ALABAMA HERITAGE
  • Magazine
    • Current and Back Issues >
      • Back Issues 141-150 >
        • Issue 147, Winter 2023
        • Issue 146, Fall 2022
        • Issue 145, Summer 2022
        • Issue 144, Spring 2022
        • Issue 143, Winter 2022
        • Issue 142, Fall 2021
        • Issue 141, Summer 2021
      • Back Issues 131-140 >
        • Issue 140, Spring 2021
        • Issue 139, Winter 2021
        • Issue 138, Fall 2020
        • Issue 137, Summer 2020
        • Issue 136, Spring 2020
        • Issue 135, Winter 2020
        • Issue 134, Fall 2019
        • Issue 133, Summer 2019
        • Issue 132 Spring 2019
        • Issue 131, Winter 2019
      • Back Issues 121-130 >
        • Issue 130, Fall 2018
        • Issue 129, Summer 2018
        • Issue 128, Spring 2018
        • Issue 127, Winter 2018
        • Issue 126, Fall 2017
        • Issue 125 Summer 2017
        • Issue 124, Spring 2017
        • Issue 123, Winter 2017
        • Issue 122, Fall 2016
        • Issue 121, Summer 2016
      • Back Issues 111-120 >
        • Issue 120, Spring 2016
        • Issue 119, Winter 2016
        • Issue 118, Fall 2015
        • Issue 117, Summer 2015
        • Issue 116, Spring 2015
        • Issue 115, Winter 2015
        • Issue 114, Fall 2014
        • Issue 113, Summer 2014
        • Issue 112, Spring 2014
        • Issue 111, Winter 2014
      • Back Issues 101-110 >
        • Issue 110, Fall 2013
        • Issue 109, Summer 2013
        • Issue 108, Spring 2013
        • Issue 107, Winter 2013
        • Issue 106, Fall 2012
        • Issue 105, Summer 2012
        • Issue 104, Spring 2012
        • Issue 103, Winter 2012
        • Issue 102, Fall 2011
        • Issue 101, Summer 2011
      • Back Issues 91-100 >
        • Issue 100, Spring 2011
        • Issue 99, Winter 2011
        • Issue 98, Fall 2010
        • Issue 97, Summer 2010
        • Issue 96, Spring 2010
        • Issue 95, Winter 2010
        • Issue 94, Fall 2009
        • Issue 93, Summer 2009
        • Issue 92, Spring 2009
        • Issue 91, Winter 2009
      • Back Issues 81-90 >
        • Issue 90, Fall 2008
        • Issue 89, Summer 2008
        • Issue 88, Spring 2008
        • Issue 87, Winter 2008
        • Issue 86, Fall 2007
        • Issue 85, Summer 2007
        • Issue 84, Spring 2007
        • Issue 83, Winter 2007
        • Issue 82, Fall 2006
        • Issue 81, Summer 2006
      • Back Issues 71-80 >
        • Issue 80, Spring 2006
        • Issue 79, Winter 2006
        • Issue 78, Fall 2005
        • Issue 77, Summer 2005
        • Issue 76, Spring 2005
        • Issue 75, Winter 2005
        • Issue 74, Fall 2004
        • Issue 73, Summer 2004
        • Issue 72, Spring 2004
        • Issue 71, Winter 2004
      • Back Issues 61-70 >
        • Issue 70, Fall 2003
        • Issue 69, Summer 2003
        • Issue 68, Spring 2003
        • Issue 67, Winter 2003
        • Issue 66, Fall 2002
        • Issue 65, Summer 2002
