Bookstore Tour of Huntsville

My brother Richard and I were in Huntsville on a recent weekend, and we spent that Saturday tooling around the city visiting several bookstores, including a side trip to Priceville, as well as a few other favorite stops. Many of my previous bookstore postings can be found here; others include Branch Books in Hartselle, Branch Books 2 in Cullman, and the Goodwill Bookstore in Pelham.  

See my comments below the photos for details on this particular journey. 

Our first stop involved brunch at Southern Egg Cafe on Bailey Cove in southeast Huntsville. We've eaten here a number of times in the past year or so, and have really enjoyed it. We do eggs/bacon/biscuit/cheese grits, but their menu is extensive and they also offer lunch and dinner. The "Breakfast All Day" is just so hard to resist. 

Several years ago the South Huntsville Public Library opened on Bailey Cove Road. This branch in the city's library system replaced two older branches in the area. We stop here often on our trips to Huntsville to donate books and buy some new ones in the bookstore operated by the branch's friends group.

Also on Bailey Cove is a now empty older branch just down the road from mom's house. She and dad used this branch for many years, and she worked as a volunteer in the quarterly book sales. That's where she bought many books that she, Richard and I read in turn and discussed by authors like J.A. Jance, Stuart Woods and the delightful McNally detective novels by Lawrence Sanders. 

Just a random artifact on the road to Priceville Discount Books. 

Priceville is a small town in Morgan County between Somerville and Decatur. I wrote about the historic courthouse in Somerville back in 2014. Several years ago we discovered this bookstore, and Richard, son Amos and I have visited a number of time since and purchased many tomes. Naturally I've done a post on this place. You can find out more on their Facebook page.

Later we arrived at Booklegger on Holmes Avenue in northwest Huntsville. This bookstore has been a long family tradition; dad used to frequent the place which has been operating since the 1970s. Richard, Amos and I have been many times. My blog post on it was written in 2021. Ownership has changed since then, and the new owner has been busy upgrading the place. 

We always work up a thirst by book hunting, and this establishment near Booklegger has been a frequent place to take care of that problem. The Nook has operated in Huntsville under various names since the 1960s, when it was originally Napoleon's Nook and a favorite steakhouse of Werner von Braun and friends. The place reopened in 2007 under its current name and offers more than 400 beers, with 80 on tap and 36 Alabama brews. Wines and stiffer libations are also available. 

Richard seems excited to be escaping the real world. 

Before our final bookstore of the day, we stopped at Das Stahl Bierhaus in the same retail strip in southwest Huntsville as the Bookwyrm. This place has a large selection of foreign and domestic beers as well as a bar and seating.

Signs for these two Alabama breweries were on the wall at Das Stahl Bierhaus.

The Bookwyrm, our last bookstore of the day is a new one in Huntsville. We found the selection large and eclectic, and both bought a few items. 

Our final stop of the day before heading back to mom's was dinner at the Viet House, a favorite in recent years. The menu is extensive, but we always seem to order one of their clay pots--so much good food! Oh, and this restaurant plays low volume light jazz, which makes conversation easy.

And here are a  few of the purchases we made. We've been reading through John D. MacDonald's books, especially the Travis McGhee novels, for the past couple of years. Harlan Coben is a new author we're trying; we've enjoyed some of his novel adaptations by Netflix. The logo on the book in the upper right means it's a crime novel about the Saint, Simon Templar, by Leslie Charteris. 

Huntsville Ice Storm on March 2, 1960

I recently came across the items below while going through some family photographs. They are undated, but were snapped by dad presumably on March 2, 1960, when a severe ice storm hit Huntsville and the rest of north Alabama. I would have been eight years old and younger brother Richard four, so that fits our appearances here. At the time we were living on Cloverdale Drive just off Jordan Lane. I'm not sure where these photos were taken, though. 

The storm was notable enough for Baker B. Williams of the U.S. Weather Service in Huntsville to write an extensive article about it for the Weatherwise journal and  published in the October 1960 issue. The first page can be seen below; the rest of the article is behind a paywall.

Three and a half inches of precipitation were recorded in Huntsville that day and the low temperature was 33. Lows were below freezing each day following until March 9. March 5 had a low of 12 degrees. 

If you have any memories of this ice storm, please tell us in the comments!

Richard and I pose in the ice wilderness. 

Here's yours truly and mom.

Weatherwise October 1960 pp 196-203

Source: Taylor & Francis

The Underground in Huntsville April 1975

My brother Richard and I were recently at mom's house in Huntsville, and he found this newsletter while exploring some papers from his days at Grissom High School. This tongue-in-cheek publication seems to be a one-off issue for April Fool's in 1975. But who knows?

The long item on page 1,"Suspenders Snap at Students for Illicit Literature"  includes a call for submissions from students and faculty and mentions "here at Grissom." In the piece on the upper left of the back page, meant to be an acknowledgement of "Our Infectious Staff", the names Tom Watson and Marc Smith are given. Watson was one of Richard's best friends in high school.

