Cue the music...We listened to it as we entered the state.
Here, they had all 50 state flags and at the base of each flag was a native stone from that state with the name of the state engraved on it. Pretty neat!
Because they were taking down the Christmas tree, we couldn't get a picture of the front of the state house.
These walls are actually completely flat. They are just painted to look like they're paneled, which was the style in 1850 when it was built.
Pretty staircase and dome
Here in the house, the state of Alabama voted to secede from the union.
And here in the Senate, delegates from all seceding states met together. They wrote the constitution for the confederacy, elected Jefferson Davis president and inaugurated him.
The new state house is across the street. It has been used since 1985, but we wanted to see the old one.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived here for 3 1/2 months while Montgomery was the capital of the Confederacy. Then, once Virginia had seceded, he and the capital moved to Richmond.
Next stop, the Alabama state museum.
This museum was really well done. We only had an hour to spend, but we could have easily spent four hours here. It was similar in quality to the Smithsonian in DC.
Although we've been learning a lot about the Civil War, all of this information was presented in an Alabama-specific way.
Like much of the South, after the Civil War Alabama had to reinvent itself.
I was particularly interested in seeing their exhibit on civil rights because Rosa parks and the Montgomery bus boycott took place here, but they barely mentioned it. That may be because there's a Rosa Parks museum down the street. But, alas, we had other places to go.
The kids had an opportunity to make a Mardi Gras mask, but they just chose to take the plain ones and wear them. Maybe because we've been watching the Lone Ranger.
Off to further historical sites in Alabama!
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