        • Issue 64, Spring 2002
        • Issue 63, Winter 2002
        • Issue 62, Fall 2001
        • Issue 61, Summer 2001
      • Back Issues 51-60 >
        • Issue 60, Spring 2001
        • Issue 59, Winter 2001
        • Issue 58, Fall 2000
        • Issue 57, Summer 2000
        • Issue 56, Spring 2000
        • Issue 55, Winter 2000
        • Issue 54, Fall 1999
        • Issue 53, Summer 1999
        • Issue 52, Spring 1999
        • Issue 51, Winter 1999
      • Back Issues 41-50 >
        • Issue 50, Fall 1998
        • Issue 49, Summer 1998
        • Issue 48, Spring 1998
        • Issue 47, Winter 1998
        • Issue 46, Fall 1997
        • Issue 45, Summer 1997
        • Issue 44, Spring 1997
        • Issue 43, Winter 1997
        • Issue 42, Fall 1996
        • Issue 41, Summer 1996
      • Back Issues 31-40 >
        • Issue 40, Spring 1996
        • Issue 39, Winter 1996
        • Issue 38, Fall 1995
        • Issue 37, Summer 1995
        • Issue 36, Spring 1995
        • Issue 35, Winter 1995
        • Issue 34, Fall 1994
        • Issue 33, Summer 1994
        • Issue 32, Spring 1994
        • Issue 31, Winter 1994
      • Back Issues 21-30 >
        • Issue 30, Fall 1993
        • Issue 29, Summer 1993
        • Issue 28, Spring 1993
        • Issue 27, Winter 1993
        • Issue 26, Fall 1992
        • Issue 25, Summer 1992
        • Issue 24, Spring 1992
        • Issue 23, Winter 1992
        • Issue 22, Fall 1991
        • Issue 21, Summer 1991
      • Back Issues 11-20 >
        • Issue 20, Spring 1991
        • Issue 19, Winter 1991
        • Issue 18, Fall 1990
        • Issue 17, Summer 1990
        • Issue 16, Spring 1990
        • Issue 15, Winter 1990
        • Issue 14, Fall 1989
        • Issue 13, Summer 1989
        • Issue 12, Spring 1989
        • Issue 11, Winter 1989
      • Back Issues 1-10 >
        • Issue 10, Fall 1988
        • Issue 9, Summer 1988
        • Issue 8, Spring 1988
        • Issue 7, Winter 1988
        • Issue 6, Fall 1987
        • Issue 5, Summer 1987
        • Issue 4, Spring 1987
        • Issue 3, Winter 1987
        • Issue 2, Fall 1986
        • Issue 1, Summer 1986
    • Digital Features
    • Links of Interest
    • Bonus Materials >
      • Adventures in Genealogy
      • Alabama Heritage Blog
      • Alabama Territory
      • Becoming Alabama >
        • Creek War Era
        • Civil War Era
        • Civil Rights Movement
      • From the Vault
      • History in Ruins
      • Places in Peril
      • Recipes
  • Online Store
    • Customer Service
  • About Us
    • Awards
    • Meet Our Team
    • News
    • Writer's Guidelines and Submissions
  • Search
  • Donate
Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
Alabama Heritage, Issue 55, Winter 2000
Issue 55, Winter 2000
Buy This Issue
Start Your Subscription
Give a Gift Subscription
On the cover: Stars fell on Alabama in 1833. (From Bible Readings for the Home Circle, 1889)

