Browse Items (963 total)

  • Collection: Alabama Places and Spaces

Sheffield Land Iron and Coal.jpg
Alfred Hugler Moses, who was appointed the first mayor of Sheffield, Alabama by the governor of the state, moved to Sheffield in order to build the Sheffield Land, Iron, and Coal Company.

Moses, who had been a captain during the Civil War and a…

St. John's.jpg
St. John's Episcopal Church, in Decatur, was built in 1890. The original structure was constructed for approximately $2,000.

Through the years the building and the congregation have grown. Descendants of the first parishioners still worship at St.…

Trenholm2.jpg
Trenholm High School, which is located on Trenholm Memorial Drive, was the last African-American High School in Tuscumbia, Alabama before desegregation.

The school, which opened in 1870 and closed in 1969, was subsequently torn down.

A movement…

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The Helen Keller Birthplace, known as Ivy Green is the original home and grounds of Helen Keller's family. The home was built in 1820. It is a modest, white clapboard, Southern style home of Virginia cottage construction. There are four large rooms…

Veteran's Memorial Sheffield.jpg
The residents of Montgomery Avenue and the citizens of Sheffield, Alabama have preserved several spaces for public use on the historic street. The Veteran's Park, which is maintained by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, is the home to several monuments…

Village One1.jpg
Village One, located in Sheffield, Alabama, is a subdivision of stucco homes built around 1918. The village was designed in the shape of a handbell. At completion, the village had 112 houses, two schools, and one large apartment building. (Maud…

Athens Library.jpg
The Athens-Limestone Public Library solved two problems very creatively with their 2014 move to the old Kroger building at 603 South Jefferson Street. The old library (located near Julia Newman School) was approximately 10,000 square feet and the new…

Friendship Comm. Church.jpg
Friendship Community Church, an Evangelical Church, is located at 800 North Atlanta Avenue in Sheffield, Alabama.

Friendship Community Church is housed in what was once the first Jewish Temple in the Shoals area.

Sheffield was the home of what…

Henry Ford Muscle Shoals.jpg
Henry Ford, in 1921, wanted to buy the unfinished Wilson Dam and two nitrate plants in Muscle Shoals. The United States government was willing to sell both to a private company with the intention of producing nitrate fertilizer.
Ford's dream was to…

Tenn River Water Tower View.jpg
Montgomery Avenue, in Sheffield, Alabama, has maintained several spots along the street for the citizens of the area to enjoy the natural beauty of North Alabama. A water tower marks the end of the street and a small park with an overlook allows…

FLW inspired house.jpg
Tom Arlin Dean, an engineer who admired the Rosenbaum House in Florence very much, followed many of Frank Lloyd Wright's ideals in creating the house located at 509 Clinton Street in Athens, Alabama.

The house, which is a neighbor to two of the…

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Harvey Robbins who founded National Floor Products in Florence with his father, Stanley Robbins, in 1957, is credited with restoring downtown Tuscumbia, Alabama.

Born in Dayton, Ohio, he and his family moved to the Shoals while he was still…

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Rick Bragg, who was born on July 26, 1959, in Piedmont, Calhoun County to Charles and Margaret Bundrum Bragg, is a noted journalist, teacher, and writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for his work with the New York Times. His most lasting contribution to…

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

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

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Trenholm High School was originally founded as the Osborne Colored Academy in 1877. From there it became Tuscumbia’s Colored School, which lasted until 1921. The Tuscumbia’s Colored School changed its name to Trenholm High School in 1921. The…

Mount Zion was a Rosenwald school located in Florence, Alabama. The local community was provided a grant from Julius Rosenwald to build a school for the African American community. Like other Rosenwald schools the local community had to provide…

Cherokee High School was one of seven Rosenwald School built for African Americans in Colbert County. The Julius Rosenwald Grant provided the funds for the building. The local African American community provided the remaining funds and land for the…

This church was located close to what is now downtown Tuscumbia. The original buildings were cotton gins sheds. It has been said that these cotton gin sheds were used as a church as far back as the year 1870. The church served as a place of worship…

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The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public works relief program set up as a part of the New Deal Program. The last Company of men sent to the Muscle Shoals area in 1936 was the 4499 company. These men originally worked under the United States…

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

McD_11_69.jpg
The Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, was created by President Roosevelt as part of the New Deal. The main goals of the CCC was to reduce fire hazards, control disease, repair railroads, and prevent erosion. A CCC company located in the Muscle…

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Former members of the Church of Christ in the Ricks community originally founded the High Street Church of Christ. The congregation first met in the home of one of its members to worship. The congregation continued to grow and moved to the Art…

canecreek1.jpg
Cane Creek is a privately owned nature preserve cooperating with the Nature Conservancy of Alabama. This is a 9.1 mile out and back hiking trail near Tuscumbia. The main feature of the trail is the waterfall. The trail has a moderate hiking rating…

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Zion Church used to be an white Baptist church prior to the Civil War. During the war, the church was used as a hospital by Union troops. After the Civil War, the white parishioners no longer wanted to use the church as it had become defiled. Because…

LaGrange-College-Brochure.pdf
LaGrange College was located on LaGrange Mountain. In 1830 it became the first State chartered college in Alabama. Within two months of its opening, there were seventy students enrolled at LaGrange College. The school year lasted for ten months.…

