A few weeks ago my sister was sitting at home and getting a bit stir crazy as we all get in the age of covid-19, so she decided to take her household on a little ride along the state line. Part of her ride was around the old sawmill area of Century. She told me later that she was a bit surprised by the several big houses in the old town. I told her that they were built as homes for the executives of the old sawmill company and if that was a surprise, she had to visit the museum.
The Alger-Sullivan Heritage Museum has cautiously reopened in the last couple of weeks after several months of state required closure. The museum will be open most Saturdays. Tours are always free, donations are always welcome. The museum is located on 4th St. in the national Alger-Sullivan Lumber Co. Residential Historic District in Century. Ms. Jeane Nolan has again volunteered as the society’s hostess for visitors on Saturday and also answers inquiries on face-book. Tours during the week can also be scheduled through several phone numbers posted on the museum’s front door. Guests are asked to wear face masks due to the small space of some rooms.
Today, this intimate museum shares the history of West Florida’s last sawmill town through crowded displays of artifacts in ten rooms throughout three buildings and one boxcar. Guests are guided through the areas with stories of the old town as they browse. During the months of the virus shutdown, several museum displays have been updated in order to present better descriptions of relics and collections and give a new perspective to returning guests.
The society’s largest display area is in the Leach House Museum. This building was the assigned home of the senior Forester of the Alger-Sullivan Lumber Company throughout the first part of the twentieth century. Before 1960 the house was purchased by their chief forester, Marion Leach. Mr. Leach is notable in overseeing the lumber company’s woodlands during one of the earliest efforts of sustainable forest development in the South.
Upon entering the front room of the Leach House, guests will see a large diorama of the old sawmill and its town of Century. On the walls are pictures of the men who founded the company as well as pictures of workers who toiled for the company. Also, on the walls of this room is a small display of the town’s Boy Scout troop near the dedication to Mr. Leach who was an active and high ranking member of that program.
Entering the second room, guests will see household items once common in the days before electricity. Some items are things owned by the wealthy and some are items of the working class. Unlike many museums, relics in the society’s collections are within reach, allowing guests to touch and hold irons, use pumps, shoot an early game of pinball, learn how to see through an egg, see how a butter churn works, hold a corn shuck scrub broom and crank the ringer on an antique phone. In this room are photos of the Mayo family who settled this land before 1880 as well as photos of Bluff Springs, Escambia County’s (FL) second town of the 1800s. A unique item also displayed here is the 1914 wedding dress of Mrs. George Swift of Atmore, Ala. Mrs. Swift’s husband was later Alabama State Representative, State Senator and U.S. Senator.
Between the second and third room along the walls is a display recalling the town’s drive-in theatre. New to this display is a movie schedule flyer from 1962. There are also Victrolas from the 1920s, and photos of the town’s mayors. Room three then is largely dedicated to Century’s Turberville Hospital, the first hospital of this South Alabama region and the first modern hospital of the Florida Panhandle. This display has been completely reorganized in order to better share the story of the hospital and the doctors who owned it. Here is shown large and small medical instruments and several unusual, rare medical devices from the hospital dating 1910 through the 1960s. In addition to the hospital collection is the traveling instrument set of a Kentucky dentist from the 1920s.
Room four was once the small central hallway of this house. It begins the history of Century’s schools. On three walls of this room are many Century High School activity uniforms. On the forth wall is the society’s library of local history books including most yearbooks of Century High. Below the uniforms on shelves along one wall are small items of memorabilia from the high school here, the elementary school and other north Escambia County schools. On the other wall, cabinets hold school photo journals and videos.
Lastly, the society’s meeting area is room five. Along three walls are large Century High School graduating class photos, school trophies and marching band uniforms. There are also several class and sports photos of the Carver school, Century’s pre-integration black school. The fourth wall of this room is dedicated to the area’s military members with uniforms and many soldiers’ photos dating from WWI to today.
So, this is the Leach House. There are five more rooms of local history items in this little museum. Bring your family, church, club, or coworkers for a visit. The purpose of any history museum is to share moments of the past, to teach a little and perhaps to show how far we have grown to this moment in history. This is a guarantee, you will see at least one thing that will make you think, I didn’t know that.
