular school named Southern Female University. It opened in 1891 with 20 teachers and about 100 students. Although Bass advertised the school as a secular institution, the student body consisted of mostly Baptist girls. After only two years the college moved to Birmingham and the building sat vacant. In 1908 the president of Southern Female College in Lagrange, Ga, M.W. Hatto purchased the building. Hatto had the building renovated and reopened the school as Florence University for Women. Less than 3 years later the building burned, along with all of the students belongings, because of faulty electrical wiring. Only the seniors were able to finish their degrees after being sent to a school in Kentucky. The building was insured, but only for $16,000.
Text: William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 92-93. “Florence University is Burned to the Ground,” The Tri-Cities Daily, March 2, 1911. Image: University of North Alabama Archives and Special Collections
On the first Friday of each month from March through December, Florence residents come together at historic downtown Florence to celebrate the town’s rich culture in the arts. The scene is a festive atmosphere and the admission is free. Streets are closed for vehicle transportations while the sidewalks and street corners are occupied by pedestrian traffic, booths, and music stages. Florence citizens and local businesses and organizations set up booths in order to sell photography, paintings, ceramics, foodstuff, and other artistic matters. On this night, many downtown stores and restaurants stay open after hours for in order to provide business and browsing. Stages are set up for local bands to perform to a mixed crowd of recognizable and new faces. The city of Florence has put on this event since 2005. Numerous organizations and departments had to agree in order to establish the First Friday festival. Downtown Florence Unlimited, which comprises of retail and service businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations, collaborated with the City of Florence, Florence Main Street Program, the University of North Alabama, and the Florence/Lauderdale Tourism Department for the event to take off. Two partner organizations associated with Florence First Fridays are The Kiwanis Club and the Kennedy-Douglas Center for the Arts.
Text: “First Fridays Art Event in Downtown Florence,” Explore the Shoals, 2008-2009, 140. Downtown Florence Unlimited, “Partner Organizations,” Florence First Fridays, http://www.firstfridaysflorence.org/partners.html (accessed May 1, 2015). Images: “October First Friday in Florence,” Times Daily, http://www.timesdaily.com/collection_1a88741a-2d58-11e3-9a28-001a4bcf6878.html (accessed May 1, 2014).
Locust Dell Academy operated in Florence from 1834 to 1843. The all-girls school was owned and operated by Nicholas Marcellus Hentz and his wife Caroline Lee Hentz. Subjects taught included reading, math, composition, and painting. The name Locust Dell came from the grove of locust trees the school resided in. The school continued to operate after the Hentz's left Florence in 1843. The Florence Synodical Female College absorbed Locust Dell in 1855. Unfortunately, the original building burned down in 1929. The school was located where the University of North Alabama's Willingham Hall stands today.
Text: William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 80. Elizabeth Walter. “Locust Dell Turned Girls” The Picture, Florence, Alabama, January 4, 1973. Images: University of North Alabama Archives and Special Collections
Also known as Mapleton, the two and a half story frame house was placed on the National Register in 1981 for its significance in terms of architecture. The Federal style house sits on one of the highest lots in Florence overlooking both the central business district to the east and the Tennessee River to the south. Though the property’s address is 420 South Pine Street the house faces Limestone Street and the Tennessee River. According to the 1981 nomination the house is an outstanding northern Alabama interpretation of the Federal style with notable examples of delicate Adamesque mantles, finely carved woodwork in the double drawing rooms, and identical semi elliptical fanlights over double doorways leading to the central hall. Inspiration for much of the detailing appears to be popular standard builder’s handbooks. The 1825-1830 house was home to many prominent Florentines. The first, George Coulter, a native of Kentucky, was a lawyer, farmer, and military officer. The house passed to Dr. Levi Todd in the 1850s at which time it was known as Todd’s Hill. During the Civil War the house was used by both Federal and Confederate commands. After the was the house was owned by Major Robert McFarland, a local attorney, and later by Dr. W.W. Slaton during which time the house was renamed Mapleton in honor of Mrs. Slaton’s childhood home. During the Slatons ownership a doctor’s office was added to the east elevation and the matching front and rear porches were changed. The 1981 nomination states that no other major changes were made. The current (2015) façade of the house is almost totally obscured by massive Magnolia trees but the house appears to have no major exterior changes since the nomination. However the nomination was written 34 years ago and updates are needed to the nomination.
