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Heritage Preservation, Inc. WILSON PARK: A BRIEF HISTORY by Lindsey Stricklin (A lecture delivered at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library on October 10, 2003) Edited by Billy Warren, June, 2004
We've all observed the disappearance over the years of acres of forests and fields that once surrounded us as urban growth has occurred. How fortunate we are that the original planners of our beautiful Renaissance City had a concern for preserving green spaces from the very beginning. Present-day Wilson Park stands as a jewel in our crown and a monument to their vision and foresight. The account I present here of Wilson Park's nearly 200 years of existence is far from complete. There are periods of time for which I have not yet found information – the eras of the great wars for example (1861 – 1865; 1917 – 1918). I hope to fill these in through continued research, but I also know that there will be gaps that will inevitably remain because of lost records or a shift in focus to places and events that directed attention away from the park. On March 12, 1818, having learned that land at the foot of Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee River (and at the head of clear navigation) would be offered for sale by land companies that had been organized in Huntsville for selling land and establishing towns, a number of gentlemen from North Alabama and elsewhere organized the Cypress Land Company by combining the Tennessee and Alabama Land Companies. "Articles of Association" were adopted, and trustees were appointed. They were:
Among the stockholders were James Madison, a tobacco planter of Virginia; President-to-be Andrew Jackson; James Jackson, builder of the Forks of Cypress mansion; and General John Coffee. For the sum of $85,235, the group purchased 5,515+ acres on the north banks of the Tennessee River, between Cypress Creek and Campbell's Ferry. It was General Coffee, then the Surveyor-General of the Alabama Territory, who first supervised the laying out of the town. Questions have been raised about the exact role in this process played by Ferdinand Sannoner. I rely on an account submitted Lee Freeman for the Lauderdale County Heritage Book Committee. Mr. Freeman has written the following which I have paraphrased: In 1816 an Italian engineer of German extraction arrived in New York City from France in response to French newspapers appealing to English-speaking engineers to help in surveying the American frontier. Records indicate that at 18 Sannoner was already an accomplished engineer and could speak several languages. On November 21, 1811, he had been appointed Surveyor First Class for the District of the Arno in Florence, Italy, and is said to have later served as surveyor under Napoleon Bonaparte. Upon his arrival in America, then, Sannoner was dispatched to the Alabama Territory which was in need of qualified engineers. At the request of General Coffee, his services were secured for the Cypress Land Company. Traditionally, Sannoner is said to have been the first surveyor of the town and to have been given the privilege of naming it in honor of his native city of Florence, Italy. Mr. Freeman cites William L. McDonald as believing that records show that General Coffee was the first surveyor and that Sannoner assisted him. We do know that when the original map made at the first survey became somewhat deteriorated, Sannoner was asked in 1852 to make a copy of that original. In the northern sector of that map, clearly indicated, is a space called "Public Walk." That space would become our Wilson Park. Tracing the evolution of the park from earliest days to the present time, as I said earlier, cannot be accomplished seamlessly. Apparently, in the first years of its existence it was allowed to remain in its natural state with very little in the way of formal landscaping being done. After all, the whole town was growing and, like an adolescent boy, to have decent shoes he might have to wear pants that are too tight for awhile – or vice-versa Milly Wright and William McDonald have, however, examined extant copies of the minutes of town meetings; the following excerpts help us to piece together a somewhat fragmented history: On September 27, 1851, it is recorded that Thomas I. Foster had been given the privilege of building a walk, subject to removal by him or his assignee, whenever required to do so by the corporation. On August 9, 1852, George Washington Foster and O.P. Asher were appointed as a committee to procure a correct map of the plan and lots of the corporation of Florence, provided the same could be procured within 60 days. On October 25, 1852, the committee reported that a correct map or plan of the town of Florence could be made by Ferdinand Sannoner for $25. It was voted to get this done. (At this point there is an interesting item in the town meeting minutes which has nothing to do with the park: The town constable was instructed to notify a particular citizen that his woman had been declared a nuisance and that he be required to remove the same without the corporate limits within 10 days or she would be dealt with according to the law.) On November 23, 1852, the map committee reported that it had discharged its duty and presented the map. Mr. Sannoner was paid $25. The next reference to the park that I have is dated February 20, 1854. The committee assigned to the "public walk" was instructed to contract with John Kachelman for not more than 400 trees. (Mr. Kachelman owned land northeast of Florence and had the privilege of cultivating the land which surrounded the Indian Mound.) A year later he was paid for the trees that had survived: 25 cents each for cedar trees and 50 cents each for others; the total was $143.84. Again in 1854 – March 13 – it is noted that the committee in charge of fencing the "public walk" had examined the work done by a Mr. A. Amonet and had found his work satisfactory except that the posts were unstable because the dirt around them had not been sufficiently settled. The committee asked that Mr. Amonet be required to tamp the dirt around the posts, but he countered that it was not usual to do that and that the dirt would settle on its own. It is not recorded how this disagreement was settled, but by December, 1854, the fence needed repairs to keep livestock out. By this time, it is evident that there was dissatisfaction about the school that had been built, but action toward its removal was tabled. But on May 27, 1854, the matter of the schoolhouse was again on the agenda. After ordering the town constable to notify owners of goats frequenting the public square and the pavement in front of the Courthouse that such owners were, under penalty of law, to remove the animals, the committee voted that the owners of the schoolhouse on the "public walk" near the Methodist Church be told to remove the same within 60 days or it would be declared