2 April '09
Friday
After such a wonderful sunny day we had yesterday, this morning has shown us that the stormy weather is still around. We’ve turned to the weather channel a couple of times this morning and we have seen that we’re not having some of the tough weather that a lot of the country is having. Anyway, we decided to stay close, so while I’m doing a little “home work” on the computer I’m enjoying myself at the convection oven as well. I had the urge to bake, so bake I did. I just finished baking peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
Friday
After such a wonderful sunny day we had yesterday, this morning has shown us that the stormy weather is still around. We’ve turned to the weather channel a couple of times this morning and we have seen that we’re not having some of the tough weather that a lot of the country is having. Anyway, we decided to stay close, so while I’m doing a little “home work” on the computer I’m enjoying myself at the convection oven as well. I had the urge to bake, so bake I did. I just finished baking peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
Now while they’re cooling I’ll finish up yesterday’s journey. Leaving Brindlee Mountain 15 miles behind us, we arrived at the Huntsville. Just by chance we happened to leave the freeway at the same exit as AAA has their new offices. This last Monday morning we decided to re-join the AAA to take advantage of their great maps and tour books. We’ve always enjoyed having both of them, but for some reason we let the membership lapse. Now with a new membership card and a stack of new materials…we’re ready. Our next stop, Huntsville Visitor Center. They were very helpful in getting all the local tourist information in our hands including a walking map of the historical homes of Huntsville.
I’ve written before of the historical homes of some of the southern states we’ve visited, but this was the first stop that we could see so many of them on a walking tour. In 1810 Leroy Pope, Huntsville’s first land developer, arrived in the area to set up office. He named the area “Twickenham” after the home of the poet Alexander Pope. In 1812 anti-British sentiment was rising because of the War caused the name to change to Huntsville in honor of its first settler. Soooo, the area that we were walking was called the “Twickenham Historic District”.
Twickenham is one of the largest concentrations of antebellum homes in the South. We walked the sidewalks and streets admiring these fine residences’ that were built between 1870 and 1930. It is the only predominantly Victorian neighborhood remaining in the city. While on our walk, we saw “dwellings” of modest one and two-story vernacular Victorian homes, Bungalows of the 1920-30’s, cape Cods, and a few Ranch style homes of the 50’s. One of the homes was used as the headquarters for Federal Army General Ormsby Mitchel during the Civil War.
Remember, yesterday was a great day for a walk, in the low to mid 70’s and lots of great sunshine. Our next stop was at the hardware store… Harrison Brothers hardware store was established in 1879 and still open for business today.
The only difference is that the store is run by volunteers and the profits go to the Historic Huntsville Foundation. The foundation took over ownership after the last living family member John Harrison, passed away in 1983. The National Cash Register is supposed to be well over 100 years old as well.
They still use it…no receipt, but they still put the daily cash into it. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t permanently lock up one of these times.