Browse Items (1458 total)

History of Shieffield.jpg
A historic marker, located on North Montgomery Avenue ad 3rd Street in Sheffield, offers a brief overview of Sheffield's history. Alfred Huger Moses, who was from Charleston, South Carolina and who had served in the Confederate Army, is credited…

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The Special Collections and Archives at Collier Library at the University of North Alabama include many locally published manuscripts about the establishment of the cities of Florence, Tuscumbia, Sheffield, and Muscle Shoals.

The Rosenbaum Family…

Capt. Keller's Paper.jpg
The North Alabamian and Times, now the Standard and Times and the Colbert County Reporter, was published by Captain Arthur H. Keller (who may now be better known as Helen Keller's father). Local Jewish merchants routinely advertised with Captain…

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Dub's Burgers was opened in 1961 by Dub Greenhaw and has been in the family for three generations. The current owner, Lanier Greenhaw, is the great-nephew of the founder.

Located at 204 South Jefferson Street, the restaurant is low-keyed and…

Jason Isbell.jpg
(Michael) Jason Isbell, who was born on February 1st, 1979, in Greenhill, Alabama (two miles from the Alabama-Tennessee state line) is an Alabama musician and songwriter whose work very much embodies a distinctive sense of place.

He grew up in…

Rural arts studio.jpg
The Rural Arts Studio, based in Newbern, Alabama, is a design-build architecture studio run by Auburn University. The studio was founded in 1993 by architects Samuel Mockbee and D. K. Ruth, and Andrew Freear is the current director.

The Rural…

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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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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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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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Trinity School, Athens, Al.png
The Trinity School Cistern, which is located on Market Street near the railroad track in Athens, Alabama, is the last remnant of the Trinity School.

Trinity School, which was in operation from 1865 to 1997, was a school for the children of…

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…

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.…

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…

Ritz1.jpg
The Ritz Theatre, which was built as a playhouse opened on July 9. 1928, with the production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."

Louis Rosenbaum, a prominent Jewish business owner who lived in Florence and who owned a chain of movie theaters in North…

Harris Pryor house.jpg
Limestone County, Alabama; Tanner, Alabama; Harris-Pryor House; Antebellum Trail;

Athens Church.jpg
Athens First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1829. After meeting an interdenominational building, the church was built on Washington Street.

The building was badly damaged during the Civil War and the Presbyterians met at the First Baptist…

The Factory.jpg
Natalie Chanin, a native of Florence, Alabama, is the founder and creative director of Alabama Chanin.

Her work has been featured in Vogue, Time, The New York Times, Town & Country, Bon Appetit, and Gun and Garden. She has been interviewed by…

Old Lexington Post  Office.jpg
The old Lexington Post Office (circa 1940) had fallen into dis-repair and disuse after the new post office was built. Several businesses attempted to make the space usable without major updates.

When Dr. Paul Corfman, who grew up in North Alabama,…

Sam Mockbee.png
Samuel Mockbee - who was born on December 23, 1944 in Meridian, Mississippi and who died on December 30, 2001 - was an architect and the co-founder of Auburn University Rural Studio.

A 1974 graduate of the School of Architecture at Auburn, Mockbee…

Andrew Friar.jpg
Andrew Freear, the Wiatt Professor of Architecture at Auburn University, became the Director of the Rural Arts Studio in Newbern, West Alabama in 2002.

Freear, who is from Yorkshire, England, was educated at the Polytechnic of Central London and…

Paul Kelly WVNA AM Transmitter site 1984.JPG
Paul Elisha Kelly (born on November 10th, 1924; died on May 25th, 1997) was a broadcast engineer, who built and maintained many of the studios and radio stations (notably WLAY and WQLT, which was owned by Sam Phillips) responsible for the Muscle…

Heritage Christian.jpg
Heritage Christian University, located at 3625 Helton Drive, in Florence, Alabama, is a private Bible college affiliated with the Church of Christ.

Founded in 1971 as International Bible College. the school is co-educational, has approximately…

Mars Hill School.jpg
Mars Hill Bible School is a private preparatory day school for boys and girls in Florence, Alabama. The school begins at pre-kindergarten goes through the twelfth grade.

Mars Hill Academy was opened by Thomas Brown Larimore in 1871. The academy,…

Oak Hill Cemetery Jewish Section.jpg
The highest point in Oakwood Cemetery in Sheffield was given to the members of the Jewish Synagogue in appreciation for their contributions to the communities of Sheffield and Florence, Alabama.

