The Cross Plains Room — display cases of artifacts, historic photographs, and a painted mural of downtown Piedmont

Inside the depot

Explore the Museum

Six experiences inside a working 1868 depot — history you can step into.

The Crossing of the Plains display with conductor figure and artifact cases

How the railroad built a town

Southern & Seaboard Railroad Room

Original artifacts, historic station views, maps, and records from the 1868 line that brought regular mail, people, and freight — and transformed a crossroads into a working town.

Piedmont before it was Piedmont

Hollow Stump & Cross Plains Room

Step into the town's earliest story — when a hollow sycamore stump served as the community mailbox. Everyday tools, family keepsakes, photographs, and a life-sized stump replica.

Community life through the years

Piedmont History Room

From old dentist equipment and barber shop tools to high school uniforms and yearbooks — the daily lives, professions, and pride of the people who built this town.

Alabama's bigger story

The Cargo Room

Geography, music, archaeology, and industry. Interact with our state-of-the-art topographic map and its “Sweet Home Alabama” presentation, discover Native American artifacts, and learn how cotton and the mills shaped the local economy.

The Songs About Alabama listening station with its song list and headphones

History you can hear

Interactive Kiosks & Songs of Alabama

Touchscreen stations let students and visitors explore Alabama's timeline, memory, and culture at their own pace — plus 80+ songs that mention Alabama.

The freshly repainted red-and-yellow Southern X769 caboose beside the depot

Icons of the depot

The Caboose

Step aboard Southern X769 — our freshly repainted red-and-yellow caboose, a railroad classic you can experience up close.

A closer look

More From the Collection

The Public Well replica — hand-cranked windlass, rope, and the original 1888 town charter displayed behind it — The Public Well — where a shared well grew into a community.

The Cross Plains display — historic photographs of the Piedmont Springs Hotel and early town buildings — Cross Plains — hotel photographs from the town that became Piedmont.

The healthcare and barber shop corner — early medical equipment, portraits, and the Wildroot barber sign — Healthcare & the barber shop — medicine and Main Street trades.

The Piedmont Fire Department display — helmets, a fire hydrant, and photographs by the original brick fireplace — The fire department — helmets and hydrants by the original fireplace.

The Piedmont Crossroads wall — a large historic photograph of downtown with the hollow stump town seal — Piedmont Crossroads — downtown as the first residents knew it.

A display case of Native American stone tools and artifacts found in the area — Stone tools from the area's first peoples, in the Cargo Room.

Every exhibit is part of our Grades 3–5 field trip program.

Plan a field trip