FEATURE  ABSTRACTS


Battle-Friedman gardenGrass obscures the intricate system
of brick-lined paths
(Robin McDonald)
The Battle-Friedman Garden Blooms Again

By George Stritikus

A home surrounded by an intricately designed and well-kept garden is a rare pleasure today, and was even more so in the nineteenth century. And that’s what makes the rediscovery and restoration of the Battle-Friedman garden such a revelation. Built in the late 1830s by Alfred Battle, the Battle-Friedman house in Tuscaloosa has remained as one of the finest examples of antebellum architecture in Alabama, but not until 1987, when an elaborate garden design was uncovered on the grounds, was the home’s grandeur fully realized. In the Winter 2000 issue of Alabama Heritage, author George R. Stritikus tells the story of the Battle-Friedman garden, the oldest documented garden in Alabama, and a garden with roots running all the way to the rich landscaping tradition of England.

Additional Information
  • Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Council of the American Institute of Architects. Alabama Preservation Notebook Manual (Montgomery, 1985 and later editions).
  • Blackshear, Helen Friedman. Mother was a Rebel ( Adams Press, 1973).
  • Ravenswaay, Charles Van. A Nineteenth-Century Garden (Universe Books, 1977).
  • Tice, Patricia M. Gardening in America, 1830-1910 (The Strong Museum, 1984).
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Bellingrath Gardens and Home 
  • Plantation Architecture in Alabama 
  • Tuscaloosa  
Multimedia:
  • Bellingrath Gardens (video) 
  • Bellingrath Holiday Lights 
  • Bellingrath Tea House 
  • Kitchen Garden at Robinson-Dilworth Plantation 
  • Plantation Architecture (gallery) 

About the Author
George R. Stritikus, Jefferson County Alabama Cooperative Extension System Agent, is a landscape consultant and advisor for several state, municipal, and private groups in Alabama. An expert in the gardening history of Alabama and the South east, he teaches in the Master Gardener's Program in north Alabama and speaks to an average of sixty groups per year on various garden-related topics. Stritikus also answers horticulture questions statewide over 1-800-644-4458.

Back to Top

When Stars Fell on Alabama

By John Hall

On the night of November 12, 1833, gamblers, thieves and other assorted sinners along the east coast of the United States traded in the instruments of their debauchery in exchange for prayerbooks, so sure were they that the end was near. The stars were falling from the sky; certainly, they believed, the earthly world was doomed. Alas, the world was not coming to a close. The dramatic display was actually a meteor storm—one of the most intense in recorded history—and, as John Hall writes in the Winter 2000 issue of Alabama Heritage, "its memory seemed to stick with Alabamians long after it was forgotten elsewhere."

Additional Information:
Sky and Telescope 
  • Browne, Malcolm W. "The Leonids: A Viewer's Guide," The New York Times, October 13, 1998.
  • Cobbs, Nicholas Hamner. "The Night the Stars Fell on Alabama," Alabama Review, April 1969, pp. 147-157.
  • Sanderson, Richard. "The Night of Raining Fire," Sky & Telescope, November 1998, pp. 30-36.
The following article in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Stars Fell on Alabama 

About the Author
John Hall, retired from the Alabama Museum of Natural History, where he was the head naturalist for many years, is now Executive Director of the Alabama Museums Association. He wishes to thank astronomer Gene Byrd and historian Guy Hubbs for leading him through the wilderness of science and archives as he prepared this article. A frequent contributor to Alabama Heritage, Hall has written on Hernando de Soto, the Sylacauga meteorite that struck Mrs. Ann Hodges in 1954, and the Wetumpka Astrobleme. His next article for Alabama Heritage will deal with the visit of pioneer botanist William Bartram to the southeast in 1775.

Back to Top

Hurricane Frederic damageFrederic demolished buildings
and scattered debris for miles
(Robin McDonald)
Hurricane Frederic

By J. Mack Lofton

Some twenty years ago, in September 1979, Hurricane Frederic ripped through the Gulf Coast, tearing the roofs off buildings, slinging freighters ashore, and wreaking havoc on the lives of half a million Alabamians. Mack Lofton details the life of the devastating tempest in the Winter 2000 issue of Alabama Heritage, charting the storm’s course from its infancy off the coast of Africa all the way to its last gust off the coast of Maine. Along the way, Lofton presents eyewitness accounts of the Mobile area’s preparations for the storm, the damage it caused, and the monumental clean-up and restoration effort that followed it.

Additional Information
As reference materials, the Army Corps of Engineers' document, Hurricane Frederic: Port disaster report, 30 August- 14 September 1979, compiled and written by Douglas W. Parker, Evelyn H. Brown, and Jack C. Mallory, proved to be indispensable in charting the course of the storm and in verifying storm-related statistics. Also consulted were back issues of the Mobile Register and the Birmingham News.