Families who are interred there include: the…

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WLAY-AM (1450 -AM) was one of the first broadcast radio stations in the Shoals. Licensed in 1933 (as WNRA), the station stopped broadcasting in 2014.

The station's original broadcast was a variety format featuring gospel, country, and "race music"…

Harvey1.jpg
The Harvey Cemetery, located in Toonersville, Alabama (which is near the Whitehead Community and the town of Rogersville) is located off of the Bettie Anne Highway (aka Highway 51). Go north on Highway 51 for approximately three miles; at the…

Alvin.jpg
Alvin Rosenbaum, who was born on January 14, 1945, has worked as a research scholar, conducted tourism and opportunity studies and workshops, and is the author of several books, including: A White House Christmas, The Complete Home Office:Planning…

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Jonathan Rosenbaum, who was the head film critic of the Chicago Reader from 1987 to 2008, has had a lifelong interest in movies and the arts. Born in Florence, Alabama on February 27, 1943, his grandfather and father ran a small chain of movie…

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Hank Klibanoff, the former managing editor of the Atlanta-Constitution and the James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism, was born in Florence, Alabama. Klibanoff, who co-wrote The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of…

Chisholm.pdf
John D. Chisholm (1737 -1742?, d. 1818), who was Chief Doublehead's legal counsel and liaison, arrived in North America around 1777. He was involved in multiple land scams before and after his partnership with Chief Doublehead. After Doublehead's…

A Faulk.jpg
Alexander Falk was born in Prussia on October 14, 1811. He moved to England at the age of fourteen, where he learned the jewelry business. After a brief trip to his homeland in 1841, he left for America. He arrived in New Orleans and lived in…

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Jean Schulman, artist and art teacher, has been working in clay and batik since the 1970s. Originally from Russellville, Alabama, she lives in Florence, and retired from teaching at Muscle Shoals. Her most recent exhibit was with Robin Wade.

Bootery_Dio59.jpg
The Bootery, which was located on 111 North Court Street, was a locally owned business and landmark for eight decades in Florence. (The last incarnation of the store was Kaye's Shoes in Regency Square Mall.) Owned by Morris Klibanoff and Melburn…

Temple.jpg
A significant Jewish community has existed in the Shoals area since the 1840s. One of the earliest references to the Jewish community in Florence, Alabama was in September 1882 (Rosh Hashanah) in the Florence Gazette reminding readers that “our…

Norwood_Dio59.jpg
Louis Rosenbaum, who moved to Florence from Douglas, Wyoming (in 1918) during the building of Wilson Dam and the TVA government plants, opened the Princess Theatre on September 1, 1919. He lived and worked in Florence for over forty three years. At…

Lambert Transfer 2.jpg
Douglas and Virginia Lambert, owners of Lambert Transfer (which was founded in 1953), chose Wilson Dam as the backdrop for their advertising

Key Cave1.jpg
Several caves, located 1.5 miles apart, via Gunwaleford Road were included in archaeological digs in the late 1980s. It was believed that the artifacts of indigenous people had been stored in the area. At one time William Key owned the property,…

Downtown Jewish Businesses 1960's
During the 1960s many of the individually owned businesses in downtown Florence were owned by Jewish merchants. Most were incorporated with family members as officers of the corporations. The opening of Regency Square Mall (in 1978) was a reason for…

Court Street  2.jpg
The Florence Shoe Company, located at 122 North Court Street in Florence, was owned by Milburn Zeff (November 10, 1913 to April 2, 1989) and Morris Klibanoff (January 29, 1917 - December 13, 1996).
Milburn was married to Bertha…

Sweetwater Creek_1-65 Back.jpg
Sweetwater Creek, located between Huntsville Road and Florence Boulevard, was given its name by the indigenous people for the pure, clear water of the creek.

The Sweetwater Mansion takes its name from the creek as did Sweetwater Mills.

The…

AnnaRosenbaum_RFCBox1.jpg
Anna Block Rosenbaum, a native of Lithuania, was born on April 8, 1889, and was brought to the United States at the age of six months.

She married Louis Rosenbaum in 1910 and they had one son, Stanley. After living in Denver, Colorado, Casper,…

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The Doublehead Company was a development agency that leased thousands of acres of land in the area between Elk River and Cypress Creek to more than fifty white settlers.
The Company was founded by Chief Doublehead, his fellow Cherokee named…

Willingham003.jpg
The site of Willingham Hall, which is located on the University of North Alabama’s campus in Florence, Alabama, and Willingham Hall (One Harrison Plaza) itself have many stories to tell. Willingham Hall is located on the site of what was once…
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