Walker County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,342. Its county seat is Jasper. Its name is in honor of John Williams Walker, the first U.S. senator elected from Alabama.
Wetumpka is a city in and the county seat of Elmore County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,220. In the early 21st century Elmore County became one of the fastest-growing counties in the state. The city is considered part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Area.
Jasper is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Alabama, United States. Its population was 14,352 as of the 2010 census. Named in honor of Sergeant William Jasper, an American Revolutionary War hero, Jasper was settled around 1815 and incorporated on August 18, 1886.
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981.
William Brockman Bankhead was an American politician who served as the 42nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936 to 1940, representing Alabama's 10th and later 7th congressional districts as a Democrat from 1917 to 1940. Bankhead was a strong liberal and a prominent supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal of pro-labor union legislation, thus clashing with most other Southern Democrats in Congress at the time. Bankhead described himself as proud to be a politician, by which he meant that he did not neglect matters that concerned his district or reelection. He was the father of actress Tallulah Bankhead.
Henry Watkins Collier was the 14th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1849 to 1853. He was born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, son of James Collier and Elizabeth Bouldin. Collier arrived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from South Carolina in 1823. He sat on the Alabama Supreme Court for 18 years, of which 12 were as chief justice. He married Mary Ann Williams Battle. His only son, a doctor, died of cholera as a young man. He was a staunch believer in slavery and states' rights who was intolerant of abolition discussions. He was a friend of Dorothea Dix and promoted education, care of the mentally ill, and prison reform in Alabama. The family was closely allied with those of Rufus King and Gov. Clay. Following his term as governor, Collier was offered a seat in the United States Senate but declined and retired. He died in Bailey Springs, Alabama, of gastroenteritis.
John Hollis Bankhead was an American politician and Confederate Army soldier. A member of the Democratic Party, Bankhead served as U.S. Senator from the state of Alabama from 1907 until his death in 1920. Bankhead had additionally served in the United States House of Representatives, the Alabama Legislature, and as warden of the state penitentiary in Wetumpka.
The Bankhead Tunnel, formally the John H. Bankhead Tunnel, is a road tunnel in Mobile, Alabama that carries Government Street under the Mobile River from Blakeley Island to the downtown Mobile business district. It is named for John H. Bankhead, an Alabama politician and U.S. Senator who was also the grandfather of actress Tallulah Bankhead. It, like the larger George Wallace Tunnel a few blocks downriver from it, was constructed in Mobile at the shipyards of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO), from 1938-1940. The eastern end of the Bankhead Tunnel features a large "flood door" that can be closed to prevent water from Mobile Bay flooding the tunnel during surges from hurricanes or tropical storms. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on January 25, 1977.
Walter Will Bankhead was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as U.S. Representative from Alabama in 1941. He was the son of John Hollis Bankhead II and the grandson of John H. Bankhead, both of whom represented Alabama in the United States Senate.
The Freedom Rides Museum is located at 210 South Court Street in Montgomery, Alabama, in the building which was until 1995 the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station. It was the site of a violent attack on participants in the 1961 Freedom Ride during the Civil Rights Movement. The May 1961 assaults, carried out by a mob of white protesters who confronted the civil rights activists, "shocked the nation and led the Kennedy Administration to side with civil rights protesters for the first time."
The Stone Plantation, also known as the Young Plantation and the Barton Warren Stone House, is a historic Greek Revival-style plantation house and one surviving outbuilding along the Old Selma Road on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. It had been the site of a plantation complex, and prior to the American Civil War it was known for cotton production worked by enslaved people.
The Brame House, also known as the Brame-Cody-Neal House, was a historic Classical Revival-style house in Montgomery, Alabama. The two-story frame house was built in 1897 by W.W. Brame. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on January 29, 1980, and to the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1980. The house was demolished in 1990, after some attempts were made to save it.
The Jefferson Franklin Jackson House, commonly known as the Jackson-Community House, is a historic Italianate-style house in Montgomery, Alabama. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on July 21, 1978, and to the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 1984.
The James Greer Bankhead House, also known simply as the Greer Bankhead House and Forest Home, is a historic house in Sulligent, Alabama. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 13, 1975. It is the only site listed on the National Register in Lamar County.
Marie Bankhead Owen was Director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History for over three decades, as well as a documentarian of Alabama history who authored numerous books on the subject. Owen served as an advisor for the Federal Writers' Project history of the state. In 1939, Owen helped select the Alabama state motto. She was actively opposed to a Federal mandate giving women the right to vote, and believed in the supremacy of the white race. Owen was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1975. Her niece was actress Tallulah Bankhead.
The Bankhead House, also known as Sunset and the John Hollis Bankhead House, is a historic mansion in Jasper, Walker County, Alabama. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 18, 1973.
First Presbyterian Church was a historic Presbyterian church building and congregation at 100 West Bridge Street in Wetumpka, Alabama. The Carpenter Gothic structure was built by a local builder in 1856 at a cost of $2,300. It featured a Gothic Revival exterior and a Greek Revival interior. The finished building was dedicated on June 14, 1857. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Alabama Heritage is a nonprofit educational quarterly history magazine first published during the summer of 1986. It is published by the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The magazine was conceived with a broad conception of "heritage," incorporating more than traditional history. Issues include articles about archaeology, architecture, anthropology, religion, folk arts, literature, and music. Alabama Heritage, through support from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is available in every school in the state of Alabama.
The Jasper Downtown Historic District comprises 400 acres (160 ha) of Jasper, Alabama, centered on the county courthouse. Most of the buildings in the district are commercial, with other uses including the Masonic Temple, the post office and city hall, several houses and a number of warehouses. Most of the buildings were built in the 1920s through the 1940s. A variety of architectural styles are preserved, including Beaux-Arts and Art Deco.
The Walker County Hospital, at 1100 7th Ave. in Jasper, Alabama, was built in 1923. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