Between these two bits of reality, high school humor abounds. Some of it is actually funny. Read and decide for yourself! 

This publication came forth at the old Grissom High School; I've done a blog post on that facility. I've  also written one about April Fool's at Auburn University in 1962. The things these high school and college students of yore get up to!

T

Anne Royall Describes Alabama Doctors in 1821

Anne Royall

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Anne Royall took on many roles during her lifetime: wife, widow, traveler, author, newspaper editor, and prolific letter writer. She was also convicted in 1829 of being a "common scold", a sort of public nuisance, after her encounters with some evangelical Presbyterians in Washington, D.C. Royall was fined $10, which was paid by two local newspaper editors. Details can be found in her Encyclopedia of Alabama and Wikipedia entries. 

Between 1826 and 1831 Royall published several volumes about her travels, primarily in the South. Her most famous is probably her second, Letters from Alabama on Various Subjects that appeared in 1830. The first 14 letters actually describe her journey from Virginia through Lexington and Bowling Green in Kentucky and Nashville and Fayetteville in Tennessee. Once she arrived in Alabama, she visited Huntsville, Melton's Bluff, Courtland, Moulton and Florence. The first letter was dated November 8, 1817; the last, from Huntsville on June 8, 1822. The letters were addressed to "Matt" Dunbar, a young lawyer friend in Virginia.

Thus Royall visited Alabama during its territorial and early statehood periods. In all of her travel books she wrote in a lively style and with a sharp wit. She details the landscapes she saw, the people famous and common she met and how they lived. In one of the Alabama letters she describes a meeting at Melton's Bluff in January 1818 with General Andrew Jackson, whom she greatly admired. She noted that he was nursing members of the Mitchell family, white and black, who were suffering from fever.

Royall was born on June 11, 1769, near Baltimore. In 1797 she married Major William Royall, a wealthy Revolutionary War veteran. He died in 1812 and since they had no children, Anne inherited his 7000 acres and seven slaves. She sold the land and four of the slaves and began her travels in the South. The will was overturned in 1819, and she was left without income. By 1826 she had become one of the many authors of popular travel books in the United States. 

In 1831 she settled permanently in Washington, D.C., and published two newspapers that focused her caustic wit on politicians and fraud and waste in government. Royal died October 1, 1854, and is buried in Congressional Cemetery. 

Anne Newport Royall's travel books have left us an important record of the areas through which she traveled, including Alabama. In those early years people were pouring into the new territory and then state seeking opportunities in a frontier with vast available lands and few restrictions from weak local and state governments. The letter excerpted below was written from Florence on July 15, 1821, and displays her wit about the "unaccountable" number of physicians that "flock to this country."

Of course, these doctors were coming to seek new opportunities just like everyone else. Many had probably left towns or communities with too many doctors; after all, regulation of medical practice at this time was almost non-existent. Toward the end of this part, she notes, "Many of these physicians, however, are becoming planters, by which they will doubtless make their bread."

And indeed some doctors did. Dr. Joshua Sanford Wilson--also a politician-- developed a plantation in Clarke County and built its mansion between 1846 and 1851. The structure is known today as the Wilson-Finlay House. Another physician-planter-politician in Alabama was Alexander Williams Mitchell who began construction of Belle Mont in the 1820s. His plantation of more than 1700 acres was located in what is now Colbert County. 

Written from Florence on July 15, 1821 [p. 148 of the Letters]

A Quick Visit to the Huntsville Courthouse Square

While I was in Huntsville back in October, I met Dr. Jack Ellis at The Poppy & Parliament pub on the courthouse square for lunch. Jack is a scholar and gentleman who taught at UAH for a number of years. We have a mutual interest--the history of black physicians in Alabama. That topic occupied much of our conversation over a great lunch.

As we finished, Jack suggested a walk around the square and down to Big Spring Park. So off we went...

I only discuss a few of the many sights and history below that you can see in downtown Huntsville. 

First, we walked down to Big Spring. Here are the "ugliest ducks in the park" as Jack put it, posing beside the Indian Creek Canal, the first in the state according to this marker. That canal was developed to move cotton all the way to the Tennessee River.

Actually, there is a canal in Gulf Shores that's a bit older.

Archaeologists Dig Up 1,400-Year-Old Native American Canal in Alabama

The nearly mile-long structure allowed inhabitants to paddle to rich fishing grounds and access trade routes http://tinyurl.com/23twwnhu

The We Are Huntsville web site has the story of the Little Lion:

"Sitting near the actual spring in Big Spring Park is an often over-looked Huntsville landmark. The Little Lion of Big Spring Park was gifted to the city by J.F. Hummel for the opening of Big Spring Park in 1900.

The marble lion was meant to stay in the park “as long as children play in the park”. Sadly, the statue was defaced and damaged in the 1960’s but the Historic Huntsville Foundation refurbished and restored the little lion to the park in 1995."

