What Happened to Cahaba

What Happened to Cahaba. . , Abandoned , Thousands of people once called Cahaba home. Hundreds of fine homes, hotels, churches, and businesses lined the streets. Then came the Civil War (1861-1865). , No battle was fought here, but many of the men that marched off to war never returned. The center of town was converted into a prison for Union soldiers. The railroad tracks that once brought cotton bales into Cahaba's warehouses were torn up and used elsewhere to support the war effort. The enslaved laborers that once harvested the cotton were emancipated. Even nature seemed to conspire against Cahaba: in April of 1865, the rivers rose, completely inundating the town for the first time. , When Cahaba lost the county seat in 1866, that was the last straw. Most residents abandoned their hometown and followed the county seat to nearby Selma, a town that had become an industrial center during the war. , Recycled , After the Civil War, Selma had a new industrial economy and a growing population, but many of its buildings had burned in the closing days of the war, during the Battle of Selma. It needed to rebuild, but supplies were scarce. The solution to this dilemma was described by a visitor from Chicago in April of 1869: , "We see in Selma many of the houses which once adorned Cahaba, it being considered cheaper to remove by boat the material of old buildings than to buy new." , By 1871, one of the few remaining residents of Cahaba was contracting to deliver at the Selma wharf well-cleaned, secondhand brick and to move houses from Cahaba at five dollars per one thousand feet of lumber. In October of the same year, the Selma Morning Times reported: "if such operations continue, Cahaba will be left houseless shortly." , Actually, people continued to mine Cahaba for brick well into the 20th century. In fact, some of the most prestigious architect-designed homes in Selma were constructed of Cahaba brick as late as 1937. , [Captions] , Middle left top: In 1924, a new Parish Hall for St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma was built from plans drawn by architect Frank Lockwood of Montgomery. Old brick from Cahaba was used. , Middle left bottom: In 1869, Mary K. Graham purchased the home that stood on this lot and had it moved it to Church Street in Selma. That house was John Tyler Morgan's Cahaba home. The similar building that stands before you originally stood on an adjacent block and was also moved away. In 2011, it was returned to Cahaba to be used as a visitor center. , Middle right top: In 1884, St. Andrew's Academy in Selma was built of bricks taken from old untenanted buildings at Cahaba. , Middle right bottom: In 1937, a rambling one-story house was constructed in Selma for Dr. Drayton Doherty. Old brick from Cahaba was used. The architect was Raymond Sizemore of Montgomery.