Go, Do, See
Old Alabama Town
W
ould you like to take a trip back in time to late 19th and early 20th century Alabama? You don’t need a time machine. Just take a trip to Old Alabama Town in Montgomery. It’s more than a museum. It’s traveling back in time among through 50 authentically restored structures with “residents and workers” doing the everyday tasks of that time along six blocks of downtown Montgomery. The “Town” is divided into three sections; a Living Section, a Working Section, and Along the Street. Three blocks of the town is a working block that shows how potteries, blacksmiths, even musicians plied their trade There is the Oliver Cotton Gin dating back to 1900. On most days, re-enactors are
there showing off their town. A blacksmith was the backbone of every community then. They were even more important than modern mechanics, as they not only kept the wagons rolling but also made things needed for everyday life, like axes, tools, household utensils, and nails. Daniel Webster Boatwright originally opened this shop in Fleahop in Elmore County in 1893 and it remained in operation by his family until the 1940s. There’s a gristmill, old pharmacy, print shop, and many more buildings. Travel back to when these were an everyday part of peoples’ lives. Visit the living block where people of the time go about their everyday lives. Visit classrooms where students leaned the latest reading,
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writing, and arithmetic. This was not too different from today in appearance but decades away in technologically. Here are desks with inkwells and slates, not computers and tablets. You can visit Lucas Tavern. Taverns then were not the bars we think of today. They provided food and shelter, as well as drinks. Lucas Tavern is the oldest of the buildings, built before 1818. It was originally a two-room dogtrot when the Lucases bought it. They added two additional rooms and enclosed the dogtrot. The added rooms gave them a dining room with access to the outside kitchen. The tavern was moved here from the Old Federal Road about 15 miles east of Montgomery. Then the Federal Road was the major connection between Washington D.C.
