Old Alabama Town: Feature: The North Block

301 Columbus Street

Montgomery, Alabama 36104

Call us 334-240-4500 888-240-1850

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Working in the Past

See how Alabamians prospered in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As in the 19th century, all of the crafts are not practiced every day. It is for this reason that repeated visits to Old Alabama Town are desirable. This tour includes the following attractions:

MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of Landmarks Foundation is to preserve, interpret and present Central Alabama's architecture, history and culture.

Rose-Morris House, ca. 1840s

image: Rose House

An imposing I-house with dogtrot, the structure has a refined Greek Revival portico. The I-House configuration is two rooms over two rooms with a central hall. A one-story lean-to provides two additional pens. The Rose House serves as the main entrance to the Working Block and houses period crafts.

April Events

Make Plans now for Old Alabama Town's Celebrations in April.

Clanton Kitchen, ca. 1872

image: Clanton kitchen

This house was originally a freestanding outbuilding behind the 1870s Clanton House. A two-room frame saddlebag with exterior doors and central chimney, the small Italianate house has a separate kitchen and dining room connected by a covered walkway.

Graves-Haigler
Plantation Office, early 19th century

image: Graves-Haigler

Outbuildings were essential to the operations of plantations. This one-room structure with replicated Greek Revival portico served as a plantation office and later became the kitchen when the original one burned. It now serves as the woodcarvers' shop.

Blacksmith Shop, ca. 1880s

image: Blacksmith Shop

This simple unpainted frame structure with overhang roof, wide doors, stone and brick forge was an integral part of society well into the twentieth century. Much of the equipment is original to the shop. Many farms and plantations had their own resident “smithys” that supplied a variety of needs.

Drugstore Museum

image: Drugstore

The Alabama Pharmaceutical Association first developed the early twentieth century drugstore museum. Reminiscent of an earlier day, the drugstore is complete with soda fountain, patent medicines, a pharmacy, cosmetics and appropriate tables and chairs. In small towns, the social life of young and old often revolved around the soda fountain.

Old Alabama Town Gazette and Print Shop

image: Print Shop

The print shop reflects late nineteenth and early twentieth-century techniques with its linotype, various presses and handset type. Providing the city with newspapers, printing small jobs, such as advertisements, wedding and funeral notices were all essential functions of the shop.

Molton Outbuilding
North and South, ca. 1850s

image: Moulton Outbuilding

These small saddlebag buildings flanked the rear of the Molton House on its original site at Adams Avenue and Union Street. The cantilevered overhang is typical of structures of this kind in urban and rural Alabama. Today these buildings serve as space for baskets and quilt displays.


Cotton Gin, ca. 1900
			This unique turn-of-the-century cotton gin was reassembled, restored and housed in a replicated “gin house” at Old Alabama Town. Gins of this period produced 2 bales of cotton per hour. Today gins can produce 1 bale per minute. The standard size for a bale of cotton is 500 pounds.
Grist Mill, ca. 1900
			This turn-of-the-century mill was used to stone grind corn into corn meal or grits. Pioneers, planters, and small farmers depended on ground corn as a major food source for themselves and their livestock. In addition, corn and the husks were useful as stuffing for mattresses, mats, brooms, baskets and toys for children.