Wagon renaissance: horse-drawn history draws a crowd in Alabama town.(South Wagon Shop owner Willard South restores farm wagons in Florence, Alabama)

Farm Collector, September, 2002 by Hollis, Scott

Not many visible clues remain of the Florence Wagon Co. factory at the end of South Richards Street in Florence, Ala. The company opened in 1889 and at one time claimed to be North America's second largest wagon maker, producing 15,000 horse-drawn wagons a year.

Today, though, the dilapidated walls of the factory are crumbling down to the vegetation-covered ground, and railroad tracks that once connected the firm to the rest of the world are abandoned and barely visible. The factory is gone -- but not forgotten.

The Florence Wagon Co. has undergone a renaissance of ...