On our way through Moulton, we found this, the old Star Theatre:
There was talk five years ago of the city buying it (at a cost of $12500, down from $80k) but I don’t know if it ever went through. Either way, it looks as though nothing to little has been done to the facade:
The best part wasn’t even the facade but those great colored bulbs underneath the entrance overhang:
Something I had heard about but not seen yet was at the Lawrence County Courthouse, where of course they have all the monuments you expect to see on a southern courthouse lawn — the Confederate memorial, another for WWI & WWII, Korea, etc…
…but here in Lawrence County, there’s a monument put up by the ‘Friendly Five’ to Union soldiers.
The ‘Friendly Five’ was a local group who approached commissioners about putting this monument up, that one of the leaders had researched Union soldiers from this area.
Here’s part of the article from 2006:
A controversy developed late last year when the Sons of Confederate Veterans received the commission’s approval to erect a monument on the courthouse lawn. The monument contains political language, such as a sentence that praises soldiers who fought against Northern aggression. Hampton’s monument is dedicated to all Union soldiers who fought in the war. Commissioners asked her to limit it to Union soldiers from Lawrence County.
The monument also will say “We exist to help those who cannot help themselves. God Bless America.”
Hampton said The Friendly Five is a community group that helps children in need, such as providing clothing and taking them on cultural trips to places such as civil rights museums.
She said limiting the monument’s dedication to black Union soldiers would have been counterproductive.
“I’m trying to bring unity into Lawrence County because we’re divided,” Hampton said after the meeting. “(Unity) is something that’s very much needed, and for us to grow, we have to get over our black and white issues.”
For whatever reason, the finished monument does not have the wording that the group said it would in this article. It doesn’t even really seem to allude to a group of people from this area fighting for the Union rather than the CSA. Wonder what happened. Anyway.
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This was a strange thing that happened in 2008 at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Tennessee when the lawn was declared a place that people could place items as part of their free speech. There was everything from a Statue of Liberty replica to a ‘Flying Spaghetti Monster’. That pretty much ended it.
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Here are a handful of some other theater facades I’ve taken pics of that are pretty interesting:
Lipscomb, AL:
Gadsden, AL:
Meridian, MS:
Greenville, AL:
McComb, MS:
Talladega, AL:
Crowley, LA:
Leland, MS:
Sheffield, AL:
Florence, AL:
Columbus, MS:
Aberdeen, MS:
