
Of Magnolias and Museums: Uncovering the Past at Pope’s Tavern
February 2023 Spring has not yet arrived in northwest Alabama. Not officially anyway. But Southern weather abides by no rules but its own with little regard to seasons and scientific patterns. So, it surprises no one that the towering magnolia tucked into the corner of Seminary Street and Hermitage Drive in Florence, Alabama is already unfurling its smooth pink and white petals. They flutter gently in the breeze – a breeze that one day blows warm with the threat of looming, long summer days and the next with gnawing cold as winter desperately tries to hold on just a