Arab Historical Society

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Arab Historical Society Arab Historical Society, Arab, Alabama. Arab is "The Mountain Town Pioneers Built"

The Society’s mission is to preserve and teach the history of Arab and the surrounding area through monthly programs, published books, “Historic Arab” newsletter and by giving tours of the Historic Village. Until recently, developing, maintaining and funding the Historic Village has been the Society’s major project. Additionally, memorials are made to the Arab Public Library in the form of microfilms of past issues of local newspapers. All is made possible in cooperation with the City of Arab and by volunteers, who give of their time, and donors, who give money, building materials, and museum items. Donations are supplemented by various fundraisers throughout the year and the sales of the Society’s publications.

2025-2027 OFFICERS
President: David Bowling
Vice President: Johnny Tidmore
Secretary: Carolyn Gay
Treasurer: Wallace Gay
Board of Trustees Members: Regina Bowling, Marsha Tidmore, Janet Bright

Purchase your fundraiser ticket online! We need to know how many folks to expect for a fun nighttime walk in 2 weeks. Ja...
10/10/2026

Purchase your fundraiser ticket online! We need to know how many folks to expect for a fun nighttime walk in 2 weeks. Janet Bright, Brittany Horton & Marsha Tidmore have worked hard planning and researching downtown history for this first-time-ever event. Johnny Tidmore will join them for color commentary during the walk, and we might even rope Steve A. Maze into joining us. The link for tickets is in the comments.

After 50 years, Great Day Kindergarten has closed. Seems a great day to remember this great lady, Miss Marty. From The A...
10/10/2026

After 50 years, Great Day Kindergarten has closed. Seems a great day to remember this great lady, Miss Marty.
From The Arab Tribune in 2002

📣 Our September Speaker — Janet Bright!Thursday, 9/17 at 6pm, Rice Church at the ParkTomorrow night, the Arab Historical...
09/17/2026

📣 Our September Speaker — Janet Bright!
Thursday, 9/17 at 6pm, Rice Church at the Park

Tomorrow night, the Arab Historical Society is pleased to welcome Janet Bright, one of Arab’s biggest cheerleaders and a longtime Arab business owner, as our guest speaker. Janet is the Society Board's token former Yankee. As a charter Arab Swim Team member, she was responsible for turning the then-new public Arab Swimming Pool from a money-losing project into a success after it opened over 50 years ago. Just one on many stories she could share.

Arab has a long history of town leaders, builders, and community-minded people who weren’t born here—but who came to Arab and helped grow it into the place we know today. We could start with founder Tuttle Thompson and continue through the years to people we’ve been talking about recently, including Gerald Jones and Ed Reed.

Sadly, we lost Ed before he had the opportunity to speak to the Society again. His stories about growing up in Arab and his memories of the early days of The Arab Tribune were a special part of our recent conversations.

Now we look forward to hearing Janet’s stories and memories of moving to, growing up in, and living in Arab.

Come join us Thursday night! We’d love to see you there and share another evening of Arab history together.

From Johnny Tidmore:𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 for Arab's History book, 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙨 & 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨, 𝙋𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 & 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨 (430+ pages, p...
07/19/2026

From Johnny Tidmore:
𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 for Arab's History book, 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙨 & 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨, 𝙋𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 & 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨 (430+ pages, published in 1992 for Arab's Centennial Celebration).
Janet' Calhoun had one regret about the book. She wished they'd compiled a surname index. She knew it would increase sales at events. But that was a monumental task that I attempted last year, and quit out of frustration and due to lack of time.
Then it dawned on me. AI! Prompting Magica AI over the past two weeks, I have a completed index (see link to download below) which is 56 pages, formatted in 2 columns.

I NEED YOUR HELP! Please pull out your book and compare the index to the book. If you find any mistakes (and you will), please email me with corrections. I will add the index to the book before we order again.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qRLmhEgYJT4bo8KLdEfwpmwnP4RBiJvs/view?usp=sharing

DID YOU KNOW? The Arab Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1956. At that time, there was no newspaper published in Arab...
06/29/2026

DID YOU KNOW? The Arab Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1956. At that time, there was no newspaper published in Arab. The Advertiser-Gleam published the "Brindlee Mountain Edition" as a supplement to its weekly paper in Guntersville. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙖𝙗 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙪𝙣𝙚 was started in 1958.

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Arab, AL
35016

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