Gadsden Postcard: Forrest Cemetery Chapel

This postcard brings back some memories. My paternal grandparents, Amos J. and Rosa Mae Wright are buried in Forrest Cemetery, as well as Beulah Vee Wright, my dad's older sister I never met. In the late 1950s and early 1960s during the summers I would get to visit my grandparents in Gadsden for a couple of weeks. Amos was still working as yard foreman for L&N Railroad, so Rosa Mae would often take me to do things during the day before we picked him up at the railyard after work. One of those trips would be a visit to Forrest Cemetery to see Beulah Vee's grave. Since those days my grandparents have died and been buried beside their daughter. You can see gravestone photos below.

The first burial in Forrest Cemetery was Sallie Law Woodliff, a 1.5 year old child. She was the daughter of A.L. Woodliff who had selected the site and began clearing it with the help of his three sons. She died 13 Jul 1872. The chapel was built 1935-36 by the Works Progress Administration from sandstone quarried on Lookout Mountain. That chapel was named the Ruth R. Cross Memorial Chapel in 1960 after a woman who had devoted much time to the cemetery's care. Forrest Cemetery includes 40 acres and is located on South 15th Street in Gadsden.

The card with its "Tichnor Quality View" was published by the Franklin News Agency. Between July 1, 1919 and January 1, 1952, the postage rate for a U.S. postcard was a penny. Tichnor Brothers, Inc., of Boston operated from 1908 until 1987 and was a major publisher of postcards. I was unable to find anything on Franklin and am unsure what their role was. 

A brief history of the modern postcard at the Library of Congress site can be found here.

The rear of the chapel is visible in the distance in this photo.

We have other relatives buried in this cemetery. For instance, two of Rosa Mae's sisters, Stella Vinyard and Maude Wright, are interred there. 

Amos J. and Rosa Mae Wright, probably around the time of their wedding on 31 October 1915. 

Beulah V. Wright

Alfred Spielberg operated a photography studio in Gadsden. According to records at Ancestry.com, he died in 1967. 

Source: Find-A-Grave 

A 1985 Map of Hoover

I've written a number of pieces on this blog about various Alabama maps; one of these days I may put together a post that's a list of those posts. At any rate, here we are again.

Son Amos and I were recently going through some of the endless stuff around our house and came across this map of Hoover. We both agreed these kinds of graphic maps are pretty neat.

This map was issued in 1985 by Landmark Graphics Ltd. and Town Art Incorporated. The Riverchase Galleria did not open until February 1986, so that large regional mall is not on the map. We rented a house on Chapel Hill Road in Hoover in 1983, but before the end of 1985 we purchased our first home in Pelham. I remember in particular two of these businesses we patronized.

When we moved to Hoover in 1983 and then Pelham in 1985, restaurant choices were far more limited than today. El Palacio was our go-to Mexican place in those days. The chain's first operation was in Texas and the second was the Huntsville location where our family ate often. The chain had almost 60 restaurants by the early 1970s. The Hoover location closed a number of years ago. The one in Huntsville, believed to be the first Mexican restaurant in in that city, opened around 1966 and closed in 2017. Werner Von Braun was apparently a frequent customer.

We often ate at the Hunan Garden Chinese Restaurant and have continued to do so over the years. The menu is large with excellent food each time we visit. Another favorite in Hoover was the Mandarin House, which was a Chinese restaurant we patronized even a few times after we moved; that business closed several years ago. 

I don't remember if we ever ate at Showbiz Pizza, but we sure did patronize the Vestavia Chuck E. Cheese's back in the day. Showbiz eventually merged with Chuck E. Cheese; follow the link for a look at that complicated history. Many other national brands can be seen on the map: Firestone, Texaco, Citgo, 76, State Farm, and Gulf. I don't recognize many of the local businesses, such as Jahmins Food & Games, Ed's Hair Gallery, or Greenside Nursery. Perhaps Ed's is now Ed and Company Hair and Nail Salon? 

Davenport's Pizza Palace does have two locations now in Mountain Brook and Vestavia. Founded by Rex Hollis, the pizza places were named after a childhood friend, Jim Davenport. A Siluria native, Davenport played professional baseball with the San Francisco Giants. He is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and was recently inducted into the inaugural class of the Shelby County Hall of Fame. 

If you have memories about any of the businesses on this map, feel free to leave them in the comments!

I was unable to locate information about either of the businesses credited for the map's creation. 

I have a similar though smaller 1989 map of Pelham created for the city's 25th anniversary of incorporation. Maybe I'll get around to a blog post on that one someday. 

