 TCPS director Susan Haynes and board preszdent Evans Fitts in front of Drish House as it appears today. (Photo by Robin McDonald) | Not long ago, the once-grand home Dr. John R. Drish built in Tuscaloosa was in imminent danger. Long vacant, the place was home to assorted varmints, a favorite haunt of the homeless, a target of condemnation by the city, and an eyesore to many locals. Today, thanks to the generosity of the Southside Baptist Church and the foresight of the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society, preservationists are breathing new life into the historic structure, and its future looks promising. |
 Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (seated third from the left, next to Booker T. Washington) served on the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History) This year marks a year-long centennial celebration of the Rosenwald rural school building program. This program has been described as “one of the most ambitious school building programs ever witnessed in the United States.” And it all began in Alabama as a collaboration between a nationally renowned educator and a prominent businessman.
My wife had news when I called her from the Best Western in Monroeville, Alabama. I was attending a literary conference, where writers pondered, among other things, how being Southern had shaped who they were and what they wrote. Such ruminative gatherings are a minor industry for our region, and the local community college was eager to capitalize on Monroeville's claim to Harper Lee and other notable local writers.
 This abandoned store at Tyler in Dallas County hides its gable roof and sprawling side extensions behind a stepped wooden “false front.” An increasingly popular feature after the Civil War, these gave a dressier look while providing billboard space. (Robin McDonald) Not so long ago, scores of country stores were scattered across rural Alabama—at dusty crossroads or along a lonely stretch of blacktop knifing through fields and tangled woodlands, or huddled beside an isolated railway crossing. Mostly they were humble, expedient buildings, devoid of pretension, built to serve a plain agrarian society while enriching the coffers of some enterprising local merchant.
The First White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama, is fortunate to have a number of important textiles, among them the famed Gunboat Quilt and its companion, the Baby Quilt. “Gunboat Quilts” were made by Alabama women as a fund-raising campaign for the purchase of a gunboat for the defense of Mobile Harbor. “This quilt…was sold twice in Tuscaloosa, for $15.00 and $500.00 respectively, once in Summerfield for $250.00 and once in Selma, price unknown,” as noted by one scholar. The Baby Quilt was not made to raise money but is made of trapunto work and of the same techniques and by the same person as the Gunboat Quilt. The quilts are also important because they leave behind a trace of the person who made them and the times in which that person lived.
One would think that quilts, like paintings, hang on walls forever, immune to the passage of time. Unfortunately, like any other item exposed to the elements, quilts begin to deteriorate. Conserving textiles can be complicated, and the preservation story of these two at the First White House of the Confederacy is an amazing one. |
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