Browse Items (963 total)

  • Collection: Alabama Places and Spaces

Sallie Independence Foster (standing) Graduation Photo.jpg
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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Edward A. O’Neal was born on September 20, 1818, in Madison County, Alabama. His parents were Edward and Rebecca Wheat O’Neal. O’Neal graduated from La Grange College and worked as a lawyer in Florence. He served as a solicitor of the Fourth…

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The son of Edward A. O’Neal, Emmet O’Neal was the thirty-sixth governor of Alabama and a resident of Lauderdale County. He served as governor from 1911-1915. Emmet O’Neal was born on September 6, 1853, in Florence, Alabama. After graduating…

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Robert Miller Patton was one of five Lauderdale County residents to serve as governor of Alabama. Patton was born in Virginia in 1809. He and his parents came to Alabama in 1818 and he took up residence in Florence in 1829. In 1832, he became a…

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Florence, Alabama’s first official City Historian was William Lindsey McDonald, a man who did much to research, preserve, and promote local history. Born in 1927, Mr. McDonald served in the U.S. Army for thirty-eight years before retiring with the…

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George Lindsey was born on December 17, 1928 in Fairfield, Alabama, and grew up in Jasper, Alabama. Lindsey became interested in acting after watching a play when he was fourteen. He later became interested in football and the sport gave him a way…

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The Rosenbaum House was built in 1939-1940 with a price tag of approximately $14,000. The Rosenbaum House is located in Florence and serves as the only example of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in Alabama. Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum were the…

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The Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts serves as an art gallery and hosts workshops and classes. The Center for the Arts is also the headquarters for the Florence museums.
April 1, 1976 marked the opening of the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the…

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The Edith Newman Culver Museum features Native American items, Civil War artifacts, and items used by previous owners of the house. The museum also discusses history associated with the town of Waterloo. The house museum is located near the Trail…

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Pope’s Tavern Museum has been the site of a stagecoach stop, an inn, and a tavern, besides serving as a private residence. The city of Florence acquired the building in 1965, and it has been used as a museum since that time. The museum’s site…

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The W. C. Handy Home and Museum located in Florence is dedicated to telling the story of “Father of the Blues” William Christopher Handy’s life and musical career. The museum’s main building is the cabin Handy was born in. The home was in a…

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The University of North Alabama’s Archives and Special Collections is located on the second floor of Collier Library on UNA’s campus. The archives’ primary goal is the collection and preservation of records regarding the University of North…

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The Florence-Lauderdale County Veterans Memorial was dedicated during a Veterans Day ceremony on May 30, 1977. The memorial serves to honor all Lauderdale County veterans of all wars. The memorial’s location was originally named Point Park, but…

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Originally owned by James Jackson, one of Florence’s founding fathers, the Forks of Cypress was one of the earliest Greek Revival homes built in Alabama. The home featured a temple-type veranda supported by massive columns that surrounded the…

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The Children’s Museum of the Shoals is located on Darby Drive in Florence and is part of Deibert Park. The museum offers hands-on exhibits, which allow children of different ages to explore the arts, science, and the history and culture of the…

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The Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area (MSNHA) encompasses the six counties of North Alabama’s Tennessee River water basin, which includes Lauderdale County. An act of Congress established the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area in 2009. Since…

The Tennessee Valley Historical Society (TVHS) was established in 1923. Since that time, TVHS has served to educate the public and promote the region’s local history. The Journal of Muscle Shoals History is published by TVHS, and includes…

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

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

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

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

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Annual festival celebrating local food, music, and crafts.

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

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

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Oral interview of Leon Vandiver recorded by Keith S. Hebert in December 2016 for the Montgomery County Historical Society as part of their Alabama Bicentennial commemorations. The interview was conducted at Vandiver's home in Montgomery, Alabama. To…

Historic one story home originally built in 1930 ca. The home was updated in ca. 1985. The home style is for a single family. It includes a brick foundation, vinyl siding, a garage, and an attached porch.

This historic one story home was built in 1920 ca. It was updated in ca. 1965. The home is a craftsman style that includes a brick foundation, a recessed and full facade porch, and novelty/drop siding.

A historic one story home built in 1952 and updated in ca. 2000. This ranch style home includes a brick foundation and walls, and an entry porch. The single family home is in good condition.

Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church began in 1854 under the name Rocky Ridge Cumberland Presbyterian Church, near the current facilities of Briarwood Presbyterian Church. AVPC moved to its current facilities in 1912 as the result of a church split…

Killian Cemetery Records at Findagrave.comKillian Cemetery Records USgenweb Archives

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GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 33.21580, Longitude: -86.55420Johnson Cemetery Listing on Findagrave.comJohnson Cemetery Listing on Rootsweb

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The Columbiana City Cemetery represents over 200 years of history in the Shelby County area. Many recognized names are interred in this old cemetery and deserve to be remembered. In 2006 Eagle Scout Robert Justice took on the major task of logging…

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…

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…

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David Lindsay was born 1750 in Washington County, Pennsylvania and died 1835 in Shelby County, Alabama.  He was a private in the American Revolutionary War and a pioneer settler of Shelby County.  He married Mary Casey and they had twelve…

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Notes from the Teague Memoirs of Shelby County tell of a man who lived on this side of the river at McGowan’s Ferry (just south of the site of the SEGCO Steam Plant). He had an understanding with an Indian friend on the Talladega County side. The…

In October of 1896, the Alabama Girls’ Industrial School opened its doors to some 150 young women from all parts of the state. They had come to participate in a great experiment, in an innovation in education for Alabama. They had come to be…

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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,…

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The landscape photograph is of the summer time construction at the United States Nitrate Plant Number Two. The photograph shows several facilities under construction at the time and each are marked on the photograph.

The history of the nitrate…

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The Kiddy Hotel/House was the primary hotel for the Sweetwater area of east Florence at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The proprietors of the Kiddy Hotel were the husband and wife couple of James and Harriet Adair Kiddy. …

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The Philadelphia Furnace was located on Sweetwater Creek to the south of present day Veterans Drive. Originally owned by the father of the Sweetwater boom, Judge William Basil Wood, the furnace was known as the W.B. Wood Furnace in 1889. The W.B.…

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William McDonald Richardson owned the Richardson Lumber Company. Richardson had served as the first manager of the Acme Lumber Company. The Richardson Lumber Company was located on Sweetwater Creek on Huntsville Road between Sweetwater Avenue and…

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The Foundry/Florence Stove and Manufacturing Company played an important role in the history of the Sweetwater area of Florence, and as of today, the remnants of their factory still operates under a partnership of former employees as the Martin Stove…

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Sweetwater Mill has a relationship to the Sweetwater area because it is an old part of the Cherry Cotton Mill plant. The J.T. Flagg Knitting Company purchased the mill after the conclusion of World War II because the company was looking to expand…

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Another lumber company located in the downtown Florence area, W.E. Temple Company and Planning Mills was a fixture in Florence at the beginning of the twentieth century. W.E. Temple was well known for his architectural ability because he constructed…

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The Tennessee Valley Fertilizer Company is another company that the Ashcraft family of Florence either owned or had a stake in. In 1897, a year before he founded the Florence Cotton Oil Company, Lee Ashcraft founded and incorporated the Tennessee…
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