Holger Toftoy was instrumental in bringing German V-2 rockets and parts back to the U.S. in the immediate aftermath of World War II. He was also involved in  Operation Paperclip which brought scientists here as well. He directed the Ordnance Missile Laboratories at Redstone Arsenal from 1952 until 1958. 

Holger Toftoy [1902-1967]

Source: Wikipedia

The Alabama Territory was officially established on December 10, 1817, so this bank had been operating in the Mississippi Territory since chartered. As noted, the bank operated until February 1825, more than five years after Alabama became a state. 

This building opened in 1836 and served as a bank until 2010, when Regions moved its branch there to another location. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The architect was George Steele, who also designed the building for the Huntsville Female College. I've written about that institution here.

Harrison Brothers Hardware is always worth a visit. Lots of goodies inside!

A postcard view of Big Spring Park, ca. 1950

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Grand Theater in Huntsville

Recently my brother Richard and I were going through some papers at mom's house in Huntsville, and we found this piece torn from a newspaper many years ago. Mom saved an item on the other side, but this side gives the source and date and includes an advertisement for a movie showing at the Grand Theater. Neither Richard nor I remembered the Grand even though we both grew up in Huntsville. So naturally I decided to investigate.

I found some information on the Cinema Treasures site and a page devoted to Huntsville movie theaters. The Grand first opened in April 1920 on Jefferson Street, but that original movie house burned in December 1924. Its replacement opened the following year and featured a Robert Morton theater organ. The Theater closed on May 25, 1960.

As the ad below notes, the theater featured the final local showings that day of The Bridge On the River Kwai, a classic World War II film released on December 14, 1957, in the United States. I suspect the Grand was a second-run theater at the time of this ad, since the film is showing there six months after its U.S. release.

Can't beat those ticket prices, though! 

My Visit to Huntsville Hospital in 1958

The newspaper item below turned up recently when my brother Richard and I were going through some papers at mom's house in Huntsville. I'm glad I can now pin down pretty much the exact date and place of my tonsillectomy at Huntsville Hospital, June 9, 1958, when I was 6 years and 3 months old. The physician might have been Thomas E. Dilworth, our family physician for many years. 

I remember Dr. Dilworth very well. I have a vague memory of him making a house call when I was pretty young and sick in bed, probably at the Cloverdale house noted in the article. At one point when I was 10 or 12, I was out riding my bicycle and bitten by a dog that chased me. We couldn't find the dog, so Dr. Dilworth recommended a series of rabies shots--one a day for 14 days. He started off giving them in the abdomen, but when that area became too sore he switched to the buttocks. The final two were given one in each arm. Mom didn't drive at that time, so dad drove me to the doctor's office each day including Saturday and Sunday. 

You can read more about Dr. Dilworth in the 1985 book Medicine Bags and Bumpy Roads, a history of medicine in Madison County by Jewell S. Goldsmith and Helen D. Fulton. A profile and a photo appear on pp 295-6. The book notes that Dilworth practiced at Fifth Avenue Hospital after his partner and cousin, Dr. J. E. Whitaker, opened that facility in 1954. So I can't be certain Dilworth did the surgery, but perhaps he also had privileges at Huntsville Hospital. He and his wife Jessie are both buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville. 

In this newspaper listing my address is given as 142 Cloverdale Drive. Sometime during the year after my tonsillectomy the address became 4220. I discuss this change in a blog post, "Cloverdale Drive, 'Jack and Jill' and Me."

Medical topics have been covered by newspapers for decades, but the nature of that coverage has changed over time. New techniques such as the spinal anesthetics described below were considered newsworthy at the time these two articles were published in 1909 and 1931. But when was the last time you saw a spinal anesthesia covered in the news? 

Spectacular achievements--transplants, gene therapy, robot surgery, new drugs--always get coverage until they become common or don't fulfill the initial enthusiasm. Other coverage is often devoted to children, adult local residents or various stripes of celebrities fighting cancer, etc. 

I don't know when the Huntsville Times began including these lists, or how long they lasted. Today this publication would contain many violations of HIPAA and general privacy concerns unless the patients or parents gave permission for such use. Perhaps the hospital did obtain such permission then. 

At the end of the Huntsville Hospital listing "Discharged" patients are four designated as "Colored". Presumably the facility was still segregated in 1958, with a ward or floor for black patients. That practice pretty much ended nationwide in 1965 when the law creating MEDICARE required hospitals to end racial discrimination in order to receive federal funds. 

Huntsville Times 10 June 1958

Huntsville Hospital opened June 8, 1926; this postcard is from the 1930s. Two new wings were added in 1956-57. The book by Goldsmith and Fulton mentioned above has an extensive history of this hospital. 

Here I am in the yard at Cloverdale Drive probably in 1957. From the look on my face, I may be worrying about that tonsillectomy already. 

Mom, younger brother Richard and I in front of the house. My blog post on the great February 1958 snowfall is here. 

The house on Cloverdale Drive in July 2018

Imperial Valley [Calif.] Press 12 June 1909

Calexico [Calif.] Chronicle 16 January 1931