Lowe Mill Arts and Entertainment: The Many Lives of a Huntsville Landmark

By Stephanie L. Robertson

Today, Huntsville’s Lowe Mill is a vibrant arts center, but the structure has an extensive history dating back to the state’s mid-nineteenth-century textile industry. The mill incorporated at the turn of the century, just one of Huntsville’s many textile mills. The structure changed hands many times over the decades, but it became a mainstay of the community, offering its employees and their families cultural opportunities such as a village with schools, a YMCA, stores, and other businesses. After changes in the industry rendered the factory obsolete, the mill’s structure was revitalized by the introduction of artists into the space. Today, the organization has become the “largest privately owned arts facility in the South,” complete with artists and artisans who create new kinds of artwork in a classic space.

Remembering Jimmy Hatcher: A Showman of the South

By Tim L. Pennycuff

Known to admirers as Alabama’s “Mister Theater,” Enterprise native Jimmy Hatcher made an indelible mark on Birmingham and the state. He began his performing career as a student at Birmingham Southern College, and he moved on to become a full-time theater instructor, spending decades as a theater professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Throughout, he nurtured and trained generations of thespians, working with everyone from Fannie Flag to Leonard Nimoy.

Letter from the Director

By Donna Cox Baker

​After nearly two decades as Alabama Heritage’s Editor, Donna Cox Baker announces her retirement.

Portraits and Landscapes

The Emancipation of John Bell

By Carlie Anne Burkett

After being purchased and enslaved by Alabama politician William Rufus King, John Bell was relocated to Alabama, where he spent many years at Chestnut Hill, King’s plantation, as well as time in France when King was appointed as a minister to that country. Upon King’s death, Bell experienced a complicated path to emancipation, one circumscribed by the state’s laws and the whims of King’s surviving relatives.

Alabama Governors

George S. Houston

By Colin Rafferty

As a two-term governor, George Houston led Alabama into more than a century of Democratic leadership. Among his decisions, those with the longest ramifications were overseeing the creation of a new state constitution (a document still used today) and his decision to enact convict leasing (a practice Alabama maintained longer than any other state).

Behind the Image

A Crazy Quilt

By Frances Osborn Robb

A photograph from a Florence, Alabama, photographer reveals insights into the influence of Japanese culture on nineteenth-century America, thanks to the exhibits at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Held in Philadelphia, the exposition introduced Americans to the ceramic designs that led to “fancy work” and the creation of so-called crazy quilts.

The Nature Journal

Bluebirds (And Happiness)

By L. J. Davenport

Thanks to the introduction of the invasive European Starling, Eastern Bluebirds have been threatened by loss of habitat. To combat this, John Findlay began constructing bluebird boxes, offering homes perfectly designed for the species. Today, the John Finlay III Bluebird Trail at Birmingham’s Oak Mountain inspires many, including Alabama Heritage’s resident naturalist, who decided to build some bluebird boxes of his own.