Michelle and I decided to eat in town. Downtown Prattville, Al. is small. It consists of one major street with maybe 20 businesses. Everything has built out to the east. There is a fountain here along the creek walk, It was erected not long after a major part of the Plant was burned down around by some juveniles. Only one building of the burned portion still stands on the town side of the spillway.
“The Fountain City”
Prattville, is the home of Daniel Pratt, an industrialist and manufacturer of Cotton Gins. His factory located in Prattville, built the gins. The city is full of Artisan Wells, and is called “The Fountain City” as a result. You can see the very large buildings across the spillway, they have been there since around 1850. The water flowing from the spillway gates once powered the factory. A large turbine is left positioned in the location of the burned down building.
“Padlocks of Love”.
While taking the photos, I noticed colorful padlocks attached to the fencing that runs along the small park area. These as I would later learn, are “Padlocks of Love”. They started appearing years ago, after the 2013 film “Now you see me”. Apparently, the movie story at one point, explained a similar arrangement in Paris. There are 4 places in the state of Alabama that have such spontaneous areas of the padlocks, Prattville is one. Some had memorials written for past love ones, or friends. Some were laser engraved with initials, names, and dates of love or passing. Even pets are remembered there. Old, new, colorful padlocks of all shapes and sizes adorn the fence.
As far as the location, paranormal shows have visited the old manufacturing plant and the spillway, where there are reported sightings of “shadow people”. Spirits of those that lost their lives at the factory.
I hope you enjoy the pictures, I apologize for the resolution, but the light was fading as we visited there.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my town, this is where I was a police officer for 7 years. I had just started, when the historic building on the town side of the spillway was burned down by the juveniles.
Comments, always welcome.
Thanks for that scenic tour of the padlocked area of your town. It’s lovely, as well as photos of Michele. Happier times are here!
Yes, Anne. Happier times seem to finally be here. We have a lovely morning starting, a bit on the chilly side but nice. Glad you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for the comment this fabulous morning.
Good to see your town, your good lady, and the regal dog too!
I can imagine your location better now. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Pete. A new chapter in our life. Quiet times, and able to get out more. I will do more of things around here, so others can visualize my area of the world, even including the Trailerhood.
A lot of history in your town! Cool pictures!
Thank you, Kate!
Thanks for sharing this interesting tour.
Very glad you liked it, Kathy. Thanks for the comment. Enjoy your weekend.
Thank you for sharing your town with us! Good to see the two of you out and about. I would love to get inside of that old manufacturing plant with my camera, although I’d probably be arrested for trespassing (maybe they’d let me go if I mentioned your name? 🙂 ). I remember being taught that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin… although I imagine there were probably multiple people working on a way to clean cotton back then.
You are quite right, Janis. I should have caught that. We were taught in school that Eli Whitney “invented” the cotton gin. I corrected that. Pratt was just an industrialist, that manufactured them in that huge factory. Thanks for helping me correct that. I appreciate it.
Very cool pics! Is that your pretty lady Michelle?! Re the cotton gin, I always thought the inventor was Eli Whitney – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin. But whatever!
Thanks, Ellie. I corrected it. You would think I would have caught that. I probably had consumed too much food, and muddled my brain. Yes, that is my darling Michelle and her service dog Annabelle.
Good food, darling wife and great dog. You’ve got all bases covered, Ron! ?
Nice pics! We were fortunate to have been able to go to Paris back in 2014 and when we were there we saw the bridge with the locks of love. It was quite the sight for there are soooo many! In fact sadly we read how part of a railing collapsed recently because of the weight. No more locks are allowed to be added to the bridge. A simple padlock barely weights anything but when you have a ton of them!
I had read about the collapse while researching this. Sad, but from pictures I have seen, there were a ton of them there. I’m glad that you could see them in person, that had to be impressive. Thanks for the nice comment.
I thought that the pictures could have been taken in any New England mill town, so I was not surprised to find that Pratt was from New Hampshire. I loved getting to see your wife and one of the dogs. Glad to see you two getting out–alone–for dinner!
We truly enjoyed it, Elizabeth. Just the two of us, and enjoying the cool air right before dark. We hope to get out more, and perhaps have things to share.
A little romance was certainly in order.