Bernardo de Gálvez captured Mobile from the British in the American Revolution. (Courtesy the Foundation for Historical Louisiana.)
Bernardo de Gálvez captured Mobile from the British in the American Revolution. (Courtesy the Foundation for Historical Louisiana.)


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Winter 2006, Issue 79

Article Abstracts and Supplements

•Defining Moments: In Halls of Ivy
•The Spanish Conquest of Mobile
•Byron Arnold and the Folksongs of Alabama
•When Less Was More: Alabama's Classic Modern Architecture
•Departments

Click images to enlarge. Hold cursor over images to view captions.

DEFINING MOMENTS: IN HALLS OF IVY
By Alissa Nutting, Clark E. Center Jr., Dwayne Cox, Donald Brown, and Cynthia Beavers Wilson

 Join Alabama Heritage in celebrating the landmark anniversaries of four of Alabama’s most prestigious schools! This year, the University of Alabama turns 175, Auburn and Birmingham-Southern turn 150, and Tuskegee University turns 125. To commemorate these events, experts from each school define the three defining moments that shaped the schools into the icons they are today.


Additional Information
• William Warren Rogers, "The Founding of Alabama's Land Grant College at Auburn," Alabama Review 40 (January 1987): 14-37.
• Dwayne Cox, " Alabama Farm Agents, 1914-1922," Alabama Review 47 (October 1994): 285-304.
• Dwayne Cox, "Luther N. Duncan, The Extension Service, and the Farm Bureau, 1921-1932," Alabama Review 51 (July 1998): 184-197.
• http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/auhy/au_politics.htm
• http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/find-aid/798.htm
• http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/find-aid/071p/


About the Authors
Donald Brown, contributing writer for the Birmingham-Southern article, graduated from the college in 1958. A veteran journalist and newspaper editor, he is the author, coauthor, or editor of seven books and a contributor to two others. His most current book is Forward, Ever: Birmingham-Southern College at its Sesquicentennial ( Birmingham-Southern College, 2005), which commemorates the 150 th year of the institution. In 2005, he also is coauthor, with Henry H. Tyler of Bessemer, Alabama, of A Cry for Help: the Henry H. Tyler Story (Bessemer Area Chamber of Commerce). He is the editor of two more books that are planned for publication in 2006, the author of a third, and has begun work on a nonfiction novel.

Brown’s other books are View from the Hilltop (editor, Birmingham-Southern College, 1981), Century Plus, A Bicentennial Portrait of Birmingham (contributor, Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, 1976), Portrait of Birmingham, at its Centennial (author, Birmingham Centennial Corporation, 1971), Profiles of Alabama

Pharmacy (editor, Alabama Pharmaceutical Association, 1974), Tuscaloosa: Centennial Progress, Millennial Hopes (contributor, Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, 2000), Foundry Life (coauthor, Tuscaloosa Public Library, 2004), and Our Heritage (editor, Frances Illges Chenoweth, 1974).

Additionally, Brown is a freelance writer and media consultant. Clients he has served include the Tuscaloosa Board of Education, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc., Tribune Media Service, Preservation magazine, and PACE Learning Systems.

Brown and his wife, Hannah, live in Tuscaloosa.


Clark E. Center Jr. is curator of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. He graduated from Samford University in 1969, and holds an M.A. in history from Samford (1972) and an M.L.S. from the University of Alabama (1994). He is active in archival organizations such as the Society of Alabama Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, where he has held several positions in the Preservation Section, and the Academy of Certified Archivists. He is also the archivist for the Alabama Library Association.

Mr. Center began his career as a microfilmer of historical newspapers at Samford University and has worked in various positions at the Hoole Library over twenty-five years. His interests are varied and include Alabama history, the history of the University of Alabama Corps of Cadets, good fiction of all kinds, and good music of all kinds, especially American fiddle music.


Dwayne Cox is head of Special Collections & Archives at Auburn University. He has been at Auburn since 1986. His publications include a number of articles and a book on the history of higher education. Cox holds a Ph.D. in United States history from the University of Kentucky.


Alissa Nutting, Assistant Editor at Alabama Heritage, is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama, in addition to serving as an Assistant Fiction and Poetry Editor at the Black Warrior Review.