Gamble, Robert. “George Coulter House National Register of Historic Places.” Montgomery: Alabama Historical Commission, 1981.
National Register of Historic Places; Lustron Houses of Alabama Multi-Property Nomination; Architecture; Florence, AL
The E.H. Darby Lustron House at 321 Beverly Avenue was built in 1949. The one story 2 bedroom house is a Westchester model and features 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, a galley kitchen with large utility space, a dining alcove and front living room with a built in bookcase. The house still has its original oval metal Lustron identification plaque with the serial number #1396. The Lustron Corporation manufactured prefabricated steel and enameled paneled homes to meet the housing demands created by returning soldiers from World War II. The Columbus, Ohio based company operated between 1946 and 1950 and built 2,495 houses in a retooled Curtis-Wright airplane parts factory. The closed system factory constructed all 3,000 components of the house from steel and packaged the parts directly on specialized truck beds designed to hold and deliver one Lustron House. Lustron Houses, like the automobile they so closely resembled, were sold by local franchised dealers. The company had no problem recruiting dealers and provided the nationwide network with a training and education center. Building crews were offered training at the Lustron Service School in Columbus. Dealers did suffer from territory disrupts, uncertain funding sources, local building code inconsistencies, and slow order delivery. In 1950 with accolades and praise from homeowners and the architectural and building community, financial problems and slow production rates forced the Lustron Corporation to close. In Alabama Lustron Houses are closely associated with the local North Alabama South Tennessee dealer, the Southern Sash Company. The Southern Sash Company’s parent company Union Aluminum of Sheffield produced the aluminum frame windows for the Lustron Corporation. Company records as of December 31, 1949 displayed shipments for 15 houses in Alabama. The 2000 multi-property nomination “Lustron Houses in Alabama” lists 9 surviving houses – 5 of which are in the Muscle Shoals area; 2 in Sheffield and 3 in Florence. All the houses in Florence are the most common plan, the two bedroom deluxe Westchester plan. This property was listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 for its significance in terms of architecture and engineering. The same year it was also listed as part of a multiple property nomination “Lustron Houses in Alabama”. Information for this Omeka entry was found in the individual and multi-property nomination.
Ford, Gene A., Susan Enzweiler and Trina Binkley. “Bowen, William House – Lustron House”. National Register of Historic Places. Montgomery: Alabama Historic Commission, 2000. Ford, Gene A., Trina Binkley. “Lustron Houses in Alabama.” National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Nomination. Montgomery: Alabama Historical Commission, 2000.
Sallie Independence Foster, Civil War Florence
Sallie Independence Foster was born on October 28, 1848, in Nashville, Tennessee. She was the youngest child of George Washington Foster and Sarah Independence Watkins Foster. From the age of seven she lived in Courtview, a mansion that is now named Rogers Hall, located at the end of North Court Street in Florence. Sallie’s best friend during her childhood was Julia O’Neal, the daughter of Alabama Governor Edward A. O’Neal. Sallie Foster kept diaries throughout the Civil War and later years that offer insight into life in Florence. Her first diary begins in June of 1861 when she was twelve years old. While the 1861 diary does not mention the Civil War often or with much detail, a later diary discusses the movement of Confederate and Union troops in Florence. Other subjects covered in her diary include Florence area stores, doctors, and people, as well as church. Today, these diaries are part of UNA’s Archives and Special Collections. Sallie graduated from Florence Synodical School and married Sterling Paine McDonald on February 9, 1870. They moved to Arkansas for several years, but returned to Florence to visit her family many times. Sallie, her husband Sterling, and their six children moved to Florence and into Courtview in 1886. Sterling McDonald was sick for many years and died on April 4, 1897. Sallie Independence Foster McDonald passed away on December 2, 1897.
