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A new ‘Legacy’

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Both amazing

Both amazing

Boaz Legacy Museum

Story and photos By David Moore

It’s five days before the Boaz Legacy Museum holds its ribbon cutting on April 30. A less optimistic soul might think there’s no way it can happen, no way by then that the tables full of photos and documents and the piles of random artifacts can be organized into inviting displays depicting Boaz days of yore.

“Oh,” says Wayne Hunt, an optimistic soul who’s been dreaming of this for the past several years, “we’ll get it done. It’s not as bad as you think.”

A literal walking history of Boaz, Wayne is pointing out photos on walls and reeling off their history from the top of his head. Boaz librarian Lynn Burgess typing his comments into a laptop. After editing, she’ll print out signage explaining the various displays.

Also volunteering at the museum this evening are Brandi Tarvin, head of the child nutrition program for Boaz City Schools, and Lindsey King, marketing and event coordinator for Snead State Community College and retired school teacher Denise Willis.

Synapses firing on all cylinders, Wayne identifies a small white building on a large, wall-mounted aerial photo of the Snead campus shot some years back. Barracks, he

Five days before opening, Boaz Legacy Museum is humming with work. At far left, Brandi Tarvin cleans a display case that includes the photo reproduced on page 8. Citing history from memory, Wayne Hunt dictates information about the old Snead State campus to Lynn Burgess, who will print out signage. Above, Lindsey King puts together a display on the Boaz outlet stores.

says, explaining they were built there after World War II for veterans using the GI Bill for college, and how the influx of those older students helped save Snead, which was then hurting from low enrollment.

“It’s crazy,” Brandi says, listening to Wayne in amazement. “He has a tremendous knowledge.”

“He is the Boaz historian,” Lindsey adds, then gets back to work.

Someday a future Boaz historians may recall the efforts Lindsey, Brandi, Lynn, Denise, Wayne and others invested in the Boaz Legacy Museum, and note that some 100 people attended the ribbon cutting held April 30, way back in 2022.

Wayne, as president of the Legacy Museum board of directors, rightfully gets a lot of credit for making this happen.

But he’s quick to point out the board members worked together to make the museum happen: Bobby Weathers as vice president, Bruce Sanford as secretary/ treasurer, Denise, Brandi, Lindsey as museum coordinator and Lynn as media coordinator in charge of signage, awareness and – as the museum evolves – computer research of local families.

And then there’s Boaz Mayor David Dyar.

“This was as much the mayor’s idea as mine,” Wayne says.

The two often discussed history when they got together. Then, a few years ago, the city drew up a comprehensive plan, one facet of which suggested erecting historic landmarks and, if possible, creating a museum or cultural center.

Turns out it was possible. It just took a lot of work.

Initially, the hope was to house the museum in an old Main Street building with a sense of history.

“That never came together,” Wayne says. “Buildings were not available. The one that was would have worked would take a fortune to renovate. So we decided to sit on it and see what happened.”

What happened is that the Station House Grill opened in the former post office next to city hall. Unfortunately, the restaurant lasted less than a year. Fortunately, the city owned the building, it was in good shape, its 4,500 square feet offered space aplenty, the roof was tight, heating and air worked – and the city offered the Legacy board a 99-year lease for $1 per year.

“We’re paid up,” laughs the man with history ingrained brain. “It’s perfect.”

Growing up in Boaz, however, Wayne showed little interest in history.

“I was like any other kid. You don’t think of things like this,” he says.

Born in June 1959, his parents, Catherine and the late Joe Hunt, owned Hunt and Wright Hardware downtown. Before school, he’d help his dad move merchandise out onto the sidewalk – then a common marketing practice – and after school the store was often his daycare. He later worked there.

“I got to know, through the 1960s, many of the merchants – and at that time there were a lot of merchants,” he says. “People ask how I remember things about Boaz. Well, I lived it. I remember those places. I remember the people, although they were older. It was woven into my fabric, so to speak.”

After graduating from Boaz High in 1977, Wayne joined the Navy.

“I was one of the ones who joined the Navy to see world – and I did. And not through a porthole,” he says of his 13 years in the service. “I had a great time.”

