Part II

Thursday - Again, we got our usual early start. We were at Old Alabama Town in time to take the 12:00 tour of the Ordeman House Museum. Ordeman was the architect; the people who lived there were named Mitchell. It is a townhouse in the Italianate style and was used by plantation owners as a townhouse. None of the furnishings are orginal to the house, but they are antiques from the period. It is really a nice place. There is also the barn, the kitchen and slave quarters, laundry, pantry and a 4 - get that? 4 hole outhouse. Now you know they were upscale.


The rest of the tour thru Old Alabama Town was self-guided, with some interpreters along the way. Old Alabama Town is 2 city blocks of buildings representing the history of the area. All of the buildings have been moved from their original sites to create this "town". It begins at Lucas Tavern which was built in 1790. The gentleman there was very informative. He does re-enactments and has made all his own "antique" tools, bullets, etc. He does a great Scots accent.

We then toured the dogtrot house, the pole barn, the general store (eek, too many things I recognized), the church and the school. The Grange building was being repainted and was closed. This particular day, there were several school groups touring the town. So we got to watch the schoolmaster go into his act about how they would behave and the chores they would have to do. The girls were the ones to wash windows- is that fair? Anyway, he was really good in his part and had some of those kids a little scared.

Then we crossed over to the plantation house which was a 2 story dogtrot. Also saw the blacksmith at work. There was a cotton gin, a grist mill, a newspaper office, and a pharmacy.

It is a neat set-up and worth the price of admission.

TM took a gazillion pictures. TD was not allowed in, so he got left at home.

God Bless