Robert S. Steen, History of Foster House- Courtview- Rogers Hall and Early City of Florence . Florence: University of North Alabama, No Date, 20, 49, 59-60. Sallie Independence Foster Diary, 1861. Unpublished, University of North Alabama Archives and Special Collections. Images of Sallie Independence Foster and her diary are courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives Image of Courtview/ Rogers Hall Courtesy of Kayla Scott
National Register of Historic Places; Lustron House; Architecture; Florence, AL
The William Bowen House at 1145 Wildwood Park Road was built in 1949 and nominated to the National Register for its significance to architecture. The one story two bedroom Lustron House is a metal prefabricated house clad in enameled steel in two foot by two foot panels. The side gable roof is also covered in enameled steel panels designed to look like tile. The interior wall and ceiling also covered in the enameled panels are original as are the built in bookshelves, vanity, and closets. At the time of the National Register nomination in 2000 most of the interior was unchanged. The Lustron Corporation manufactured prefabricated steel and enameled paneled homes to meet the housing demands created by returning soldiers from World War II. The Columbus, Ohio based company operated between 1946 and 1950 and built 2,495 houses in a retooled Curtis-Wright airplane parts factory. The closed system factory constructed all 3,000 components of the house from steel and packaged the parts directly on specialized truck beds designed to hold and deliver one Lustron House. Lustron Houses, like the automobile they so closely resembled, were sold by local franchised dealers. The company had no problem recruiting dealers and provided the nationwide network with a training and education center. Building crews were offered training at the Lustron Service School in Columbus. Dealers did suffer from territory disrupts, funding sources, local building code inconsistencies, and slow order delivery. In 1950 with accolades and praise from homeowners and the architectural and building community, financial problems and slow production rates forced the Lustron Corporation to close. In Alabama Lustron Houses are closely associated with the local North Alabama South Tennessee dealer, the Southern Sash Company. The Southern Sash Company’s parent company Union Aluminum of Sheffield produced the aluminum frame windows for the Lustron Corporation. Company records as of December 31, 1949 displayed shipments for 15 houses in Alabama. The 2000 multi-property nomination for Lustron Houses in Alabama lists 9 surviving houses – 5 of which are in the Muscle Shoals area; 2 in Sheffield and 3 in Florence. All the houses in Florence are the most common plan, the two bedroom deluxe Westchester plan. This property was listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 for its significance in terms of architecture and engineering. The same year Nomiit was also listed as part of a multiple property nomination “Lustron Houses in Alabama”. Information for this Omeka entry was found in the individual and multi-property nomination.
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)
The WWI Memorial Amphitheater on the University of North Alabama's campus is a common gathering place of students. In 1919, Mrs. Susan J, Price, a professor in the department of geography, recognized the need for a formal stage and a memorial to the six students of State Normal School that did not return home from WWI. Her original design consisted of a half enclosed dome supported by six pillars to represent the six students. Although the finished amphitheater did not follow Mrs. Price's original plan, the structure still stood as a memorial to those six students lost in WWI. The amphitheater was completed in 1934.
Text: Doris Kelso, "A History of the UNA Memorial Amphitheater," Journal of Muscle Shoals History VI, (1978); 135-38. Images: University of North Alabama Archives and Special Collections
National Register of Historic Places; Florence, AL
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 Italianate commercial structure as constructed in small Alabama towns. Italianate styled buildings were introduced in the northeastern United States as early as the 1840s and quickly spread to other cities across the country becoming one of the most popular styles by 1860. The trend continued more slowly into the less populated areas of the country and remained popular through the early 20th century. The Southall Drug building is sited on a dominant commercial corner in downtown Florence and exemplifies the Italianate architectural style with heavy reddish-brown brick walls laid in running bond with matching mortar and arched windows separated on the second floor by brick pilasters. Though the two original heavy metal cornices, located above and below the pilasters, are missing the building still retains the feel of an Italianate structure in part because the parapet located around the front corner of the building is reminiscent of the typical Italianate tower. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic places in 1980 and more information on the property can be obtained in the National Register nomination. All information and photos for this Omeka entry were found in the nomination.
Mertins, Ellen and Harvie Jones. National Register Nomination. "Southall Drugs" (#80000699) (8/21/80).
National Register of Historic Places; Education; Florence, AL
National Register of Historic Places - F.T. Appleby Junior High School – originally Coffee High School – 319 Hermitage Drive Florence, AL Nomination still listed with the state and on the NPS data base –building destroyed in the 1980s. Now part of UNA.
