Now housing the Abstract Company, this downtown Florence building is full of historic ‘firsts’ for Florence. As seen in this late 1940’s picture, the Lamar Furniture store resided here and was the first to be fully air-conditioned and electrically heated…
When the Florence Fire Department was first organized in 1828, there were no fire trucks, hydrants, or electric alarms. Fighting a fire meant gathering the townspeople, forming a line, and passing buckets of water from the nearest well. The history…
When William Basil Wood died in Florence on April 3, 1891, the Florence Times struggled to summarize the life of a man who had been involved in nearly every major phase of the city’s development. The newspaper wrote: “A full…
Notice in the above 1863 map shows a “South Florence” in Colbert County across the river from Florence. Also, below in an 1896 map of Colbert County, there is a “South Florence” on the other side of the river near the current TVA Nature…
CIRCA 1900 —Beginning at the Southern Railway depot at the foot of Court street the line ran: This route was about eight miles in length.
Original 1876 land lottery ticket from the founding of St. Florian, Alabama. Saint Florian was established in the 1870’s when the Homestead Society of Cincinnati, Ohio strived to develop a Catholic presence in northwest Alabama. Reverend J.H. Hueser, director of…
Crosby-Lambert House A color rendering of the Crosby-Lambert House. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1958 at a proposed cost of $35,000. Though construction never began, the house was destined for Colbert County, Alabama. A single-story, flat-roofed one-bedroom residence of…
During the 1820s, increasing numbers of steamboats were beginning to arrive from New Orleans. Businesses and the merchants in Tuscumbia, Alabama knew that developing a steamboat landing at the bottom of the Muscle Shoals was of utmost importance to the…
From early Indian water navigation in canoes, to settlers traveling downriver in flatboats that carried their supplies, river transportation saw improvements as needs changed. Watercraft on the Tennessee River continuously improved up to the invention of steamboats, which opened up…
Thousands of people in Florence cross Cypress Creek every day. Its name appears on road signs, maps, businesses and neighborhoods throughout the city. If you’re from Florence, you’ve heard of it, but more than two centuries ago, the creek was…