Photo courtesy of Hoover Historical Society
The Folklore Center behind Bluff Park Elementary School in Hoover, Alabama, serves to teach people about life in 1840s Alabama.
The Hoover Historical Society this Sunday, Oct. 23, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the creation of The Folklore Center behind Bluff Park Elementary School.
People are invited to attend an anniversary program at the center at 2 p.m., followed by an open house, reception and tours at 3 p.m.
The focal point of the center is a two-story log cabin originally built in the 1840s off Alabama 25 between Columbiana and Wilsonville. The cabin, made of hand-hewn logs, was taken apart piece by piece and over the course of a year reassembled on the campus of Bluff Park Elementary in 1997, with the intention of helping children and others learn about life in 1840s Alabama.
The first class of students passed through the house in November 1998, according to an article in The Birmingham News archives.
The house was built by the Hugh Acey Mack Stinson family and served as the home for at least three generations of Stinsons until 1946. The family of the Rev. A. Mac Stinson Jr. donated the house to the Hoover Historical Society in an effort to preserve it after vandals had begun to destroy it.
The Folklore Center also has an outhouse, watering trough, spring house, plumping mill, smoke house, corn crib and small barn. The Stinson cabin and an herb garden are surrounded by a split-rail wooden fence, according to the historical society website.
To get to The Folklore Center, follow signs from Lester Lane to Cloudland Drive. Street parking is available. The Hoover Historical Society asks that people who intend to come send an RSVP to info@hooverhistoricalsociety.org.
