Big weekend upcoming for Demopolis arts

Published 3:43 pm Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Ashe Cottage, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. P. Turner, will be featured during the Marengo County Historical Society Pilgrimage.

Ashe Cottage, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. P. Turner, will be featured during the Marengo County Historical Society Pilgrimage.

The weekend of April 12-14 will be a busy one for the city of Demopolis.

The Marengo County Historical Society Pilgrimage will be on Saturday and Sunday, and the Vine and Olive Festival will be Saturday evening. On Sunday, the Southern Literary Trail will present “At Table with Lillian and Tennessee.”

The Historical Society Pilgrimage will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday, and there will be six stops along the tour.

Email newsletter signup

Three of the buildings featured on the tour were designed by Montgomery architect Frank Lockwood in the early 20th century. The Old School on Main, the Webb-Hicks home, at 404 West Capitol St.; and Lockwood, at 301 South Walnut Ave., now owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Northcutt, were all designed by Lockwood.

“We hope we’ve situated the stops so that people will be able to get out and walk around Demopolis and enjoy what the city has to offer,” Kirk Brooker of the Marengo County Historical Society said.

Also featured on the tour will be the Hudson-Daniels home at 404 South Walnut Ave., Ashe Cottage at 307 North Commissioners Ave., and Bluff Hall.

Tickets for the pilgrimage are $20, and are available at Bluff Hall.

Lockwood, owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Northcutt, will be featured in the pilgrimage as well.

Lockwood, owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Northcutt, will be featured in the pilgrimage as well.

The Vine and Olive Wine Festival will be at the Coplin Building at 203 East Washington St. in downtown Demopolis from 4-8 p.m. There will be wine tasting, an art sale and live music during the event.

There will be four wine distributors at the festival this time around, and there will be local artists with their art on display.

“Susan Grayson did a great job organizing the distributors,” Brooker said.

Admission to the festival is $20, but if you show your pilgrimage ticket, you get $5 off your entry fee.

“At Table with Lillian and Tennessee” will be Sunday, April 14 at Lyon Hall at 3 p.m. New Orleans professor and writer Ken Holditch will visit Demopolis for the Southern Literary Trail to talk about the food writings of Lillian Hellman and Tennessee Williams, both of whom he knew personally. The Marengo County Historical Society is partnering with the Southern Literary Trail on this event. This event is free to attend.

“The whole weekend is a great opportunity for the city to bring in tourism and show off some of what Demopolis has to offer,” Brooker said. “It is set up so that you can do the pilgrimage on Saturday, go to the wine festival Saturday night, get up on Sunday and go to one of the city’s many churches, then go to the Literary Trail event Sunday afternoon.”

Sponsors for the weekend include Batter Up, Collins Communications, Colony Office Products, Mr. and Mrs. William Coplin Jr., The Demopolis Times, Farmhouse Restaurant, Marengo Café, The Mustard Seed, Naheola Credit Union, Parr’s, Perfect Touch, Red Barn, Robertson Banking Co., Spec-tacular Vine and Hoof, Sweet Water State Bank, Trustmark National Bank and Vowell’s Fresh Market.

“We really want to thank all of our sponsors,” Brooker said. “We couldn’t have done any of this without them.”