National Register of Historic Places (#82002045)
National Register of Historic Places Downtown Florence
National Register of Historic Places - Rogers Department Store 117 Court Street Florence, Alabama Rogers Department Store began on the site in 1894 as the Surprise Store founded by B.A. Rogers and his sons T.M. and B.A. Jr. The early business was known for its use of clearly marked price tags which was unusual in the area during the time period. The current building dates from 1910 and incorporates an extensive remodel in 1944-48. The building is significant to the downtown Florence commercial district as the most prominent commercial building in North Alabama for numerous years and its continuing prominence in the downtown historic district to date. It is also unique because it has been continuously owned by the same family since its conception in 1894. The current building is also significant as a rare example of the Art Deco architectural style in the Florence area. Another good example is the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library built in 1948 and located on Wood Avenue. The 1944-48 (Art Deco) remodel of the 1910 two story brick building was designed by the Memphis based architectural firm of Hulsey and Hall and represents the building trend of simple streamlined facades with minimal detailing and flexible configuration of interior spaces. Rogers Department Store was one of the first stores in northern Alabama to install elevators and central air conditioning. The building was listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places in 1998, more information can be found in the National Register nomination on the Park Service’s data base. Stancell, Pat and Trina Binkley. National Register Nomination "Rogers Department Store" (#98001025) (8/14/98).
National Register of Historic Places (#98001025)
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.
George Washington Foster was born on November 28, 1806, in Nashville, Tennessee. On January 10, 1829, he married Sarah Independence Watkins. They had seven children: Mary Ann, Virginia (Jennie), Watkins (Wat), Louisa (Lou), George Washington Jr. (Wash), Andrew J. (Jack) and Sallie. Foster was a wealthy industrialist and planter, a fact illustrated by his large and extravagant home, Courtview. Courtview, now known as the University of North Alabama’s Rogers Hall, was built for Foster in 1854. Foster had decided he wanted to build a house in the middle of Court Street, turning Florence’s main street into a dead end. An act of the state legislature and $300 granted Foster his building site. Foster also owned Woodland Plantation in the Colbert Reserve in Lauderdale County, and a plantation named Oak Grove. Foster donated $10,000 to La Grange College toward construction of Wesleyan Hall. This was a third of the total cost. He also contributed heavily to the Methodist church in Florence, of which he was member. Foster later served as President of the Board of Trustees for Wesleyan college. He made a sizable endowment to the college for mathematics. Foster did not serve in the Confederate Army during the war, but he assisted with recruiting soldiers and raising money for the cause. When William T. Sherman visited the area, he encountered bushwhackers and cited Foster as being one of them. Foster was even arrested by Union forces once, but was released within a few days. He spent most of the war on his plantations, while his wife and family stayed at Courtview. Foster died on December 4, 1878, and is buried in the Florence Cemetery.
Robert S. Steen, History of Foster House- Courtview- Rogers Hall and Early City of Florence . Florence: University of North Alabama, No Date, 18, 26-32, 31. William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 45-46. Image of George Washington Foster Courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives Image of Courtview/Rogers Hall Courtesy Kayla Scott
After leaving her job as a music teacher at a private kindergarten in Tuscumbia, Maud McKnight Lindsay started the first free kindergarten in the state of Alabama in 1898. She taught children from the cotton mill district in East Florence. The original location was a Florence store front but the school was moved to a small cottage building across from Brandon School. The Maud Lindsay Free Kindergarten is still in operation today. Lindsay was active in the settlement house movement, traveling to Boston and New York to work. She was also a prolific children's book author and poet. The building it slated to be moved when the new hospital is built. The location is still undetermined.
Text: Elizabeth Womack McDonald. History of the Florence City schools, 1820-1967, 1900. UNA Library Catalog, EBSCOhost (accessed April 29, 2015). Anita Miller Garner, "Maud McKinght Lindsay," Encyclopedia of Alabama. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2376 Image: University of North Alabama Archives and Special Collections
Richard Rapier was one of the first settlers as well as one of the first merchants in Florence. A pioneer in the barge industry, legend names him as the first to bring a keelboat, or barge, through the river to Florence. Rapier began his business in Nashville, but resided in Florence by 1818. His business, Rapier and Company, was situated on the northeast corner of Court and Tennessee Streets in downtown Florence. Rapier later joined John Simpson, another Florence businessman in the cotton trade. Their partnership formed the company called Rapier and Simpson. Rapier eventually owned a fleet of keelboats as well as several warehouses in Florence. Besides engaging in commerce with settlers on both sides of the river, Rapier traded with the Native Americans in the area. Rapier passed away in 1826.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama.( Bluewater Publications, 2003), 21, 22, 28, 74. Jill K. Garret, History of Lauderdale County, Alabama, 1964, 220. William Lindsey McDonald, “Captain Richard Rapier: The Merchant Prince,” The Journal of Muscle Shoals History Volume I, 1973.
