Browse Items (963 total)

The Florence Times was the predecessor of the current newspaper for Lauderdale County, The Times-Daily. The Florence Times began in the nineteenth century by the O’Neal family. The O’Neal family of Florence produced multiple governors of Alabama…

The federal building is located at the corner of Seminary and Tombigbee and its address is 210 North Seminary Street, Florence, Alabama. The building is currently named in honor of Alabama’s first Supreme Court Justice, John McKinley. The United…

Hill Auto Company, located on the southwest side of the traffic circle at Royal Avenue and Huntsville Road, is believed to be the second filling and service station built in Florence. The owner of the service station, Fred Hill, also ran the Hill…

The Hotel Negley was one of the more modern hotels built in the early twentieth century in downtown Florence. The Hotel Negley was constructed on the empty lot of the former Jefferson Hotel in 1925 after the Jefferson Hotel caught fire in the early…

The Hotel Reeder was a staple of downtown Florence during the early twentieth century. The location of the Hotel Reeder was on Tennessee Street, and the hotel was so large that it covered an entire block. The three-story brick building had a…

The Jefferson Hotel was a massive building for turn of the twentieth century Florence. At three-stories it was a towering downtown business. The Jefferson Hotel opened up for business in 1902 just a short distance away from the Lauderdale County…

The Florence Hotel was constructed by The Florence Land, Mining, and Manufacturing Company, the company owned by Judge William Basil Wood, the father of the Sweetwater and Florence Industrial Boom. W.B. Wood had quite an impact in Florence since he…

The Lamar Furniture building in downtown Florence has a unique past considering it once held the old Florence Hotel and was the meeting place of the civic group the Knights of Pythias. The Lamar Furniture building’s location was on Court Street…

The First National Bank in downtown Florence had connections to one of the more powerful Northern transplants to the Florence area in founder, Nial C. Elting. Elting, one of the founding partners of the Cherry Cotton Mill in Sweetwater, was a…

Milner’s Drug Store was an important part of the downtown Florence area stretching back before the Civil War. The founder of Milner’s Drug Store, Joseph Milner, was an adventurous man who made his home in Florence in 1852 after returning from the…

The Rogers Bros. Surprise Store, eventually Department Store, was a retail fixture in downtown Florence from the late 1890s to the early 2000s. Opened in 1894 as the Surprise Store in downtown Florence by Major B.A. Rogers and his sons, the Surprise…

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

Located in Montgomery Alabama, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church is most known for being at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement and being led by then pastor, Martin Luther King Jr. However the church had a long history, going back…

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

The Hoover Crescent Islamic center is one of the three branches of the Birmingham Islamic Society (BIS). The BIS started in 1990 when local Muslims in the Birmingham area were looking for a common place to worship. In the following years, the BIS…

Located in Mobile, the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was consecrated in December of 1850, fifteen years after the first cornerstone had been laud. Father Michael Portier was the leader in the construction of the cathedral after…

Ahavas Chesed was founded in 1894. In 1911, the community moved to its first building at the corner of Conti and Warren streets. In 1956, the location was moved across the street to Dauphin street. The congregation would move to its present location…

In Cullman, the Ave Maria Grotto is a collection of miniature replicas of shrines and other buildings. The Grotto is located on the grounds of the Saint Bernard Abbey. The Grotto was created by Brother Jespeh Zoettel, a monk originally from Bavaria…

The Anniston Islamic Center (AIC) is a non-profit organization that serves the Islamic educational and social needs of Muslims on Northeast Alabama. The mission of the AIC is to promote brotherhood, peace, and family values in the Muslim community.…

Originally the local Muslim community in Huntsville practiced Islam in their own homes. However as the community grew, it consolidated and purchased to houses in Huntsville to practice their faith. Around 1990-1991, 1645 Sparkman Drive was purchased…

In 1996, the Islamic Academy of Alabama (IAA) was founded in order to provide an Islamic education to Muslim children in the greater Birmingham area. The IAA uses Islamic education to encourage moral behavior, rigorous academics, and social awareness…

