Last month when Leslie and I went antiquing up Hwy 11, we stopped for a while in Ashville. I’ve posted about one of the shops that we stopped at — the one with the gorgeous basket — but there were so many other things to see.
This is the John W. Inzer home, which is now a museum:
We didn’t call beforehand to get a tour (it’s supposed to have some great pieces inside, plus I’d love to see all those fireplaces – there are four on each side) but there were plenty of other things to see…
This pretty house is a quilt shop – it used to be a tea room:
The Masonic Lodge, built in the 1850s:
In the city cemetery is the marker for Howard Hill who is famous in certain circles — if you’ve ever seen the old 1938 movie Robin Hood, he did all the archery shooting. He’s even still considered the greatest archer of all time (he won 196 straight field archery competitions). There’s a Howard Hill Archery company too. And he was a great football player in the ’20s at Auburn.
Now this is something you don’t see in many areas anymore:
People in this area were taking a part in a home wake, a practice that so many people now perform at a funeral home as ‘visitation’. If you’ve ever been to a home wake, you know that people bring food, tell stories, and someone stays with the body overnight (many times taking turns) before burial takes place. These signs along the road help even passersby show their respect by slowing.
Probably the most famous photograph of a home wake is by Shelby Lee Adams in Kentucky.
Not far from there was a burned-out mobile home and another house that had all these pieces of artwork all around:
Our last destination before lunch was the John Looney house, built around 1820 and quite possibly the oldest dogtrot house in Alabama.
A two-story double dogtrot:
Lunch was at Shaw’s Barbecue, which was recommended to us. It had all the hallmarks of a great bbq place — football artwork, the Ten Commandments posted on one wall, good cue and fried pies, a tip jar “please be kind and tip waitress + cook. We share our tips cause we are a team and work hard 2gether 🙂” and in appreciation for our payment, we received a refrigerator magnet with the upcoming NASCAR races listed.
Pretty good.