Browse Items (963 total)

To reach the Rhodesville Methodist Church Cemetery, turn right in Rhodesville onto County Road #189. Go about .5 miles to the cemetery. It is located behind the church. The cemetery has a record of 136 records.

A list of graves is located in the…

General John Coffee was a Federal surveyor who did work in Tennessee and Alabama and is known as one of the founders of Florence, Alabama. Born on June 2, 1772, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Coffee moved to Tennessee as a young man. As a…

Alexander Donelson Coffee was a Confederate veteran of the Civil War and a planter and manufacturer in Florence. He was born on June 3, 1821, to General John Coffee and Mary Donelson Coffee. He attended the Lorance school in Florence, and the…

Kilby Laboratory School was founded in 1922 as a part of Florence State Normal School. The school originally occupied what is now the University Of North Alabama Mathematics Building. Classes were conducted in this location until the fall of 1964…

The Wilson Dam Replica is located on the corner of Mobile and Seminary Streets in front of Legends Steakhouse in downtown Florence, Alabama. The replica dam is engraved with each name of the quad cities: Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…