St. Andrew's Hall stands adjacent to Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church downtown. In the book, Selma, Queen City of the Blackbelt, the author states that Jesuit priests moved Cahaba's Masonic hall to Selma in 1880, and the building became St. Andrew's Hall, a school for boys. However, an article in the June 6, 1884, edition of The Times-Argus newspaper states that work was progressing on this three-story building, and the bricks and lumber were from "...a large, untenanted building" at Cahaba. The supplies were shipped upriver from Cahaba to Selma. While some of the construction materials could have been from a masonic hall, Old Cahawba Park archaeologists have no evidence of one, so it is possible the Masons met in a portion of one of the town's public buildingsCahaba, which lies at the junction of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers, was Alabama's first capital, and its ghost town lies about 10 miles west of Selma. The capital was moved due to flooding and political reasons. A federal prison was located there during the Civil War, and the town made a good comeback only to be vacated later. Several homes and buildings in Selma are Cahaba originals or have "recycled" materials from Old Cahawba structures installed in them.
12 comments:
You have so much interesting architecture and history there! That is a lovely building, too...I love the detail.
This is a gorgeous building. The deep porches must be wonderful in the summer.
What an amazing building, lots of character. We just don't see many like that on the west coast.
That is a grand old lady of a place. I really like it.
That is such a lovely building. How is it used?
Can you believe it's Thursday already? It's blustery over here in Norwich, but I hope you're having fun where you are!
Thanks for visiting Norwich Daily Photo and your kind comments. Drop by again!
joy
A Pinay In England
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I'd love to have that porch.
A beautiful, well-preserved building. It takes a good picture.
--steve buser
New Orleans Daily Photo
My first visit. You have a wonderful blog with so much history in Selma. MB
Nice architecture.
Alexander
Alex's World! - http://www.kakinan.com/alex
Beautiful structure! Interesting story about the Jesuits, too. . . .it doesn't surprise me.
Is you weather better? We lost power for a bit the other night. . . .And, we lot a TON of shingles because of the high winds.
Thanks for visiting.
Joy, this building is used by the local Catholic church for various functions such as meetings and receptions.
Chris, our weather is better for the moment! Another front will come through this evening bringing severe weather mostly to south Alabama. I hear Nashville is having some freezing rain.
That is tough about those shingles! A long power outage was the worst that happened at our house, although there is a lost and found adv. in today's paper where someone lost a tent in the winds the other night!
A beautiful building and lots of nice info! :-)
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