Birmingham Photo [88]: Arms & Cycle Company

Our photograph this time shows the interior of the Birmingham Arms and Cycle Company taken before 1920. The entry for this photo at the Alabama Department of Archives and History credits the Grand Rapids Show Case Company and notes, "Among the items on display are bicycles, guns, knives, watches, safety razors, and boxing gloves."

The Grand Rapids Showcase Company was founded in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1901 and operated under that name until a 1926 merger. The firm's factory built furniture and other equipment--such as display cases-- for different kinds of retail stores.

The BhamWiki site has an article with some history of this establishment. According to that piece, the shop was founded by C.J. Chunn, a North Carolina native who had owned a gun store in Baltimore. He opened the Birmingham store in 1887 at 1904 2nd Avenue North. By 1895 Robert Baugh was co-owner and manager. Baugh was an active golfer who laid out the city's first course; he was also involved in local baseball.

As BhamWiki notes, the store was located at various locations on 2nd and 3rd Avenues North. The final one may have been at 2017 3rd Avenue as seen in the 1920 telephone directory excerpt below between the Birmingham Apothecary and the Birmingham Artificial Limb Company. Today that block includes First Horizon Bank and Jim Reed Books.

Birmingham Arms and Cycle Company before 1920

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History 

Birmingham White and Yellow Pages March 1920

Source: Library of Congress

Birmingham Barons Then and Now

The Birmingham Barons have been a professional baseball presence in the city since 1885, with only three brief gaps of years they did not play. Since 1910 three stadiums have been home to the team: Rickwood Field, Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the current Regions Field downtown near Railroad Park. Numerous Major League and Negro League stars played on those fields, especially Rickwood, the first concrete and steel stadium in the minor leagues. Today the Barons are a Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. 

On Tuesday night, August 20, son Amos and I attended a game and watched the Barons defeat the Biloxi Shuckers in a comeback win 6-5. Some photos are below. This experience brought to mind some items of Barons' memorabilia that have been in the family since the mid-1990s. More on that and other goodies are also below.

I've previously written a blog piece on the Barons discussing a 1917 photo of the team. 

You can find almost 600 digitized items related to the Barons' history at the Alabama Mosaic site. 

Further Reading

Allen Barra, Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark. 2010

William J. Plott, Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons, 1919-1962. 2019

Watkins, Clarence. Baseball in Birmingham. 2010

This board with its removable discs appeared in 1995 or 1996 during a craze for "pogs", a modern version of the milk cap games that dated from before World War II.

These Barons players appear on the "pog" board. I have included the states where they were born and the years they played in Birmingham. Since two of the players appeared on a Barons roster only in 1995, I'm assuming that's the year of this item. Several of these players had some time in the majors as well as other minor league teams. Search for them at the Baseball Reference site for more details. 

Jimmy Hurst [Alabama, 1995-6]
Mike Cameron [Georgia, 1995-1996]
Jeff Abbott [Georgia, 1995]
Eddie Pearson [Alabama, 1995-7]
Greg Norton [California, 1995-1996]
Troy Fryman [Florida, 1994-6]
Glenn Disarcina [Massachusetts, 1993-6]
Scott Vollmer (California, 1995-6]
Scott Christman [Arizona, 1995]

Two of these players are Alabama natives. Jimmy Hurst was born in Tuscaloosa in 1972 and was a star high school player. He had a long career on various minor league teams and played briefly for the Detroit Tigers in 1997. Unfortunately, Hurst died of a brain bleed on July 6, 2024, age 52. You can see some of his baseball cards here.

Eddie Pearson, born in Mobile in 1974, also had an extensive minor league career. He played at Bishop State Community College in Mobile. You can see his Barons baseball card here.

This board was sponsored by radio station Magic96.FM and Galleria Fun Country, which was located near the Riverchase Galleria. We spent some time there with the kids in the mid-1990s. The place appealed to children in a way similar to Chucky Cheese and was a good venue for birthday parties. Originally known as Riverchase Golf and Games, the place apparently created fond memories in others, too. Earlier this year someone on Redditt was asking for photos and the responses were interesting. 

As the game progressed and darkness fell, the moon rose over Children's Hospital. 

A view of the field early in the game

Along the stadium concourse are large photographs of baseball stars who played for the Barons, including Reggie Jackson in 1967. 

Piper Davis, Birmingham Black Barons, 1942-1948

Frank Thomas, 1990

Michael Jordan, 1994

A photo taken before the game started 

Naturally before the game we made a stop at the Good People Brewing Company just across the street from Regions Field.

A few ticket stubs from games we attended back in the day....

