Three northern Alabama homes have brushes with fame

Originally published May 18, 2003

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Florence Arts and Museums

The windows at the rear of Wright-Rosenbaum House in Florence, Ala., look out to an inviting backyard.

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Florence, Ala. – Who would figure northern Alabama could be such a source of inspiration?

It’s rural and has pockets of poverty, not unlike the two states that flank it, Georgia and Mississippi. You won’t find it on Conde Nast’s top 10 lists.

But people who visit rural areas often don’t remember the occasional shack or dilapidated trailer. They’re struck by scenic beauty, overcome by friendly people. And so it is in northern Alabama – miles of Crimson Tide on well-maintained and hardly traveled roads; fruit stands that invite a stop; an eye-popping mansion here and there; and some small towns that look like Main Street America. For a traffic-weary Atlantan, nirvana.

But we digress. While the trip may put you in the mood for inspiration, visits to three homes in Florence/Tuscumbia close the deal: a simple log cabin where a blues legend was born in 1873, a Usonian home designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1940 and a circa-1820 home where a miracle occurred in 1887.

W.C. Handy Home and Museum

You can imagine young William Christopher Handy sitting on the shaded front porch of this cabin made of hand-hewn logs and plotting to buy the guitar that his parents made him return – they didn’t approve of his musical interest. He later secretly joined a blues band and learned to play the cornet.

You’ll see the piano he used to compose “St. Louis Blues,” plus handwritten sheet music and photographs. The cabin is furnished much as it was when Handy was a child, and its library is a resource center for black history.

Who could guess this kid would become the “Father of the Blues”? All it took was a lot of talent, a lot of perseverance and a little luck. Handy was 40 when he published his most famous composition, “St. Louis Blues.” In his 50s, he began to lose his eyesight but continued to work. We should all be so dogged in pursuit of our dreams.

W.C. Handy Home and Museum, 620 W. College St., Florence. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. 256-760-6434. Admission: $2 adults, 50 cents students. www.florenceal.org/. W.C. Handy Music Festival (held in July), 256-766-7642, www.wchandyfest.com.

Wright-Rosenbaum House

On a shady street lined with beautiful and expensive homes, this place is a standout, even if you don’t know who designed it. Its clean, modern lines represent one of the best examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s style, though likely it caused some talk in an era when homes looked a bit more traditional – as in the white columns of homes nearby.

Built by Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum, the home was constructed of cypress, glass and brick. When their family grew, they asked Wright in 1948 to design two new wings. The word “Usonian” that Wright used to describe the home was coined by an English satirist to mean, roughly, “United States of America.” To Wright, it meant practical and lovely residences that the average American could afford.

We weren’t able to tour the inside of this marvel of utilitarian elegance —- we arrived after hours and left before the home opened the next day. But Florence being a small town (population 37,000), we were bold enough to be Peeping Toms. We peered through the home’s many panels of floor-to-ceiling windows to spy furniture and built-ins Wright designed; we walked along the broad patio out back and looked into the tranquil enclosed garden. The Rosenbaum family must have dearly loved this livable home. Stanley Rosenbaum died in the 1980s, and his widow occupied the home until 1999.

When Mildred Rosenbaum signed the home over to Florence for a museum, the city’s director of arts and museums, Barbara Kimberlin Broach, asked her how she felt.

“She put her hands on her shoulders and said, ‘I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders,’” Broach said. “That little lady knew her house is so wonderful … When you enter the home, you get a sense of repose and serenity.”

Now you can see the only Wright-designed house in Alabama and realize that living doesn’t have to be as complicated as we make it.

Wright-Rosenbaum House, 601 Riverview Drive, Florence. 256-740-8899. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; Sundays 1-4 p.m.; groups by appointment. Admission: $8 adults; $5 students, senior citizens and groups. www.wrightinalabama.com/.

Helen Keller Birthplace and Home, Tuscumbia

Thanks to the play and movie “The Miracle Worker,” most everyone knows the basics of the Helen Keller story.

But you’ll still learn plenty by touring her home, Ivy Green. For instance, Keller was the inspiration for the Lions Club International’s sight conservation efforts. She challenged the club in a speech to the international convention in 1925: “Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness?” They took up the cause. Exhibits in the gardens of the home include items honoring Keller from clubs all over the world. The clubs also donated a memorial fountain and benches, a cool place to reflect on a hot summer day.

The home itself, with much of its original furniture, was built by her grandparents, and the adjacent cottage that became a schoolhouse for Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan started life as an office. Keller’s parents lived in the cottage before moving to the bigger home. You can see the famous pump where a young Helen learned the meaning of her first hand-spelled word, “water.”

Keller was lucky to be born into this well-to-do family – her father was a lawyer, publisher of a weekly newspaper and a farmer. When illness left her deaf and blind at age 19 months, the family had the resources to help her. But it’s the primitive kitchen behind the home – barely more than a fireplace – that makes you realize how little those resources meant in the times in which the Keller family lived. Yes, they had money, but nobody knew how to reach, or teach, Helen until Sullivan came along, recommended by Alexander Graham Bell. And it was Helen herself whose appetite for learning redefined what might have been an obscure life.

Keller has been called “America’s First Lady of Courage,” and you’ll get no argument here or from the 60,000 people who visit her birthplace every year.

Helen Keller Birthplace and Home, 300 W. North Commons, Tuscumbia. Hours: 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $6 adults, $5 senior citizens, $2 ages 5-18, 4 and under free. 256-383-4066, www.helenkellerbirthplace.org/; Helen Keller Festival (held in June), 256-383-0783, 1-800-344-0783, www.helenkellerfestival.com.

For more information, contact the North Alabama Tourism Association, 1-800-648-5381, www.northalabama.org.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

Florence and Tuscumbia are in northwest Alabama, about 275 miles from downtown Atlanta, or a five-hour drive. We took the scenic route: U.S. 278 to Gadsden and Cullman, then Ala. 157 to Florence. A little faster route would be I-20 west to Birmingham, then I-65 north to Decatur, then Alternate U.S. 72 and Ala. 157 to Florence.

Where to stay

A wide variety of hotels and bed-and-breakfasts are available in Florence, many listed at www.northalabama.org.