The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Climate 
  • Mobile County 
Multimedia:
  • Hurricane Ivan 
  • Hurricane Ivan Aftermath 

About the Author
After a long business career, J. Mack Lofton began writing full-time about fifteen years ago. He has published two books with the University of Alabama Press. His first, Voices from Alabama (1993), includes interviews with over 120 of the state's best storytellers, among them people from all walks of life-former sharecroppers, industrial workers, fishermen, housewives, preachers, and civil rights workers. This volume was followed by Healing Hands: Art Alabama Medical Mosaic (1995), a book of remembrances of physicians and nurses across the state. A third book, In the Name of the Law, has been completed detailing the personal experiences of Alabama law enforcement officers. Following the same technique he used for his books, Lofton began collecting personal stories about Hurricane Frederic at the Florida-Alabama line and worked his way west, talking to scores of survivors, all of whom had vivid memories of the storm.

Back to Top

Maury SmithMaury Smith of Balch & Bingham
led the move to renovate the
historic Winter Building in Montgomery
(Robin McDonald)
Good Business: The Rehabilitation of Historic Commercial Buildings

By Mary Huff

A significant effort is underway around the nation and in Alabama to preserve and re-use historic commercial buildings. Often these restoration projects are so successful—both aesthetically and financially—that they encourage other preservation efforts around them and bring life back to downtown. Such is the case in four Alabama cities chronicled by Mary Johnson Huff in the Winter 2000 issue of Alabama Heritage. Montgomery, Birmingham, Florence, and Anniston have all seen dramatic transformations of neglected commercial properties in recent years.

Buy This Feature
Additional Information
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Anniston
  • Birmingham 
  • Florence 
  • Montgomery 
Multimedia:
  • Florence, 1942 
  • Historic Photographs of Birmingham (gallery) 
  • Montgomery, ca. 1885 

About the Author
Mary Huff holds a master's degree in clothing and textiles from the School of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Alabama. She has written numerous books on quilts, including Star Quilts (New York: Crown, 1992), which she adapted for an Alabama Heritage article appearing in Fall 1993. Huff's interest in material culture led her into historic preservation and an eight-year stint on the board of the Alabama Preservation Alliance (APA). It was during her editorship of the APA newsletter that she began to write about historic preservation, and she has subsequently completed more extensive preservation-related writing projects for the Alabama Historical Commission. Huff currently has commitments with national publishers for two books on quilts and heads her own publishing service in Montgomery.
Back to Top

DEPARTMENT  ABSTRACTS


Recollections
The Great Depression 

By Roy L. Mott, Sr.

Roy L. Mott recounts his childhood in the Great Depression, watching his parents to struggle to make ends meet. The times were hard, but the Mott family was brought closer together than ever, creating fond memories even in the midst of the difficulties of the period.

Additional Information
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Bangor Cave 
  • General Textile Strike of 1934 
  • Poverty in Alabama 
  • Tennessee Valley Authority in Alabama (TVA) 
Multimedia:
  • Family in Mobile during the Great Depression 
  • Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (video) 
  • Tennessee Valley Authority Chemical Plant, 1942 

About the Author
Roy L. Mott, Sr., retired after many years as an electronics instructor at Hobson State Technical College, lives in Thomasville, Alabama.
Back to Top

Pelicans(Robin McDonald)
The Nature Journal
Brown Pelicans

By L. J. Davenport

Pelicans inhabit the edges of oceans and lakes, with seven species worldwide. One species, the brown pelican, occupies the Atlantic, Gulf, and California coasts of the United States, extending its range south into the tropics. The history of this species--and particularly its brush with extinction--is the subject of this month's "Nature Journal."

Additional Information
The following articles in the Encyclopedia of Alabama will also be of interest:
  • Alabama Coastal Birding Trail 
  • Birds of Alabama 
  • National Wildlife Refuges 

About the Author
L.J. Davenport is a professor of biology at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama.

Back to Top
Online Store
​Customer Service
Meet Our Team
Board of Directors
Corporate Sponsors
News
Join Our Email List

Employment
UA Disclaimer
UA Privacy Policy ​
​Website comments or questions?  

Email ah.online@ua.edu
Published by The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
​Alabama Heritage
Box 870342
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Local: (205) 348-7467
Toll-Free: (877) 925-2323
Fax: (205) 348-7473

alabama.heritage@ua.edu