Florence Alabama

Great Sandwiches and Florence History on the Walls

We spent the day touring Florence, we visited an Indian mound museum, the Rosenbaum House designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright, Pope’s Tavern & Museum, had lunch at Trowbridge’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop and did a few shopping errands.

The economic history of Florence is quite interesting. The Wilson Dam build began in 1918 and was completed in 1924, during the same period the federal government built a large munitions factory in the area. It became a boom town in the middle south. Of course the war ended and the Dam was completed and the boom quickly became a bust. Still the Wilson Dam has a lift of 93 feet and at the time it was built it was the tallest dam in the world and is still one of the tallest. When the munitions plant closed Henry Ford wanted to move his manufacturing plant to the existing buildings, however, congress could not agree with Ford on an acquisition price.

Front with cantilevered carport

Dining area from the great room

 The Rosenbaum House is the only Frank Lloyd House in Alabama and is one of the Usonian designs created by Frank. He never visited Alabama during the construction but sent a member of his staff to the build site. The family lived in the house from 1940 until 1998 when the City of Florence negotiated with Mrs. Rosenbaum to take over and preserve the house. In 1939, the estimate to build the house was $6500 after negotiations the agreed upon price was $7500, however, the actual build price was double that. When the City rebuilt the house in 1999-2000 the total rebuild price was $750,000. A wonderful tour, the feel of the house is incredible, the scale fits so well and the colors and ingenuity that went into both the design and construction is incredible.

Back of the house window doors on the Great Room

Side Entrance Landscaping

Garden Area

Pope’s Tavern was a stagecoach stop on the road from Nashville to New Orleans, it was used as a hospital during the Civil War, it houses artifacts and is one of the oldest buildings in Florence.