{"id":1588,"date":"2013-02-01T10:51:16","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T16:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/?p=1588"},"modified":"2013-02-01T10:51:16","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T16:51:16","slug":"calico-ball-after-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/2013\/02\/01\/calico-ball-after-party\/","title":{"rendered":"An opportunity for all to go to the Calico Ball (after all)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"imagefrompostercalico\"<\/a>By New Year\u2019s Eve in 1873, Birmingham\u2019s residents were ready to forget what may have been the worst year in the fledgling city\u2019s history. A cholera epidemic<\/a>\u00a0decimated its population. Those that could fled to the country; most remaining contracted the illness and died.<\/p>\n

Many doctors stayed in Birmingham to nurse the sick and help bury the dead \u2013 and so did the girls employed by our most famous madame, Louise Wooster<\/a>. The prostitutes working for Wooster assisted doctors and undertakers until the disease was under control.<\/p>\n

Local businessman Charles Linn<\/a> hosted the Calico Ball<\/a> to celebrate the end of the cholera epidemic and everyone\u2019s return to the city. Doctors, lawyers, businessmen, society dames \u2013 the invitation list was a veritable \u201cwho\u2019s who\u201d of early Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Conspicuously absent from the Ball were Ms. Wooster and her ladies.<\/p>\n

Almost a century later, the \u201cresidents\u201d of Oak Hill Cemetery<\/a> are righting that wrong. They will leave the comfort of their resting places and mingle with the living at Avondale Brewing Company<\/a> to celebrate the Calico Ball After-Party<\/a>. \u00a0Host Louise Wooster and her sister Maggie Bracken welcome Charles Linn, John Milner, and many others for an evening of period music and dancing while dancing to the sounds of The Calico String Band. Slots on the ladies dance cards will be available for a small donation.<\/p>\n

Avondale Brewing Company<\/a>\u2019s historic home has a rich and infamous history, having been home to a several businesses – including a post office, a firehouse, and the Long Branch Saloon. The upper floor of the building was at one time a secret bordello, servicing the saloon\u2019s patrons below, making it a somewhat ideal location for the fundraiser. There are even rumors the building is haunted by a former lady of the brothel.<\/p>\n

Terri Hicks, aka Louise Wooster, has been a volunteer at Oak Hill for over four years.\u00a0\u201cOak Hill Cemetery is not only a beautiful and historic location that requires a lot of upkeep and maintenance, but it is also a repository for the early history of the Magic City, said Hicks.<\/p>\n

She continued, “Many of the movers and shakers who came to Jones Valley in the 1870s with stars in their eyes and money in their pockets, are buried there. From iron and steel magnates to infamous murder victims, the cemetery houses them all.”<\/p>\n

“It is important that the citizens of Birmingham remember what a diverse and exciting place the city was from the very beginning and how many people were involved in creating the place that has grown into The Magic City that we know now.”<\/p>\n

The Calico Ball is the anniversary fundraiser for the Oak Hill Memorial Association to support activities at the Cemetery, the oldest working cemetery in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cemetery is an outdoor museum that is open to the public every day of the year. It was the first Alabama cemetery to ever be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery only hosts approximately 12 burials per year, and although there is still limited space available for purchase, it has virtually no avenue to produce income,\u201d said Stuart Oates, cemetery director. \u201cThe cemetery was initially known as the City Cemetery, and to this day is property of the City of Birmingham. The City does provide funding for routine maintenance, but the Oak Hill Memorial Association is dependent on gifts and donations to continue restoration and preservation efforts that lie beyond the scope of routine operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Calico Ball After-Party takes place this Saturday, February 2, from 7-10 p.m. Tickets are available in advance for $20 via TicketLeap<\/a>; they will be available at the door for $25. The event is sponsored by The Magic City Post<\/em><\/a>, Weld for Birmingham<\/em><\/a>, and Naked Art Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a>

It’s time to head on over to Avondale Brewing Company on February 2 as the residents of Oak Hill Cemetery finally make sure everyone is welcome to the Calico Ball – well, at least the after-party… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4PdO-pC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/timetable\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}