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Farming For A Better Future, page 30
The second owner of the house was Peter Fontaine Armistead II (1810-1898), who, according to the Alabama Register nomination, most likely gave the plantation the name Melrose. Armistead's family was
(Above) 1924 USGS Topographic Map of Melrose, Tuscumbia, Alabama Quadrangle (Below) 1936 USGS/ TVA Topographic Map of Melrose, Tuscumbia, Alabama Quadrangle
(Above) Excerpt from Original Patent Awarded to David Goodloe for 158 Acres in 1825 (U.S. Bureau of Land Management Database) (Left) Land Map Showing Goodloe's 1923 Purchase as Well as Neighboring Fountain Armistead and Isaac Winston land (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com. U.S., Indexed Township Plats)
originally from Virginia but had settled in the Florence area some time before. Peter married Mary Susan Winston (1822-1879), daughter of Isaac Winston of Belmont Plantation. Census records detail that Armistead had 21 slaves at Melrose in 1850 and 41 slaves in 1860.
The Armisteads are said to have lived out the rest of their lives at Melrose. After Peter Armistead's death, the house was sold out of the family and soon fell into disrepair. It was added to the Alabama Register
of Landmarks and Heritage in 1985, but none of the outbuildings from its plantation days survived. The house itself was demolished in April of 2016.
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Mount Carmel Baptist Church
Mount Carmel Baptist Church is located at the northwest corner of 11th/Trenholm Memorial Drive and Mulberry Street in a historically African American neighborhood in southeast Tuscumbia. It was originally established in 1929 and met in the home of Mr. Mingo White, Sr. Later, the congregation rented a store for services and eventually were able to construct their own church. The building that stands today was remodeled and restored in 1960.
The first map to depict the Mount Carmel Baptist Church is the 1936 USGS/TVA topographic map. This map shows an unlabeled church on Mulberry Street adjacent to a large building on the corner of the intersection. A 1952 USGS topographic map also depicts the church on Mulberry Street, but not the corner. It is not until 1971 that the church is depicted at its current location, indicating that the 1960 remodeling may actually have been the construction of a new building adjacent to the first. Aerial photographs confirms this.
(Below) 1940 Federal Census Excerpt Showing Mingo White as a “School House Janitor” and His Daughter, Dora Alice, as a “City School System School Teacher” (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) (Opposite Top) Aerial Photograph of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in 1949 (University of Alabama, Historical Map Collection, Online) (Opposite Bottom) Aerial Photograph of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in 1962 (University of Alabama, Historical Map Collection, Online)
* Indicates a Historical - Non-Extant Resource - (4558)