W. L. Westbrook Grocery Store, Intersection of County Route 27 & County Route 29, Spring Garden

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AL-194. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Spring Garden was typical of the small interior cotton market towns scattered through the black belt south. During the town's heyday, the retail district comprised a grocery store, a cotton gin, saw mill, and livery stable. The only surviving building, the Westbrook Grocery Store, with its 14-in masonry walls, corbeled cornices, and arched seconf story windows, is typical of late nineteenth century commercial buildings. The building's solid bricks were produced and fired in the vicinity.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AL-194. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

LeeAnn Bishop Lands, WESTBROOK GROCERY STORE HAER No. AL-194 (Page 2) History While settled in the Spring Garden (originally known as Ambersonville and later as Liberty) flourished after Southern Railroad completed a line that brought four trains a day through the town from Rome, Georgia to Meridian, Mississippi in the The railway completed the town's depot in the Spring Garden served as a small cotton market through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A cotton mill at the foot of Frog Mountain also contributed to the town's cotton economy. Several general merchandise stores, a bar (operating out of the second floor of Edmund Webb's general merchandise store), a barbershop, saw mill, livery stable also supported the community. 1 The c.

Westbrook Grocery Store was built by the Stewart and Formby families. The store, operated by Paul H. Savage and Braswell early in the twentieth century, sold groceries, gasoline, and general dry good, as well as served as a gathering point for men in the community. Until the the store included the Spring Garden post office with Savage serving as postmaster. 2 William Westbrook owned and operated the grocery store until In Westbrook sold the property to Paul Rogers of Spring Garden for use as a storage facility. The property currently stands vacant and in serious disrepair. The roof and second floor have fallen in over the past few years. 1 All of these structures were destroyed through the century except the cotton gin building located on country road 20.

The gin's machinery has been sold since the gin's closing. 2 At some point, Savage purchased Braswell's portion of the store and continued it as sole proprietor. WESTBROOK GROCERY STORE HAER No. AL-194 (Page 3) Sources Consulted Miller, Dixie C. Visiting Our Past: A History of Cherokee County. Rogers, Paul. Personal Interview. Savage, Robert and Bill Anthony. "Spring Garden Originally Called Ambersonville." History and Heritage: Articles on Cherokee County, Alabama." Cherokee County Historical Musuem. Stewart, Mr. Frank Ross. Cherokee County History. Volume 4. Centre, Alabama. Stewart University Press. William, L. "Billy" Westbrook. Personal Interview.