Cynthia Wilson is the coordinator of archives and museums at Tuskegee University. She has been recognized as a “Bravo Board” winner for “great customer service in promoting the goals and objectives of the University." She has appeared in several documentary films including the Alabama Public Television production "Moments of Dignity" on famed Tuskegee photographer P.H. Polk. Her research has benefited countless scholarly books and articles. Wilson frequently uses her knowledge and expertise as a public speaker at academic conferences and symposiums.


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A campus landmark since opening in 1928, R.S. Munger and his wife, Mary Collett Munger, ensured the construction of R.S. Munger Memorial Hall with a $250,000 bequest from their estate. (Courtesy Birmingham-Southern College.)
The first known photograph of the campus of the University of Alabama, taken circa 1859. (Courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
In 1926 the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service installed running water in the Cheeseman household in Mobile County. The proud owner donned a fine apron and her good shoes to celebrate the life-altering event. (Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, Auburn University Libraries.)
This photograph of Samford Hall, long-time symbol of Auburn University, was probably taken in February 1899, when local temperatures dropped below zero. (Courtesy Special Collections and Archives, Auburn University Libraries.)
Denny Chimes rises from the Campus quadrangle as a cherished symbol of the University of Alabama. (Courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF MOBILE
By Jim Noles

With Spanish governor Bernardo de Gálvez smashing through the line of British forts along the Mississippi River, Mobile soon stood as the last British stronghold between New Orleans and Pensacola. The old fort was in dismal condition, the defending forces were weary, and Captain Elias Durnford’s options were limited. It seemed their only chance was a speedy renovation of Mobile’s crumbling fort. Working hard under the suspense of impending Spanish forces, Durnford and his troops struggled to maintain hope.


Additional Information
To learn more about Mobile during the American Revolution, the author strongly recommends J. Barton Starr's Tories, Dons & Rebels:  The American Revolution in West Florida (Gainesville, FL: University Presses of Florida, 1976).


About the Author
Jim Noles  resides in Birmingham, Alabama, where he is a partner in the Environment & Natural Resources section of Balch & Bingham LLP.  He holds a B.S. in International History from the United States Military Academy, West Point, and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.  A previous contributor to Alabama Heritage, his books include Hearts of Dixie: Fifty Alabamians and the State They Called Home (Birmingham: Will Publishing, 2004), Twenty-Three Minutes to Eternity: The Final Voyage of the Escort Carrier USS Liscome Bay (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004), and two books in Seacoast Publishing's Alabama Roots series of biographies for young readers, Thomas W. Martin: Alabama Dynamo and John Pelham: The Gallant Pelham.


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 Bernardo de Gálvez found New Orleans vulnerable on arriving as Acting Governor of Louisiana. Rather than concentrate on a program of defense, however, he seized the initiative and attacked the British. Here he is shown with his coat-of-arms. As colonel of the regiment, he carried a regulation command stick with a golden knob and tassel. A model of the ship he took into Pensacola Bay, the Galvestown, is shown in the background. (From John Walton Caughey’s Bernardo de Gálvez in Louisiana, 1776-1783, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
The Gálvez expedition departed New Orleans on January 11, 1780. 1. Gálvez reached Mobile Bay February 9, 1780. 2. Reinforcements from Havana, Cuba, arrived February 20, 1780. 3. After the hurricane, Gálvez landed with shipwrecked soldiers, reembarked most, but left a battery to defend the entrance to Mobile Bay. 4. Gálvez landed force on February 5, 1780. 5. Gálvez advanced by land and boat, landing south of Mobile on February 28, 1780. He began siege of Fort Charlotte. 6. Gálvez commenced assault on March 11. Mobile surrendered on March 12, 1780. (From William S. Coker’s The Siege of Mobile, 1780, in Maps, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
The Gálvez escutcheon, as modified by the King in 1783 with the addition of the Galveston and the banner above it reading “I Alone” (Yo Solo). Since Gálvez’s only son died, the family coat-of-arms served only one generation. (From Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr.’s Tribute to Don Bernardo de Gálvez: royal patents and an epic ballad honoring the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
The town of Macharaviaya, where Gálvez was born and baptized. (From Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr.’s Tribute to Don Bernardo de Gálvez: royal patents and an epic ballad honoring the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
Indicated are British and Spanish territories bordering the Mississippi River before Gálvez began his offensive. By capturing the region for Spain, Gálvez weakened the British and uninintentionally facilitated the eventual American acquisition of the Floridas and Louisiana. (From Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr.’s Tribute to Don Bernardo de Gálvez: royal patents and an epic ballad honoring the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
Because of Galvez’ many victories,which were the result of his intrepid willingness to go first, King Carlos III authorized Gálvez to add a ship to his coat of arms with the inscription “Yo Solo.” (From Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr.’s Tribute to Don Bernardo de Gálvez: royal patents and an epic ballad honoring the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
Indicated are British and Spanish territories bordering the Mississippi River before Gálvez began his offensive. By capturing the region for Spain, Gálvez weakened the British and uninintentionally facilitated the eventual American acquisition of the Floridas and Louisiana. (From Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr.’s Tribute to Don Bernardo de Gálvez: royal patents and an epic ballad honoring the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
In this 1781 dramatization of the conflict at Pensacola, the Spanish are shown in formation at the top right, while British troops are in some disarray at the top left. The fort is visible just left of the centermost ship. (From Bernardo de Gálvez’s Yo Solo: the battle journal of Bernardo de Gálvez, trans. E.A. Montemayor, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
BYRON ARNOLD AND THE FOLKSONGS OF ALABAMA
By Robert W. Halli Jr.