LaGrange-College-Brochure.pdf
After LaGrange College moved to Florence in January 1856, a group of LaGrange citizens organized a college in the vacant buildings under the old name, LaGrange. To increase patronage, a military feature was introduced in 1857. The college reopened in…

LaGrange-College-Brochure.pdf
Recall LaGrange is an annual living history festival at the LaGrange College and Military Academy site. The living history recalls the days and life around LaGrange College and Military Academy, from the cadets of the academy and organization of…

The Tuscumbia Female Academy was also known as the Tuscumbia Female Seminary. It was established around 1825-26, as a means of education for women. The Academy was destroyed by arson between 2 and 3 a.m. on the morning of September 13, 1868. It was…

Deshler Female_AA5-1.jpg
The Deshler Female Institute was named in memory of Brigadier General James Deshler. The land and building, previously a home, was donated on December 6, 1871 by James Deshler’s father, Major David Deshler. David wanted to donate the land and home…

Deshler High School was built in 1924 on the location of the former Deshler Female Institute. The school lasted until 1950 when the city opened the present Deshler High School on the site of the antebellum Winston plantation located across the…

The current Deshler High School was opened in 1950 on the site of the antebellum Winston plantation located across the Commons from the Deshler Stadium. In 1954, Tuscumbia added a cafeteria, auditorium, and Junior High building. In 1966, work began…

New Bethel Elementary is part of the Colbert County School System. New Bethel was built on its present site in 1915. The original structure was a two room wood constructed building. The original building burned in February, 1924. A new building was…

Cherokee High School was founded in 1925 as Cherokee Vocational High School as it was the first designated vocational school in Colbert County.  The original high school building was located where the current gymnasium stands. As the school…

Northwest-Shoals Community College was formed in 1993 by the Alabama State Board of Education through the merger of Northwest Alabama Community College's Phil Campbell Campus and Shoals Community College. The merger was enacted in order to provide…

The history of Colbert County High School dates back to the year 1910. The school is located in the historic town of Leighton, Alabama, which is located in eastern Colbert County at the intersection of U.S. Highway 72 and Colbert County Highway 48.…

Leighton Training School before.jpg
Leighton Training School was a trade school established with the help of a grant provided by Julius Rosenwald. Like other Rosenwald schools, the African American community was required to raise additional funds for the school to be built. The African…

In December of 1938 the small school of Melrose at the foot of Colbert Mountain burned.  Interim classes were held at Colbert Heights Baptist Church until construction was complete at the present site of Colbert Heights High School. The name was…

In December of 1938 the small school of Melrose, at the foot of Colbert Mountain, burned.  Interim classes were held at Colbert Heights Baptist Church while the new school located at the present site of Colbert Heights High School was built.  The…

USACE_Wilson_Lock_and_Dam.jpg
Wilson Dam Lake was created from the damming of the Tennessee River by the construction of the Wilson Dam. The lake's normal elevation is 505 feet. The average depth is 97 feet. The distance of the backwater upstream is 17 miles and the area of the…

The Howell & Graves Junior High School was designed by architect Harry J. Frahn and built in 1927 in the neoclassical style and the neo-Tudor Gothic tradition, symbolically associated with the Ivy League schools. Decorative brick work, which…

Caney Creek Chickasaw School was a Native American school that was originally founded by Presbyterian ministers. The school officially opened January 15, 1827 and was located on Red Rock Rd five miles away from Cherokee on the McWilliams' property.…

In 1975, The Muscle Shoals Board of Education conducted a needs assessment in conjunction with the Alabama State Department of Education to determine the business and industry employment needs in the Shoals area.  As a result of the needs assessment…

At its opening in 1970, the current MSMS building housed grades nine through twelve.  These grades remained in this building until 1999 when the new high school was built.  Middle school students previously attended McBride Middle School (now…

Lesley Temple CME church is a Methodist church first formed in 1880 under Pastor Lesley. The church was first located at a site called Gin Hill on what used to be Highway 43. The church was rebuilt in 1927. Because building paper which was placed on…

The Muscle Shoals Street Rod Festival is held every year in Spring Park, Tuscumbia, Alabama. It is a show of over 200 gleaming street rods and classics dating from 1972 and older. The festival is held on the 1st Sat. in June. Admission is free.

The African Heritage Festival provides an opportunity to explore African culture – art, fashion, craft, music, dance, food. It is held annually on the 1st Saturday in June. Admission is free. The event is held at the Willie Green Center at 609 S.…

This popular festival pays tribute to America’s “First Lady of Courage” with four days of activities: parade, fine art & craft show, art exhibits, Keller Kids, staged musical entertainment, history programs and tours, two performances of “The…

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The powerhouse controls Wilson Dam. The building is connected parallel to the dam on the south side. It houses the generating machinery for producing electricity from the dammed water. It also controls the overflow water flowing out of Wilson lake.…

Oka Kapassa festival is a festival held every year to remember the Native American presence in Tuscumbia. The festival is allows visitors to learn about Native American culture both past and present during. The festival is free to the public on both…

Ococoposa, also known as Cold Water, was the site of a French trading post and was the home of Chickasaws and the Cherokees. The Chickasaw’s lived at the top of a hill near the Ocacapoosa spring. The Cherokees lived in the western portion of the…
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