Working on Walnut Street

Working on Walnut Street. Memories of Old Cahaba. Walnut Street was the working backside of the business district. Cahaba's mechanics and enslaved laborers knew this street well. It was a place of livery stables, harness makers, carriage makers, and blacksmiths. It was a smelly, dirty street. , Misremembering Walnut Street. In 1908, former Cahaba resident Anna Gayle Fry published Memories of Old Cahaba, the book that rekindled an interest in this deserted town. In it, she described the people and places that once inhabited each of the town's streets. Her memories of Walnut Street, unlike other parts of town, were vague and inaccurate, because this dirty back street was not a place frequented by fashionable young ladies like Anna. She was only 14 years old in 1866 when the abandonment of Cahaba began. , Rip Roan, The Sorrel's Ahead! , Come all my friends, both rich and poor, , Come, try me once, you'll try me more; , I'll shoe your horse all round complete , With good new shoes, on all his feet., I'll mend your wagons or buggies that break, , I'll make you a plough, a hoe or a rake. , I'll mend your gun, or I'll make you a chain, , I'll insure all my work, whether fancy or plain. , - D. R. Clifton, Dallas Gazette, Jan. 7, 1853 .