seems like a good description of the
Southern Female University.
It burned down in 1911 so that now, a hundred years later, very few Florence citizens even know that it existed. You can see in the photographs that it was an enormous building: five stories tall. originally intended to be a Baptist University when it was opened in 1891 . Local historian, Professor Ken Johnson, says that the Baptists early on withdrew their support and moved to Birmingham instead.
In 1908, it re-opened its doors as the Florence University for Women.
Being an inconvenient distance from the town of Florence and having poor roads, it was not popular with women. Finally the 1911 fire spelled its demise.
Notice in the map that the FSU/FUW was in North Florence just south of the Florence Water Tower which is on Seymore Avenue.
"Seven Points" is colored yellow to help orient you.
The FUW was razed and today there are homes on its land. The only evidence for its existence is an occasional brick found in the ground and the historical signs erected in the Autumn of 2012.
"Nothing lasts forever."
