A final day in Tuscaloosa

Two days before I left Tuscaloosa, a girl in my class named Erin took me to Capitol Park. Capitol Park is the site of the old Capitol building, because Tuscaloosa used to be the capital of Alabama! Actually, Tuscaloosa became the capital of Alabama in 1826, seven years after Alabama became a state. (The capital moved to Montgomery in 1846, which then became the first capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War.)

A fire burnt the capitol building in 1923 and turned it to ruins. However, the little that was left of the building was preserved. It has now made Capitol Park a cool hang out spot for Tuscaloosa natives. To the right you will see me on top of one of the piece of rubble, and below you will see another part of the old capitol building.

The day before I left I went home with Lucy. She lives right off of University Boulevard very near the battle where the battle of Tuscaloosa began. She took TONS of pictures of some very cool historical buildings around the area. Some of the places she visited were the Governor's Mansion, the Old Tavern, the Friedman House, the old bridge site that was part of the Tuscaloosa battle, and the Jemison house. Some of these pictures are posted below. For the rest, be sure to check out my album on Flickr!

The Battle of Tuscaloosa

Tuscaloosa Magnet School taught me about the Battle of Tuscaloosa!

During this battle everything on campus got burned down, except the President's Mansion and three other buildings. The reason that didn't get burned down was because the president's wife went out and begged them not to burn it down. The professors also begged not to burn down the library, but they did anyway. This battle went on because the University of Alabama used to be a military school. The Yankees stole all of their cannons also. That was a sad day in Tuscaloosa but now they have recovered.

(by Jewels H.)

the President's Mansion -->

My arrival in Tuscaloosa, Alabama !

Wow! I just went home with Taylor H. for the weekend. She took me to the University of Alabama and took pictures of me with the places that were not burned in the Battle of Tuscaloosa. The children have taught me so much about it. More will come in the next post about that battle!

Here is me at the Gorgas House. It was built in 1829 and is one of four buildings that survived the Civil War. It was originally used as a hotel or "steward's hall," and then it became a dining hall for the campus and at the time of the war one of the faculty residences. After the war Confederate General Josiah Gorgas lived there with his wife and family.