Leaving the Navy in 1990, through some friends on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, he met the former Bonnie Ainsley, and they soon married.

He brought her and his two new daughters, Kelly and Lindsey, to Boaz. The girls finished school here, Bonnie became director of the senior center and the guy who grew up around tools opened a cabinet shop, Wayne’s Woodworks.

Closing shop in 2018, he semi-retired, taking a part-time job in a newly created position as the city’s handyman.

“Once we started maintaining things, they realized we had more to maintain than they thought,” Wayne says. So it became a full-time job – which worked out great.

“It afforded me time to do the job and do history. The museum is obviously a result of that, he adds. “It was a perfect collaboration.”

When Wayne first returned from the Navy, he was astounded at the changes in Boaz.

Propelled by urban renewal, old buildings had been razed and grants made to help restore small towns, such as Boaz.

“Boaz lost a lot of old buildings that had been here for years,” he said. “Some of it was good. Some could have been done differently – historical things could have been preserved.”

Another huge change was that, with a push from Mayor Billy Dyar, David’s father, outlet stores had made Boaz a boom town starting about 1982 with Vanity Fair.

“I came back to this Mecca that people came from far and wide to visit because of the outlet stores,” Wayne says. “It was amazing what had transpired.”

Some combination of maturity and seeing all the changes apparently awakened something that had unknowingly been “woven into my fabric, so to speak.”

Wayne found himself drawn to the library archives and spent hours poring over old newspapers, reading how Boaz once was. He started a file on existing and vanished businesses – a file that grew and grew and now contains at least 300-400 businesses.

Wayne owned a cabinet shop in Boaz for some 28 years. He more recently put his skills to work designing and building the museum showcases. The boomtown outlet era in Boaz, left, lasted from about 1982-93. “That was 30 something years ago and is a part of the history, Wayne says. “The downfall was that outlets opened in Foley and Gatlinburg. They also had the Gulf and the mountains. Boaz had the outlets – but didn’t have anything but the outlets. It got sucked by the tidal wave. It was understandable that it happened that way.”

In addition to other displays, the side room of the museum features Boaz’s first four churches. “If you are studying the history of Boaz,” Wayne says, “you don’t go far until you find yourself looking at religion and the faith of the people in Boaz at that time. Their faith was huge to them.” Back when the population was about 100, there were three churches, St. Paul with the Methodist Snead Seminary, Julia Street Methodist (named for Julia Street, not a road) and First Baptist. Mayors and aldermen all went to the first three churches, and many of their municipal decisions were faith based. Not only was alcohol illegal in the early days, so was tobacco. So was cussing on the street, Wayne notes.

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“I’ve been collecting stuff for years,” he says, “without ever realizing or having a vision there would be a museum to put it in.”

Wayne and the museum board had hoped to open Boaz Legacy Museum the first of the year, but had to settle for the first third of the year.

“It was coming down to crunch time by then,” he laughs. “We had to pick a date and do what we could do to get it open.”

That said, the museum is a work in progress – as it should be

“We used wall space to begin with and will next build more displays out in the middle. We have a lot of room,” Wayne says.

Displays are planned on pivotal families, such as that of Boaz founder Billy Sparks, who first called the settlement Sparkstown.

Already, former board member Linda Hodgins has videoed several oral history sessions with local residents, and Denise Willis continued the effort. The videos can be viewed at Wayne’s favorite display in the museum – a flat-screen TV hung in front of two rows of seats from the old Rialto Theatre.

Additionally, there are many artifacts, photos and items stored elsewhere in the building – and much more undoubtedly lurks in attics, sheds, basements and barns around Boaz.

“I get calls regularly from people wanting to donate things they would otherwise do away with,” Wayne says. “Sometimes it’s junk, but one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I tell people don’t throw it away. If it’s in your way call me. You never know.”

The idea is that Boaz Legacy Museum remains ever changing. Says Wayne, “Just like history itself, it continues to happen and continues to evolve from one level to the next.”

Good Life Magazine

An oral history video featuring retired school teacher Mary Wells Maze Malone, top, plays at the old Rialto Theatre display. At left, local visitors Larry and Alexis Schoggins check out the extensive display on the automotive industry.

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