Shortly after joining the music faculty of the University of Alabama in 1936, Byron Arnold witnessed the passionate singing of an African American congregation in Northport. Nearly ten years later, Arnold petitioned for and received support from the University, allowing him to travel the state and collect folksongs. During the 1945–46 academic year alone, Arnold covered more than two thousand miles and collected 258 folksongs, many of which were featured in his The Folksongs of Alabama (University of Alabama Press, 1950). Arnold would continue his field work for two more years, doubling his catalogue of songs and preserving much of a musical tradition that otherwise might have been lost.


Additional Information
For further information, please see An Alabama Songbook (University of Alabama Press, 2004), edited by Dr. Robert W. Halli Jr., The Folksongs of Alabama (University of Alabama Press, 1950), or visit http://www.uapress.ua.edu/NewSearch2.cfm?id=10772.


About the Author
Robert W. Halli Jr. is Associate Professor of English and founding Dean of the Honors College at the University of Alabama. He is also the editor of An Alabama Songbook: Ballards, Folksongs, and Spirituals Collected by Bryon Arnold ( University of Alabama Press, 2004).


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 Byron Arnold, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, deeply appreciated the talents of Alabamian folksingers, who performed ballads and spirituals “entirely without the mannerisms and clichés of the concert soloists.” (From the Byron Arnold Collection, Courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
Arnold’s Folksongs of Alabama, University of Alabama Press, 1950, was the only collection of Alabama folksongs to include both words and music. (From Byron Arnold’s Folksongs of Alabama, courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
Prior to Arnold’s field studies, John Lomax (left) recorded various artists throughout the south, including Uncle Rich Brown (right). (Courtesy the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.)
Famed folklorist Ruby Pickens Tartt, who Arnold described as having “done more for the cause of folk music in the state of Alabama than any other individual.” (From Byron Arnold’s Folksongs of Alabama, Courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
“Uncle Bill Gross” had, according to his widow, penned a number of “rollicking ballads,” but “burned the box of them” after finding religion later in life. (From Byron Arnold’s Folksongs of Alabama, Courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
Mrs. Alma Robinson, of Florence Alabama, whose spirituals Byron Arnold recorded in August, 1945. (From Byron Arnold’s Folksongs of Alabama, Courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
Callie Craven, one of the first folksingers approached, provided Arnold with three double-faced albums of recordings before her death in summer, 1946. (From Bryon Arnold’s Folksongs of Alabama, Courtesy the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, the University of Alabama.)
WHEN LESS WAS MORE: ALABAMA'S CLASSIC MODERN ARCHITECTURE
By Alice Meriwether Bowsher

Alabama contains many important examples of Classic Modern architecture. This style is gaining a new appreciation by historic preservationists for its clean lines and simplicity of form. Classic Modern architecture emerged when American architects adapted the avant-garde International Style. The resulting commercial buildings were minimalist skyscrapers that used geometric form and flowing space, rather than Victorian-era embellishments, as artistic expression. Local examples of this type commercial building are the Waterman Building in Mobile, the Bank for Savings Building and the AmSouth Building in Birmingham. The Isle Dauphin Club on Dauphin Island and the YMCA Downtown Branch in Birmingham display the use of Classic Modern architecture in recreational buildings. The International Style was also adapted for the postwar housing boom. Houses for the new market used joined spaces, open interiors, and connections between outside and inside. Auburn’s Applebee-Shaw house, Birmingham’s Brown-Hughey House, and the Crestwood Subdivision in Birmingham exemplify small-scale Classic Modern architecture.