Zebulon Pike Morrison was born in Lexington, Virginia in 1818. He and his wife Bridget had nine children. He was the sixteenth Mayor of Florence, and served in that capacity from 1880-1890. Morrison was also an alderman for the city of Florence for thirty years. In addition, Morrison was an undertaker, and owned a distillery in Florence. He is probably most well-known for his building efforts. Wesleyan Hall, the Florence Synodical College, the Elks Building, and Patton Grammar School in Florence were all built by him. Morrison passed away in 1895 and is buried in Florence Cemetery. Morrison Avenue in Florence is named for him.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. Bluewater Publications, 2003, p. 34, 89, 91, 274. Image Courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives Jill K. Garret, History of Lauderdale County, Alabama, 1964, 213.
Statues/Monuments; Florence, AL; Native American History
This wall is known by two names: Tom Hendrix's Wall and the Wichahpi Commemorative Wall. Tom Hendrix started this wall in the 1980's after learning of his great-great grandmother's journey during the Trail of Tears. Te-lah-nay was forced to walk to Oklahoma. She never felt safe at her new home and ran away spending 5 years making her way back to the Singing River. The more than a mile long wall is made up of stones from more than 120 countries. Most of the stones come from Lauderdale County. Each stone represents one of her steps on her journey, The shape, height, and width of the wall all change to represent the trials she faced. The Wichahpi Commemorative Stone Wall is the largest monument to a Native American woman.
Visit Florence, "Tom's Wall,"http://www.visitflorenceal.com/things_to_do/toms-wall/ (Accessed April 28, 2015)
Ferdinand Sannoner was born in Leghorn, Italy, in 1793. He graduated from the French Polytechnic Institute at Paris. Sannoner worked as a surveyor for Napoleon in France. He came to America around 1816. In 1818, John Coffee appointed him to survey the area that was to become Florence. Sannoner completed the survey, and drew the town plan. He gave it the name “Florence” after the Florence, Italy of his homeland. His payment for surveying Florence was partially made in land. He received two lots on Tuscaloosa Street between Wood Avenue and Walnut Street. Sannoner worked for the Cypress Land Company for a number of years, as well as being a clerk for Lauderdale County. He and his brother operated a bakery and delicatessen on Tennessee Street as well. Sannoner and his wife moved to Memphis in 1857, and he died there in 1859. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. His grave was unmarked until 1973, when a marker was donated by James Jackson, great-grandson of the James Jackson who owned Forks of Cypress and assisted in founding Florence. The Sannoner Historic District in Downtown Florence is named in his honor.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. Bluewater Publications, 2003, p. 3, 11-12. Robert S. Steen, History of Foster House- Courtview- Rogers Hall and Early City of Florence . Florence: University of North Alabama, No Date, p. 10. Image Courtesy of UNA Collier Library Archives
John McKinley was one of seven trustees that made up the Cypress Land Company and is considered a founder of Florence, Alabama. McKinley was born on May 1, 1780, in Culpepper County, Virginia, and later moved to Kentucky. He came to Alabama around 1819 and was a resident of Florence by 1821. McKinley served in the Alabama legislature and the U.S. Senate as a representative of first Madison, and later Lauderdale County. McKinley was a founding member of the Presbyterian Church in Florence. McKinley was very influential in early education in Alabama. He was a founder of one of the first public schools in the region, and donated the land for the school that is now called Athens State University. In addition, McKinley was a member of the first board of trustees for the University of Alabama. McKinley’s most famous accomplishment came when he was appointed to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. He took the job in January of 1838, and was the first Alabamian to have the honor. He spent 14 years as a Supreme Court Justice, penning 22 opinions concerning the cases that went before the court. He was a strong advocate of states’ rights, a fact that is illustrated by his court decisions. McKinley passed away on July 19, 1852. His remains were interred in Louisville, Kentucky. Family members interred in the McKinley Cemetery in Florence were moved to Louisville, Kentucky several years later. McKinley’s seat on the Supreme Court was given to John Archibald Campbell, who was also from Alabama.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), 2, 9. Robert Saunders, “John McKinley,” Encyclopedia of Alabama. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2052#sthash.iHyCkfy1.dpuf
