Richard Upjohn in Alabama

By Robert Mellown and Robert Gamble

He designed some of nineteenth-century America’s most famous buildings. His Italianate villa-style homes are worth millions today. But few people know that Richard Upjohn was perhaps best known in the American South for a much simpler set of blueprints that he practically gave away for free. An immigrant to the United States from England, Upjohn was commissioned to design New York’s Trinity Church in 1833, a project which could have earned him a place in history by itself. But Upjohn was a devout Anglican with a sense of charity, and he wanted to design smaller, low-cost churches or struggling congregations who could not afford his professional services. The result was a slim volume published in 1852 entitled, Upjohn’s Rural Architecture.

In the Spring 2002 issue of Alabama Heritage, Robert Mellown and Robert Gamble examine the influence of Upjohn’s “little book” on small Episcopal congregations in Alabama, who took Upjohn’s plans for simple rural structures and created remarkably beautiful houses of worship. Some of these churches still stand today and have remained in use for a hundred and fifty years.

The Mussels of Muscle Shoals

By Stuart W. McGregor

Have you ever wondered how the Muscle Shoals region of North Alabama got its name? Here’s a hint: you can eat the answer on the half-shell. Alabama’s waterways have long been known for their phenomenal abundance of slimy, bivalve brachiopods-otherwise nown as mussels. But the construction of dams and canals on the Tennessee River in the early twentieth century has changed the environment and gradually diminished the number of mussels left. Is the decline of Alabama’s mussel population something you should be concerned about? The answer may surprise you.

In the Spring 2002 issue of Alabama Heritage, Stuart W. McGregor pries open the story of the mussels of Muscle Shoals and explains their importance to the wealth and welfare of the state. From the earliest human settlers in the region who relied on mussels for food, to the modern-day industrialists who cultivate pearls, McGregor traces the slippery course of mollusk events in North Alabama-and he explains why Muscle Shoals should have been Mussel Shoals.

Mobile’s Old Catholic Cemetery

By John S. Sledge

It was a place where the dead were laid to rest, and where the living drowned their sorrows in “spirituous liquors” on sale at the gravesite. Where else could you could find the poet who penned “The Sword of Robert E. Lee,” the commanding admiral of the famed Confederate raider Alabama, the last slave runner in America, and the slaves he ran, all in the same place? Mobile has its share of historic graveyards, but none are quite as impressive as Old Catholic Cemetery. Not even New Orleans contains a funerary ground like this.

In the Spring 2002 issue of Alabama Heritage, John S. Sledge leads a guided tour through one of the most mysterious cemeteries in the South. Beginning with Old Catholic’s unusual circular design, Sledge walks us through the history of this sacred ground, stopping to admire the remarkable marble statuary along the way. Sledge also explains how Old Catholic Cemetery attests to the staying power of the Catholic Church in Mobile, despite dynamic changes in the city’s culture throughout the nineteenth century. For anyone interested in the trials and rewards of historical preservation, the story of Old Catholic will come as a sobering reminder of what we stand to lose by letting the past stay buried.

Frank Lockwood and His Architectural Legacy

By John B. Scott Jr.

If you live in Alabama, you’ve probably seen his work, but chances are you don’t know his name. He had the air of an Englishman, a certain charm with the ladies, and a voice so talented he drew the attention of the Metropolitan Opera. But Frank Lockwood is perhaps best remembered for designing some of the most impressive and important buildings in the state. The Montgomery Federal Building, a site of landmark civil rights court cases, is his legacy. So is the renovated State Capitol, as well as numerous other public and academic buildings throughout Alabama, not to mention dozens of churches and historic homes. John B. Scott Jr. traces the prolific career of one of Alabama’s most notable architects. From Lockwood’s sketchy educational background to his controversial work habits, Scott introduces the man whose life was no less remarkable than the buildings he left behind. For anyone interested in Alabama’s rich architectural heritage, this is a must-read.

Recollections

If the Legends Fade

Drivers passing Tom Hendrix’s place, just off the Natchez Trace Parkway in Northwest Alabama, might not think twice about the stone wall that borders it, but for Hendrix the wall has a tremendous symbolic significance. He built it, with his own hands, in order to commemorate the forced removal–and eventual return–of his ancestors, members of the Yuchi tribe. The wall is part of Hendrix’s quest to pass the story of is people along to anyone who wants to listen.

Nature Journal

Freshwater Jellyfish 

By L. J. Davenport

Freshwater jellyfish have inhabited Alabama waters as long as (if not longer than) humans have inhabited its land. They exist as polyps far longer than they do in their medusal form, and the triggers this last stage remain a mystery. Because the appearance of the medusal form is so rare, its appearance in Alabama waters is an “event,” and these unpredictably fluctuating opportunists have gained a certain mystique.