CULLMAN – Did you know that our town’s founder Colonel Johann Gottfried Cullmann’s original home was located where Just for Looks and Berkley Bob’s Coffee House are now? Also, according to Cullman city maps that go back as far as 1888, Colonel Cullmann had a greenhouse. It even had a glass roof on it. The old colonel had a small gazebo behind his home, too. Unfortunately, his beautiful home burned down in 1912 and was later replaced with a Motion Picture Theater. Many years later, a replica of the colonel’s home was built and now houses the Cullman County Museum.
Did you know that across the street from Colonel Cullmann’s house was where the original Cullman Train Depot used to be? The depot consisted of three different sections: the passenger depot, which was located on the north side; the freight depot, in the middle; and the platform on the south side. The platform was long and stretched all the way to the end of the block. There was also a large water tower for the trains at the depot, too.
Did you know that in 1913 the old depot had to be moved? It had to be moved to a different location when the L&N Railroad began lowering the train tracks to below grade level. For whatever reason, Colonel Cullmann had left money in his will to help pay for the project. Viaducts, or bridges, were built across the newly lowered tracks, and the area where the original tracks used to be was turned into parks and parking lots.
Did you know that Colonel Cullmann laid the town out in one-acre blocks? Later on, the blocks were divided into fourths. Today there are only five blocks left in Cullman that still have their original one-fourth acre lots intact. All the others are subdivided or altered.
Did you know that the Busy Bee Café is the city’s oldest restaurant still in operation? The original location was on the corner of 3rd St and 3rd Ave SE where Hagan Real Estate’s office is located now. That particular strip of buildings was constructed in the mid-1960s and was later destroyed on April 27, 2011 by the tornado outbreak.
History is fun, especially when it is broken down into bite-sized bits. These tidbits give food for thought; something to make you scratch your head and think. Cullman is filled with interesting facts and tales, and it’s up to us to keep them alive and remembered. We do this by passing them down to our children and grandchildren. We can only move forward and grow when we understand our past and where we come from – and Cullman sure has come a long way.