Additional Information
For a range of books that provide general background about the modern movement in architecture, see Deborah Dietsch’s Classic Modern: Midcentury Modern at Home (Simon & Schuster), Leland Roth’s A Concise Historic of American Architecture (Harper & Row), and Vincent Scully’s Modern Architecture: The Architecture of Democracy (George Braziller).


Selected Bibliography
Blake, Peter. The Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1976.

Bowsher, Alice Meriwether. Alabama Architecture: Looking at Building and Place. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001.

Dietsch, Deborah. Classic Modern: Midcentury Modern at Home. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Scully, Vincent. Modern Architecture: The Architecture of Democracy. New York: George Braziller, 1965.

Roth, Leland M. A Concise History of American Architecture. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.

White, Marjorie Longenecker, ed. Richard W. Sprague and G. Gray Plosser, Jr., architectural ed. Downtown Birmingham: Architectural and Historical Walking Tour Guide. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society and First National Bank of Birmingham, 1977.


About the Author and Photographer
Alice Meriwether Bowsher’s latest publication is Alabama Architecture: Looking at Building and Place, a celebration of Alabama architecture sponsored by the Alabama Architectural Foundation and published by The University of Alabama Press. Currently she is working on a sequel that focuses on Alabama buildings and places that express community identity and shape the way we live together. She serves as an architectural historian on the National Register Review Board of the Alabama Historical Commission and is an Alabama Advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She has been active in historic preservation in the state for the past twenty-five years.

M. Lewis Kennedy has more than two decades experience as a professional photographer, concentrating on architectural and industrial subjects, particularly in Alabama and the Southeast. He is the photographer for the book Alabama Architecture. You can learn more about his photography by visiting his website at www.mlewiskennedy.com


