Welcome to Downtown Cahawba

Welcome to Downtown Cahawba. . , Offices, stores and hotels were tightly packed along this main street. The steamboat landings on the Alabama River were just one block away, so this was prime real estate. , Vine Street was 80 feet wide with brick sidewalks. A town ordinance required all lot owners to plant shade trees between the sidewalks and the road. , This photograph, taken about 1900, shows remaining but abandoned structures:, A. Law Offices. , B. Saltmarsh Hall, where public celebrations were held. , C. Dallas County Courthouse (note the oval vents in the gable end). , D. Dallas County Office Building. , E. Artesian well in the center of the street., A Well for Public Use , An artesian well was drilled in the center of Cahawba's main street for public use. During the Civil War, it provided water to thousands of prisoners of war held captive in a nearby warehouse., The ornamental wellhead disappeared decades ago, but the observant explorer can still find the location of the old well. Just look for the broken round iron pipe in the surface of the road near the intersection of Vine and First North Streets., Chinaberry Trees - Clues to the Past , Cahawba's earliest merchants imported fast growing Chinaberry trees to shade their sidewalks. Over the years these trees survived and multiplied. Sadly, Cahawba's merchants did not do as well. Today, as you walk this abandoned downtown street, see if you can spot the thriving descendants of those first Chinaberry trees. , [Captions] , [Main Photo] Vine Street Looking North, Alabama Department of Archives and History , [Bottom right] Late 19th Century Picture of Overflowing Well in Vine Street, Alabama Department of Archives and History , [Bottom left] Leaves and Berries of a Chinaberry Tree (Melia azederach), Alabama Historical Commission