a nuisance and appropriate action would be taken. Later references indicate the owners had failed to provide a "necessary"; hence the creation of what was considered a "nuisance." On the site of our Post Office/Federal Court building once stood a magnificent structure housing the Florence Synodical Female Institute. The young ladies used the "public walk' as a recreation area and, at the request of the Institute's directors, a fence was built to keep cows off the green, with a gate provided so the girls could come and go. In September, 1854, the matter of the schoolhouse came up again. It was agreed that a Mrs. Henderson could continue to have a school there if she would erect a suitable "necessary" before the school opened. (I'm sure the students were grateful.) On May 6, 1858, Mr. Edward A. O'Neal was granted permission to mow or cut down the grass in the lot known as the "public walk." On September 8, 1858, Mrs. J. W. Leigh, a matron at Florence Synodical College, asked that shade trees be planted around the public square and on the college grounds, but no action was taken on her request. Then came the turbulent years, 1861-1865; I have no record yet of what happened at the "public walk." One can reasonably assume that it was used by troops and that very little in the way of recreational and social activities would have occurred there. But on May 22, 1866, at a meeting held in the office of Judge Wood (for whom Wood Avenue is named) it was decided that the partially dismantled fence around the "public walk" could be used as a source of materials needed for enclosing a graveyard. Henry Weakley was authorized to trim the trees in the "public walk" and to use the resulting brush to fill in washed-out places around town, a clear indication to me that the war years had taken their toll in the neglect of the landscape. In April of 1868 William Leigh petitioned the commission to enclose part of Tombigbee Street between the Female College lot and the "public walk" and, thus, not have it open as a street so that cattle could gather there at night. By 1870 the population of the city was a little over 2,000; many new businesses sprang up and some former ones were re-established. By 1883 the city was lighted with gas lamps, and, according to Nancy Beard in some planning papers submitted May 18, 1977, to the Alabama Historical Commission, some of these lamps were located in what she called "Sannoner Park." She also cited testimony by Mrs. B. C. Luna (nee Adele Blair), granddaughter of Zebulon Pike Morrison (who built Wesleyan Hall on the UNA campus), that the "public walk" was full of cedar trees and lighted by gas lamps; in fact there are references to the area as "Cedar Park." The scene would be drastically altered when the Florence Female Synodical College, established in 1847, was removed to make way for the new Post Office building. Only one of the college's buildings was left standing – a two-story brick structure facing Tombigbee Street and the park. It would be used by the Fraternal Order of the Elks and, later, as the offices of Florence's chapter of the American Red Cross. Jill Garrett, a historian of Lauderdale County, observes that in the latter years of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th, the park remained relatively unchanged. In August, 1918, however, major efforts toward improvement were underway. A wading pool for children was being constructed "under the big elm at the east end." Built of concrete, 30 feet in diameter and supplied with city water, it was kept clean and usable by a city employee. On the south side there was a band stand, "temporary but of artistic design," which was the site of Tuesday might concerts by a band of local musicians directed by Mr. E. A. Henry. Keeping the weeds and grass away was a constant problem, it was noted. (Maybe they should have brought the goats back!) On September 6, 1918, a Liberty Sing was held in the park. Rev. C. L. Price gave the invocation, with Rev. D. W. Hollingsworth as the speaker. The band played "Over There," and the group sang "There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding." Then came November 11, 1918, and the "war to end all wars" ended. The following year, in February, 1919, a group of ladies organized to take better care of the park. Evidently, the citizens of Florence followed the lead of these ladies. The headline in the February 20, 1924, issue of the Florence Times declared, "Florence will honor the memory of Wilson." It was proposed that the name of Seminary Street be changed to Wilson Avenue and that of the park to Woodrow Wilson Park. (From what I can gather, up to this time the park had had a variety of names but not an officially declared name. There had been, in 1921, a move to name the park for Sannoner and another proposal that it be named for the Rev. C. L. Price who, with his wife, had been so active over the years in developing the area. But Rev. Price, in a letter dated July 11, 1921, to the editor of the local newspaper, asked that his name not be considered but rather that the name Sannoner Park be selected. He thanked the members of the Ladies Auxiliary and members of the Commission, especially Mr. C. M. Southall, for their efforts, but he modestly declined the honor.) So – Wilson Park it became, and it remains so today. Memorial tress for the men who gave their lives in World War I were planted. An effort was even made to secure a tree from the famous Washington Elm. Mrs. Mary Emily Savage Price, wife of the Rev. C. L. Price, designed and planned the landscaping for the park, with a flower-covered mound as the central feature. Approximately ten years later, this mound would be replaced by the magnificent fountain given by Rev. Hiram Kennedy Douglass in memory of his father, James Josephus Douglass. About 1940 the cherry trees at River Hill, in the south part of town, were moved to the park. The Prices were memorialized first in 1929 with a marble bench placed in the park in their honor, and, later, by a stone wall with drinking fountains dedicated to them on June 16, 1952. The next major change in the park would occur in 1975 with landscaping done by the Florence Housing Authority under the direction of Karl T. Tyree, Jr. On May 17, 1977, the Wilson Park Historic District was placed on the National register of Historic Places. And there you have it. Outside these windows, across the street on this beautiful autumn day, October 10, 2003, is that 1818 dream in its present manifestation. Last May, it was vividly alive with Arts Alive. In a few days it will again teem with life as knights and ladies, kings and queens, fools and mountebanks gather for the annual Renaissance Faire. And I am willing to wager that looking down from some lofty height – perhaps with some dismay but mostly with pleasure – will be General John Coffee and his Italian-born assistant, Ferdinand Sannoner!
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