Florence

Florence is the retail hub of northwest Alabama.

The biggest retail area in the Shoals is on Cox Creek Parkway, near Florence Boulevard. The area is anchored by Regency Square Mall, but numerous other shopping complexes are nearby.

The largest hospital in the region, Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, is also in Florence and offers full services.

Florence is the birthplace of W.C. Handy, the “Father of the Blues,” as well as pioneering record producer Sam Phillips, who is given credit for discovering Elvis Presley and legendary Sun Records.

T.S. Stribling, a resident who attended the University of North Alabama, wrote a prose trilogy about the city consisting of “The Forge" , "The Store,” which won the Pulitzer Prize, and “Unfinished Cathedral.”

Dred Scott also once resided in Florence. As a slave, he worked as a hostler at the Peter Blow Inn on Tennessee Street. There’s a plaque at the former site of the inn that commemorates his time there.

Florence is renown for its annual tourism events, including the W.C. Handy Festival in late July and the Renaissance Faire in the autumn.

Florentine landmarks include the Rosenbaum House, which is the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Alabama. The Indian Mound dates back several hundred years to the original settlers in the area.
History

Florence was founded in 1818 on the banks of the Tennessee River and is part of the Quad Cities area of northwest Alabama with Muscle Shoals, Sheffield and Tuscumbia.

The city is the largest in Lauderdale County and traces it roots to more than 10,000 years ago when American Indians inhabited the area.

In 1818, the Cypress Land Co. was formed as a mechanism to develop a thriving river town. A young Italian surveyor, Ferdinand Sannoner, laid out the town of Florence and named it for his favorite city in Italy - Florence.