Have you ever wondered what the school bus route in 1957 might have looked like?

How did Falkville get its name? How is that connected with Decatur?

​A rare picture of the birthplace of Stephen Decatur in Berlin MD. 

This fun fact was brought to us by Peggy Towns. She is a renowned historian, author of two published books, and a retired US Congress Field Representative.​

​Sometimes described as the “Showplace of Decatur”, The Tavern Hotel was simply one of the nation’s greatest hotels—and certainly one of the most impressive hotels in the South.  The picture below is one of my most treasured pieces of Decatur’s history—an architect’s rendition of this hotel which appeared in a major architectural periodical.   

​President William McKinley, the nation’s 25th president visited Decatur via train on May 3, 1901, one of several U.S. Presidents to visit here over the years.  The combined populations of Decatur and New Decatur (later Albany) at the time were about 7,500.  Virtually the entire population of both towns turned out at the then depot (replaced by the current depot in 1905) to greet the President and his wife Ida. 

​Wallace Augustus Rayfield was born in 1873 in Macon, GA.  Educated at Howard University, Columbia University and the Pratt Institute, Department of Architecture in Brooklyn, NY, he was offered an instructor’s position at the internationally famous Tuskegee Normal, later Tuskegee Institute and now Tuskegee University.  This position was offered by Booker T. Washington personally.