A Goodwill Book Store in Pelham

A few months ago I visited the Goodwill donation site near our home in Pelham for the first time and found myself in a bookstore. Needless to say I have returned a few times since, usually finding some  books to purchase. I'm supposed to be downsizing my book collection, and I have done so. More books are going out than coming in these days!

You can see a few photos below. I've also included some of an old school book I found on one visit, but did not purchase. The next time I returned it was gone....

This small used bookstore is worth a visit if you are in the area. Bring some donations, too. The location opened in July 2020 in a former A&W Root Beer location. Pelham has had a few other bookstores over the years, but the only one currently operating is Goodwill. 

Over the years I've written a number of posts about Alabama used bookstores. One item described a recent visit my brother and I made to Branch Books in Hartselle. Another piece in 2017 was devoted to the late, lamented Books, Etc., also in Pelham, and a successor to Betty's Books. 

The small retail space does offer some items besides books. 

Several of the Laidlaw Basic Readers can be found on the Internet Archive.

This text was provided by the state of Alabama to schools in Franklin County. The copy seems to have been well used!

This book was copyrighted in 1940. Laidlaw Brothers of Illinois began in 1919 and was acquired by Doubleday in 1964. At one point Doubleday was the largest publisher in the U.S.

A lot of these old school books have some neat illustrations.

More about Betty's Books here. 

A Visit to the Fayette Art Museum

Alabama has many lesser known treasures, and on a recent weekend my brother Richard and I visited one of them--the Fayette Art Museum. 

The museum is located in the town and county of Fayette in northeast Alabama. Fayette is the county seat, so there is an impressive old courthouse to be seen. More about that and the town in another post.

A former school building is the site of the museum. The Fayette Grammar School opened in 1930, but by the early 1970s was abandoned and in disrepair. An art museum had opened in city hall in 1969, and newspaperman Jack Black was named director. An effort began to restore the school and in 1982 the Fayette Art Museum and Civic Center opened. Black remained director until his death in 2004. The current director is Anne Perry-Uhlman. The museum houses over 4000 works of art. Also located there is the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame.

So how did all that art end up in the small town of Fayette? The core of the collection originated with Lois Wilson, who in 1969 donated some 2600 works of art by her and other artists she had collected. Wilson [not the film actress who grew up in Birmingham] was a Fayette native who died in Yonkers, New York in relative poverty in 1981. Over a sixty year period she created 3000 works herself. 

The restored school exhibits and stores her surviving collection and the numerous pieces by others added in recent years. The museum currently houses works by a number of additional Alabama artists such as Jimmy Lee Sudduth [1910-2007], Sybil Gibson, Jessi LaVon, Doug Odom, Wanda Teel, and Mose Tolliver [1920-2006]. Also from Fayette County are the Rev. Benjamin Perkins [Bankston] and Fred Webster [Berry]. One artist included who is not from the state is impressionist Sam Barber.

Sudduth is an internationally known folk artist born near Fayette. Tolliver is equally well-known; he was born near Montgomery. The Rev. Benjamin F. Perkins [1904-1993] a Vernon, Alabama native, is another folk artist represented in the museum. Fred Webster [1911-1998] was a wood carver. Sybil Gibson [1908-1995, Dora], Jessi Lavon [Forkland], Doug Odom [Headland], and Wanda Teal [Montgomery] are additional folk artists. 

In 1999 National Geographic chose the museum as a regional attraction. Since 1970 the annual Fayette Arts Festival has been sponsored by the museum. The museum is well worth a visit; it may house more folk and other art by Alabama artists than any other place in the world. 

Further Reading

Kathy Kemp, A town's tiny treasure. Jack Black put Fayette on art map. Birmingham Post-Herald 9 August 1993, p B1,, B4

Harold Kennedy, If it was discarded, Lois Wilson would paint on it. Birmingham News 7 February 1982, p B1. 

Lots of art is to be seen as soon as you enter the museum.

While Richard and I visited, set up was underway for a wedding to be held the next day. The facility is also an event center. Art adorns the walls of meeting rooms [former classrooms] and the auditorium.

One of the downstairs galleries is devoted to Jimmy Lee Sudduth. 

The museum displays many of Wilson's large and small works. 

Lois Wilson

An entire gallery is devoted to art by the Rev. Benjamin Perkins.

Here's a reminder that you are in a former school building.

Even the director's office serves as a gallery.

Wilson served as a private in the Army Air Force during World War II. She enlisted in Yonkers on August 16, 1944, in the Women's Army Corps according to that record. 

Source: Ancestry.com

Wilson is buried in the Fayette City Cemetery.

Source: Find-A-Grave