From downtown Florence take Cloverdale Road (State Highway 157), go for about 2 miles, turn left about 50 yards after crossing Cox Creek. A historical marker can be seen here (about General John Coffee and the War of 1812) at the entrance to the property. Continue on Cloverdale Rd. until you pass a CVS Pharmacy. Take a left at the first red light and the cemetery will be on the left. The cemetery is enclosed by a brick wall about 4 feet high and is about 100 feet by 100 feet in area. As far as can be determined, there are 64 graves inside of the wall, 20 of these are of the marble vault type tombs, 4 are of marble slab type, 8 are marble vertical or perpendicular type, and 6 are stones with no engravings at all. Maintenance of the cemetery has increased (Florence Historical Board) and the trees have been cleared so it is now easily accessible. The cemetery is located next to recently constructed Walmart. General John Coffee lies among his family and close friends in this cemetery. The high brick wall that encloses the cemetery was constructed in 1924 to protect the site. On the marble stone above Coffee's grace are these words prepared by his friend, President Andrew Jackson: “Sacred to the Memory of General John Coffee who departed this life on the 7th day of July, 1833, age sixty-one years. As a husband, parent, and friend, he was affectionate, tender, and sincere. He was a brave, prompt, and skillful general, a disinterested and sagacious patriot, an unpretending and honest man. To complete his character, religion mingled with these virtues her serene and holy influence gave him that solid distinction among his fellow men which detraction cannot sully nor the grave conceal. Death could do no more than removed so excellent a being from the theatre he so much adorned in this world, to the bosom of the God who created him and who alone has the power to reward the immortal spirit with exhaustless bliss.” There are also over 130 slave burials outside of the walled cemetery. The Florence Historical Board has identified these with simple stone markers. A full description of the graves can be seen here: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder/cem-coffee-John.htm
Dylan Tucker, University of North Alabama
Hill, William Q. "Coffee Cemetery." Rootsweb. March 22, 1969. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~allauder/cem-coffee-John.htm. Accessed April 12, 2015. McDonald, William L. "A Walk Through the Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama." Bluewater Publishing, 2003. 408.
This is the burial place of Lillian Cook Deibert. Lillian and her husband Kirk owned Rolling Acres Stock Farm. In 1991 their barn burned down, killing 27 of Lillian's beloved horses. She is buried at this spot located in Deibert Park right next to where her horses were buried after the fire.
Joy Favors, "Lillian Cook Deibert," http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=65540771 (Accessed April 29, 2015)
Statues/Monuments; Lauderdale County, AL
The City of Florence Walk of Honor is located next to the Marriott hotel in River Heritage Park. The city of Florence designed the Walk of Honor to recognize residents of Lauderdale County who had/have found success at the national or international level. Those fields include agriculture, art, athletics, business, education, government, literature, military, medicine, music, religion, science and technology, and public service. In 2007 16 people were inducted as the first honorees, but their monuments were not placed until 2008. Inductees include Gen. John Coffee, Caroline Lee Hentz, Thomas Stribbling, Dred Scott, and Billy Reid.
City of Florence, Alabama, "Walk of Honor,"http://www.florenceal.org/Administration/Walk_of_Honor/index.html (Accessed April 28, 2015)
James Jackson was born on October 25, 1782, in Ballybay County, Monaghan, Ireland. Jackson came to America in 1799 and moved to Nashville in 1801. Upon his arrival in Nashville, James Jackson quickly became acquainted with Andrew Jackson and John Coffee, who were members of the Tennessee Land Company. The Tennessee Company and the Alabama Company joined to form The Cypress Land Company. James Jackson was a member of the Tennessee group, and was one of the seven trustees of the Cypress Land Company. The company and its members were instrumental in founding Lauderdale County and Florence, Alabama. Jackson had the Forks of Cypress mansion built five miles outside of Florence, Alabama, and he and his wife Sally Moore McCulloch Jackson made the plantation their home. James Jackson became a member of the Alabama General Assembly in 1822. Jackson held office in both state legislative branches, and became the president of the Senate in 1830. While Jackson was president of the company, The Cypress Land Company donated the land for the Florence Female Synodical College, the Methodist, Episcopal, and Presbyterian churches, and the Lauderdale County Courthouse. Jackson is probably most famous for importing, breeding, and racing horses. Even today, winning race horses can often trace their roots back to Jackson’s stables.
William Lindsey McDonald, A Walk Through The Past: People and Places of Florence and Lauderdale County, Alabama. (Bluewater Publications, 2003), p. 11-13. Elizabeth Kirkman O’Neal, The Forks of Cypress: Home of James and Sally Moore Jackson. Waring Sherwood, 1966.