Alabama Off the Beaten Path® by Jackie Sheckler Finch

Author:Jackie Sheckler Finch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493014095
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press

Founded in 1819 near the site of an early Indian village, Tuscaloosa occupies the highest navigable point on the Black Warrior River.

Art lovers will want to search out a rare museum at 1400 Jack Warner Parkway Northeast. The Tuscaloosa Museum of Art: Home of the Westervelt Collection (205-562-5280; tuscaloosamoa.org) showcases Jack W. Warner’s remarkable assemblage resulting from four decades of collecting. In addition to paintings and sculpture, the collection includes American decorative arts and antiques such as furniture by Duncan Phyfe, silverware by Paul Revere, exquisite porcelain, early American firearms, and more. Most of the furniture dates to the period between 1820 and 1840, and every piece is museum quality.

Here, you’ll view portraits of Washington, Jefferson, and Lafayette all painted from life as you wend your way through galleries and color-coordinated suites in the Blue, Yellow, Green, and Salmon rooms. Visitors to the Gulf States Paper offices will remember seeing some of the works previously exhibited there. The extensive collection, which has been called an “unparalleled assembly of 18th, 19th and 20th century American art,” was moved to the facility in 2011.

Artists represented include Andrew Wyeth, Frederic Remington, George Catlin, Mary Cassatt, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Also, you’ll see works by John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, James McNeil Whistler, Childe Hassam, James Peale, Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and many others.

The world-class collection can be viewed by the public 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; Admission is free. Afterward head for the University of Alabama campus, the site of a beautiful historic district as well as the home of the Crimson Tide. Since student William Gray Little organized the college’s first football club in 1892, Alabama has celebrated “A Century of Champions.” A good place to learn about the school’s more than 100-year football history is the Paul W. Bryant Museum (205-348-4668; bryantmuseum.com). To reach the museum from US 82, take the University Boulevard exit and follow the signs. If you arrive via I-59, exit onto I-359, take the 35th Street exit to 10th Avenue, go north to Bryant Drive, and then turn east. You’ll find the museum on campus at 300 Paul W. Bryant Drive.

For some background on the legendary figure called “The Bear,” the man who became college football’s most acclaimed coach, start your museum visit by viewing The Bryant Legacy, a film narrated by sports commentator Keith Jackson. While browsing among the displays, you’ll see a replicated setting of Bear Bryant’s office and a dazzling version of his famous hat. Sculptor Miraslav Havel translated the familiar crimson-and-white houndstooth pattern into a multifaceted Waterford crystal showpiece. A courier transported the real hat from Tuscaloosa to Ireland for its magic rendering—and back again.

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