Site Visit Saturday: Old Alabama State Capitol

 

While in Montgomery, Alabama, the commissioners from the various Deep South states began to debate just where the permanent capital of the Confederate States of American should be located. Many places were advanced as possibilities, including Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee; Pendleton, South Carolina; Alexandria, Virginia; and Selma, Shelby Spring, Spring Hill, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The later even went as far as to send a delegation to Montgomery to confer with the Confederate commissioners. Tuscaloosa had once been the capital of Alabama, and the old capitol building was still in good repair.

   Alabama has had several capitals. The Territorial Capital (1817-18179) was at St. Stephens on the Tombigbee River. Then in Huntsville, it was in Cahaba, and from 1826 until 1846, in Tuscaloosa. The capital then moved to Montgomery. The capitol building in Tuscaloosa was designed by William Nichols, the state architect, and located on Childress Hill. The Greek Revival and Federal style building had a copper dome, visible to boats on the Black Warrior River. The building had three main wings, and an entrance hallway. One wing housed the Supreme Court, another the state house, and the third, the state senate. Nichols went on to design the University of Alabama campus, much of which was burned by Federal soldiers in 1865. 

  After the capital moved to Montgomery, the building was given to the University, who in turn leased it to the Baptist State Convention which established the Alabama Central Female College. The College appears to have remained open throughout the war, escaping the fire set by Union troops on April 4, 1865.

   On August 22, 1923, a fire, possibly caused by faulty electrical wiring, burned down the old building. Its ruins are now a park in Tuscaloosa. If you are interested in learning more, please check out this site.

   I last visited this site in June 2018.