Last month when we were in the Shoals, we took the boys up to UNA and visited Leo III and Una — the mascot. They loved that pretty water fountain too:
The Shoals Theatre sign didn’t have the vertical wave on it a few years ago:
This is the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library:
…the most interesting thing about it is the sculpture relief by James W. Stoves here, which used to be on the Gilbert Elementary School as of 1921, then later the Hibbett Middle School. The historic marker reads that the artist left coal mining to practice stonework and sculpture, and he went on to purchase the Florence Marble Works.
Such pretty houses in the historic district:
This Maud Lindsay Free Kindergarten was established in 1898. Maud Lindsay was the daughter of a governor, she wrote 14 books for children, she established this school (the first free kindergarten in Alabama), and was a close friend of Helen Keller. From the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame bio: “She, who had no college education, often instructed college professors, teaching them the art of storytelling during a summer lecture at New York University. Miss Maud received requests and offers to abandon her free kindergarten in East Florence and to accept positions elsewhere. Always firmly saying, “My place is in Alabama,” she refused all offers including a position with Madame Montessori in her school in Italy.”
Stagg’s Grocery: breakfast and lunch only, known for hamburgers. Yum.
…and there’s one last thing. There’s somebody buried in the middle of this road. On purpose. 
“Mountain” Tom Clark, who was hanged in 1872, said…well you can read the sign for the details, but he was apparently a big bully, gang leader, and general-purpose terrorist, who boasted that nobody would ever run over him. Well…