Cardiff’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Cardiff. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Coal mining was the historical basis of the economy. The town, for years the smallest incorporated town in the State of Alabama, declined along with the decline of underground coal mining and the rise of strip mining. The epochal flood of May 2003 destroyed a number of buildings in that part of Cardiff close to Five Mile Creek. The town is now but a dent in the land; scarce of life with a scant 20–30 people and covered with kudzu. Cardiff is becoming a ghost town.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Cardiff’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cardiff’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo1 archive item has no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewCardiff Town Hall, Old County Roa…: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Cardiff, decade by decade
2000
unknown1 item
Nothing in Cardiff is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Cardiff has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Pratt School in Birmingham, 8.2 miles away.
Cardiff and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Cardiff Town Hall, Old County Road 109 and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.