Words by Jenny Lynn Davis | Images by Nick Rizzo
The Bankhead House and Heritage Center is honoring the legacy of Walker County’s towns with its latest exhibit, Celebrating Our Communities, Chapter 5 – Barney, Cordova, Gardener’s Gin, and Quinton. This exhibit is the final installment in a series highlighting Walker County communities and features culturally significant items from each area.
Mimi Hudson, Executive Director of the Bankhead House & Heritage Center, explained the concept behind the Celebrating Our Communities series to The Walker Leader:
“If you had a museum in any of the communities represented—in this case, Quinton, Barney, Cordova, or Gardener’s Gin—what would you put in it to represent what life was once like? It’s so important for us to look to the future, but it is just as important to look back and see how far communities have come.”
Many of the displayed artifacts were loaned by community members. Barney resident Glenda Gilbert Williams and her granddaughter, Cordova native Jennifer Cohron, contributed several items, including a 1950s newspaper clipping celebrating Williams’ crowning as queen of the Barney School Halloween carnival.
Williams says seeing her community remembered in this way is deeply meaningful, and that it was “wonderful” to see so many people turn out at the exhibit’s opening reception on Tuesday, September 2.
Cohron added that her grandparents played a pivotal role in keeping the memory of Barney alive long before the exhibit came to be, sharing that they helped organize the first Barney Homecoming reunion, which led to the creation of the Barney Miner’s Monument at the community cemetery.
For Cohron, whose professional life has included covering events at the Bankhead House, the exhibit carries an even deeper significance.
“I’ve never had the chance to see my own family’s story told here,” she said. “It’s a completely different experience to see my community and my family represented, instead of just observing from the outside as I have before.”
Paul Kennedy, President of the Walker Area Community Foundation, told attendees of the opening reception that the exhibit has been long awaited.
“This exhibit has been a long time coming. It got postponed in 2020 due to COVID, but it’s back, and this is the last one in the series,” he said.
Kennedy also emphasized the importance of community contributions, noting that “90% of what you see is not from the Bankhead House collection, but on loan from good people like you.”
The exhibit will be on display until December 26, 2025. The Bankhead House and Heritage Center’s opening hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the third Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Bankhead House and Heritage Center operates as an initiative of the Walker Area Community Foundation. WL