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

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

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

In 1898, the Marble City Cemetery officially opened after the city of Sylacauga bought one acre from James T. Persons. Although there are earlier marked graves, it was originally a burial ground for the Pearson family. The original deed, notarized by…

Davis Cemetery was the first cemetery in East Walker County. It is located behind where the Old White Church (Dora Second Baptist) now stands. The gravestones in this cemetery date back to the earliest settlers. In 1888, Louisa Hoover, wife of Daniel…

In 1865, the Historical Monumental Association of Alabama (HMAA) decided to request $5000 from the Alabama state legislature in order to build a marble monument dedicated to the 122,000 Alabamians who fought for the Confederacy during the American…

In 1914, Margaret Booth opened the Margaret Booth School as a college preparatory school for girls. This school occurred in Booth’s home. Margaret Booth was a longtime proponent of women’s education after receiving her own education in Montgomery…

Holy Rosary Catholic Church began as a mission church out of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Mass was offered in the parishioner’s homes. Most of the parishioners worked in limestone quarries, iron ore mines, and iron manufacturing plants. In 1889,…

In 1838, the Allen family arrived in Alabama in the area known as Lisman. The Allen family built one of the largest plantations in Choctaw County that continues to thrive to this day. Over the years the plantation expanded to over 8000 acres. The…

In the community of Green Pond in Bibb County, a complex of 4.5 acres houses the Green Pond Presbyterian Church and Cemetery. The church dates back from 1884. Behind the church building is a cemetery dating from the time of the construction. Over 650…

The Hope Well Church was established in 1864. The church was a foundation for the black community. Originally African-American and Caucasian-American congregants worshiped together in the time but over time African-Americans asked for a place to…

The Creagh Family Cemetery is believed to have been established in 1826 after the death of the patriarch’s fourth son. Over the years, many Creagh family members were interred at the cemetery including the patriarch, Thomas Bevin Creagh. Mr. Creagh…

The Washington Church was established in 1883; however, the present church building was not built until 1916. The building itself is a one room church, common in the rural south. The church is one of the few remaining that were built in the 19th…

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

The Sardis Baptist Church is one of the oldest Baptist church building still standing in Alabama. The church was constructed after Greek Revival architecture. Because of the buildings condition, the church is currently inactive.

The church was…

Tubbs Cemetery is adjacent to the Tubbs Church of Christ. The oldest markers date back to burials in the Tubbs family as early as 1842. The patriarch of the family, Daniel Tubbs, had enlisted in the war of 1812 and fought in the Battle of New…

The Ramah Baptist Church was constructed around 1840. The interior of the church is one large room with two columns in the pew area. In 1857 Solomon G. and Frances T. Burke gave the deed for the present building and cemetery. During the civil war,…

The present building of the First United Methodist Church was built in 1914 although the congregation dates back almost a hundred years prior. The Methodist church is the oldest church in Jasper, Alabama with the first formal organization occurring…

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

On October 7, 2002, University of North Alabama had the ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony for the brand new lion habitat. The habitat was named after a long time contributor to the university, George H. Carroll. After the death of the previous…

Located right next door to 2310 Taylor Street, 2312 Taylor Street is a one-story stucco façade building located in the heart of downtown Guntersville, Alabama. This building is more rectangular in shape on the façade, whereas, 2310 Taylor was…

A commercial building located in downtown Guntersville, Alabama, 2316 Taylor Street is a brick building with two stories and a flat roof. The original construction of the building dates to the mid-1930s as a one-story commercial building. The…

A two-story brick building located in downtown Guntersville, Alabama that was utilized as a retail establishment, but now looks unused. The building is the largest located on Taylor Street. The construction of the building dates to the early 1930s…

Compared to the other buildings located on Taylor Street in downtown Guntersville, Alabama, this is a relatively new building. Constructed in the early 1950s with brick and concrete blocks, the building is easily twenty to thirty years newer than…

Before the city of Florence, Alabama gained renown for its world famous Florence Wagon Works, the wagon company operated in the area of Atlanta, Georgia. One reason why the company moved to Florence was the infrastructure of industry within the…

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…

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…

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…

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…