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 Birmingham’s AmSouth Center (originally First National-Southern Natural Building), completed in 1971, was designed by Welton Becket & Associates of Houston, with Charles H. McCauley Associates of Birmingham serving as associate architect. This building is the classic glass box we associate with modern architecture. Proportions matter. So does the meticulous detailing. It brings pure elegance, heightened by the use of reflective glass, to an urban setting. The glass curtain wall floats above a black marble base that is set back from the street to create a plaza, like the much-celebrated Seagram building in New York City designed by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson a dozen years earlier. Although the excessive proliferation of such plazas has been criticized for destroying the street edge with great stretches of empty, sterile paving, the AmSouth plaza setback works because the banking floor reconnects the building to the street and because it is the exception rather than the norm. In other words, it punctuates the urban streetscape rather than unraveling it. (Photograph by M. Lewis Kennedy.)
Mobile’s Waterman Building (now called the Wachovia Building) is a classic modern building, but by no means is it an anonymous glass box. It was constructed in the years 1947–48 for the Waterman Steamship Corporation; the architect was Platt Roberts. The building combines abstract geometry and fine proportions with wonderfully place-specific elements. The south-facing windows have louvers that can be adjusted to shut out Gulf Coast storms or to shade the brightness of the sun. At the top, an open terrace—punctuating the solid mass with a distinctive void characteristic of the International Style—overlooks the city and the ships of Mobile harbor. (Photograph by M. Lewis Kennedy.)
The 1957 Brown-Hughey house in Birmingham, designed by Greer, Holmquist & Chambers, is another example of the classic modern style’s unencumbered lines and flowing spaces. Like Rudolph’s house in Auburn, one enters from a lower level to experience a sequenced arrival walking up to the main floor. There, the living room opens directly into the dining room, with the kitchen around the corner. Glazed corners in the dining room and kitchen open the interior to the outside, flooding the space with natural light. The owner’s period furnishings illustrate how streamlined interiors call for streamlined furniture emphasizing form and materials to complete the modern look. (Photograph by M. Lewis Kennedy.)
The principles of modern design that shaped commercial architecture influenced other Alabama buildings as well. The 1956 Isle Dauphine Club, designed by Arch R. Winter & T. Howard Ellis, exemplifies architecture treated as sculpture. The building expresses a playful, poetic sensibility, with curves establishing a sweeping composition of interlocking circles, set overlooking the dunes of Dauphin Island. Within the layers of circles are a dining room, ballroom, and lounge, as well as a circular pool and pool house. Flat roofs and flared windows accentuate the curves. (Photograph by M. Lewis Kennedy.)
Postwar subdivisions in Birmingham and elsewhere typify the housing boom that swept across the country, bringing a modernity influenced by affordability and mass production. Houses free from traditional ornament assume simple shapes, often asymmetrically arranged, with carports tucked under low-sloping roofs and strong inside-outside connections. Small windows on the front admit light while preserving privacy, while at the rear large expanses of glass open the interior of the house to views of the private back yard. (Photograph by M. Lewis Kennedy.)
Birmingham’s YMCA Downtown Branch (1983–84), designed by KPS Group, Inc., asserts its modernism boldly, enriched by creative treatment of form and materials. The design grows out of activities within the building and an awareness of the building’s role on the street. A broad expanse of glass blocks along the length of the natatorium provides both light and privacy. Windows circling the fourth floor give the running track views of the city. A more commercial brick and glass north façade marks the location of the offices. At the main corner, three stories of the façade have been pulled back and glazed to create a void with interior views that invites pedestrians in from the street. Although without historical references, the building relates by its height and color-compatible brick to a 1920s school next door and an 1888 church across the street. (Courtesy KPS Group, Inc.)
Birmingham’s Bank for Savings Building (now Two North Twentieth Street) was completed in 1962. As the first major private investment downtown since the late 1920s, it reflects the slow rejuvenation of the city’s economy coming out of the Great Depression and World War two. Birmingham architect Lawrence Whitten designed the building as a slab rising to seventeen stories out of a broad four-story base that stretched the width of a city block. It is unadorned except for the color and character of its glass, aluminum, and concrete and the vertical accents on two sides. At the time of its construction, the building’s massing, orientation, and lack of ornament contrasted strongly with the dozen early-twentieth-century skyscrapers nearby. Over the ensuing decades, however, it has been joined by other modern high-rise structures that have redefined and now dominate the city skyline. (Photograph by M. Lewis Kennedy.)
The Applebee-Shaw House (1954) in Auburn shows how noted architect Paul Rudolph manipulated space within the confines of a simple, economical rectangular form. He took advantage of the site, providing parking and entry on the lower slope of a hillside. Steps inside lead up to the high-ceilinged main level. At the far end of that space, Rudolph created a room within a room by designing an elevated, cantilevered sitting area with built-in couches and a fireplace. Extensive use of glass along the two primary walls opens the house to light and the outdoors. (Photograph by M. Lewis Kennedy.)

Departments

Alabama Mysteries
Williams/Wood Murders
By Pam Jones

On August 4, 1931, Jennie Wood, Augusta Williams, and Nell Williams took a drive along Shades Mountain. There, they suffered an attack that left two of them dead. The ensuing search for the murderer stretched as far as Chicago and almost certainly resulted in the conviction of an innocent man.


About the Author
Pam Jones is a freelance writer in Birmingham with a particular
interest in criminal cases from Alabama’s past.

 The Birmingham Age-Herald from October 3, 1931, shows Dent Williams with images of the commotion following his attack on Willie Peterson, Williams shot Peterson at the county jail. (Courtesy the E.W. Scripps Company.)
 
Recollections
Clarence Darrow Slept Here
By Mary Lois Timbes

In 1927 evolution defense attorney Clarence Darrow, of the famed Scopes Monkey Trial, spent two months in Fairhope, Alabama. There he immersed himself in controversial local affairs, gave speeches, and occasionally ruffled feathers. An unusual and outspoken man, Clarence Darrow’s somewhat abrasive nature served him well in the courtroom, but often offended in social situations. However, the idealist town of Fairhope received him well, and legends of his visit still circulate.


About the Author
Mary Lois Timbes is the author of Meet Me at the Butterfly Tree, a book about growing up in Fairhope. “Clarence Darrow Slept Here” is a chapter from her next book, When We Had the Sky.


Back to Top		 The city of Fairhope offered scenic wonders and recreation to visitors and citizens alike. In this 1930 photograph, Mobile Bay serves as the backdrop for a baseball field. (Courtesy the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation.)

Errata

• The article on the Spanish Conquest of Mobile misstated the date of Bernardo de Gálvez's departure from New Orleans. He set sail on January 11, 1779, not 1789.
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