Talladega: Pathways to the Past

Talladega, Alabama, best known for its popular speedway, is also a town of enchanting old homes, historic institutions, and fascinating people. In this pictorial review, the reader travels over diverse paths-from winding Indian trails to the fastest racetrack on earth-into the rich and colorful heritage of a landmark Southern community.

Talladega: Pathways to the Past invites both longtime residents and newcomers alike to watch a Native American ballgame, experience an Indian battle, peer into Old South plantation life, step into a notorious saloon, behold a feast at a world-famous hotel, and thrill at the speed of race cars. The rambler views quaint nineteenth-century storefronts, sees the state's oldest courthouse still in use, strolls through the historic Silk Stocking District, discovers the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, greets youngsters at the Presbyterian Home for Children, tours one of the nation's oldest historically black colleges, and relaxes at Shocco Springs. Vintage photographs within these pages bring truly extraordinary people to life, including the "Father of Radio," the only Alabama nurse to give her life during World War I, a noted author of popular plantation tales, a world-renowned sculptor, the founder of one of the nation's largest tourist agencies, and the first Alabamian inducted in Statuary Hall in the National Capitol. Perhaps more importantly, this volume showcases everyday folks doing everyday things, thus preserving numerous slices of daily life in small-town Alabama.