Saturday, October 19, 2019 - Huntsville, AL

Today we headed back to Huntsville to check out Alabama Constitution Hall Historic Park & Museum.  The Constitution Hall is located on the site of where the Alabama Constitution was signed in 1819 and Alabama became a state. 

The building was originally the home and shop of a cabinetmaker.  When the cabinetmaker passed away, his widow and children were left with a heavily mortgaged property and so to pay the mortgage they rented out the largest room on the bottom floor, which was the largest space in Huntsville at the time.  By about 1817, Mississippi and Georgia had both become states (until that point, they had been part of the Mississippi Territory) and Alabama wanted the benefits of statehood.  Delegates from all the counties met in this hall.  Madison County (the home of Huntsville) was by far the largest county had had 8 delegates.  The next biggest county was down in Mobile who had 4 delegates.  The other counties made up the remaining 32 delegates.  Since the signing of the constitution, the building was removed, a theater was built in its place which burned down in it's first year, and then when Huntsville started talking about making the land a parking lot for the city, the historical society stepped in and built a replica of the hall.

Also on the property is the office of a prominent lawyer, Clement Comer Clay who rented space for the Post Office and the Surveyor's Office.  Additionally, there is a blacksmith's shop, a printmaker's shop and home, a residence of the sheriff, and slaves quarters.

Constitution Hall

Cabinetmaker's shop

These ropes would be hooked up to a tree branch to create a spring that helped the saw and lathe work.

Lathe that would require two people to operate

Smooth plane

vice of a sort

Various planes to get different types of corners

Attorney Clay's Building which housed his office, the Post Office, and the
Surveyor's Office

Attorney Clay's Office 

Surveyor's Office

 

Blacksmith's shop

Outhouse

Slaves Quarters 

Apprentice's Quarters

In the kitchen of the printmaker

The printmaker who printed the Alabama Republican 

Dining table in the sheriff's residence

parlor of the Sheriff's house

The Sheriff's family's bedroom (two adults and two kids shared this room)

Butter churn in the kitchen

Some flowers in the courtyard

Monday, October 14, 2019 - Huntsville and Cullman, AL

Today our goal was the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville but we thought we would stop at Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman on the way.

Ave Maria Grotto is a miniature village of famous religious (and a few non-religious) sites from around the world that was built by a monk.  Brother Joseph Zoettl was born in Bavaria and came to th eSt. Bernard Abbey in Cullman to study to become a priest when he was a teenager.  When he was young, he had an injury that permanently damaged his back, eliminating his dream of becoming a priest.  So he became a monk instead and devoted his free hours to building these miniatures out of recycled materials.  Most of sites he had never visited himself and so depended on photos to recreate the miniatures.  In one case, the photo was printed backwards and so his miniature is actually backwards.  It is really neat to walk through and see all the creations.

Wayside Shrine

St. Martin's Church in Landshut, Bavaria

Temple of the Fairy

Hansel and Gretel 

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, Alabama

The campus of where Brother Josef lived in Cullman, Alabama

The Alamo

St. Anselm's in Rome

St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

The Colosseum

St. Paul's Outside the Walls

Aqueduct

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Ave Maria Grotto

Scenes from the Holy Land

Statute of Brother Joseph

Noah's Ark

The Tower of Babel

The Great Wall of China

Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Portugal

Lourdes Shrine in the south of France

Basilica of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, Poland

Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin

We then continued on to Huntsville and spent a few hours a the US Space & Rocket Center.  Alabama is where future astronauts are trained and where everything happening on the International Space Station is coordinated.  They are the backup to Houston should any problems arise.  There is so much to see and do that there is no way to do it all in one day.  Here are just a few photos from the exhibits.

Saturn I

In the Saturn V Hall:

Pathfinder

Location of the International Space Station while we were there - it circles the Earth 16 times a day!

Live camera from the International Space Station

 Replica of the International Space Station