Florence, Alabama

Florence is a city in Lauderdale County which is situated in the northwest corner of Alabama. According to the 2000 census, the city's population was 36,264. The seat of Lauderdale County, Florence is the largest and principal city of the Florence - Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Statistical Area known as "The Shoals" (which also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia metropolitan areas and Colbert and Lauderdale counties). It is the economic center of northwestern Alabama.

Florence was surveyed for the Cypress Land Company in 1818 by Austrian surveyor Ferdinand Sannoner who named it for his favorite city, Tuscany's famous capital, Florence - which also had a prominent river, the Arno. Florence was first incorporated in 1826.

Florence is the birthplace of W.C. Handy, the "Father of the Blues," as well as of pioneering record producer Sam Phillips, discoverer of Elvis Presley. T.S. Stribling, a 20th century author and Florence resident, wrote a prose trilogy about the city consisting of The Forge, The Store (which won the Pulitzer Prize), and Unfinished Cathedral.

Florence is renowned for its annual tourism events W.C. Handy Music Festival in the summer, and the Renaissance Faire in the autumn. Florence landmarks include the Rosenbaum House, the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home located in the Southeast.

Florence's municipal government is a mayor-council type.

Geography

Florence is located at 34ø49'13?N, 87ø39'46?W (34.820287, -87.662860)GR1.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 64.8 kmý (25.0 miý). 64.6 kmý (24.9 miý) of it is land and 0.3 kmý (0.1 miý) of it (0.40%) is water. Florence is located on Wilson Lake, a body of water on the North-flowing Tennessee River that is dammed by Wheeler and Wilson Dams. Wheeler Lake was created by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), one of several alphabet agencies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Wilson Dam, authorized by President Woodrow Wilson in 1918, was the first dam constructed on the Tennessee River.

Education

• Situated in Florence, and founded in 1830 as LaGrange College, the University of North Alabama, a public, co-educational, higher education institution, is Alabama's oldest state certified university.
• Florence City Schools is the K-12 public school system.
• Mars Hill Bible School is a private K-12 Christian school.

Culture & Events

Florence's McFarland Park is a resting point for riders in the annual Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride which terminates in nearby Waterloo. The ride commemorates the final point at which area Cherokee Native Americans were shipped off to Oklahoma and the mid west by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
The Florence Indian Burial Mound is the largest of its type in the Tennessee Valley Region. The mound, which measures 310Hx230Wx42D and named "Wawmanona" was built circa 500 A.D. and is thought to be locale for tribal ceremony and ritual. A museum is adjacent the base.

Pope's Tavern, is a renown historical stop, and served as a hospital along the way of many skirmishing Civil War soldiers from the North and South, and is one of Florence's oldest standing structures.

The Mariott Shoals Hotel & Spa, formerly the Florence Conference Center, also features a revolving restaurant atop the Renaissance Tower, both which are nearby the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and overlook the Tennessee River and Wilson Dam.

Florence Harbor Marina is situated on Pickwick lake adjacent McFarland Park.

The Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts is the center for numerous cultural activities, exhibits and events, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and provides administrative offices for Florence's six museums.

Florence also has a Children's Museum.

Florence is home to one of the oldest Disc Golf courses in the State. It is at Veterans Park, and was established in 1983.

The recently completed and redesigned Florence/Lauderdale Public Library has a total circulation of 170,525.

The George Lindsey Film Festival has been ongoing for nine years, and is named in honor of George Lindsey, an actor who is most famous for his character portrayal of "Goober Pyle" on The Andy Griffith Show. Mr. Lindsey is a UNA (then known as Florence State College) graduate.

Florence is also the current host of the NCAA Division II National Football Championship Game, an event operated by the Shoals National Championship Committee, the University of North Alabama, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The Rosenbaum House on Riverview Drive is the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in the state.

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