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Highly recommend this stop if passing through Anniston. Very neat collection of crazy cool spy weapons....a flute pistol AND Hitler's tea set?! That in itself should be enough to capture your attention. Well worth the $5 admission fee. Small enough to stop and look without delaying your trip.
[Liz Armato, 09/18/2014]Hitler's Tea Service and Spy Weapons:RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report
- Address:
- 840 Museum Drive, Anniston, AL
- Directions:
- Berman Museum of World History. I-20 exit 185. Turn north onto Hwy 21. Drive 6.5 miles. When US Hwy 431 splits from Hwy 21, turn right into Lagarde Park, then immediately turn left. Museum will be up ahead on left.
- Hours:
- T-Sa 10-5, Su 1-5 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
- Phone:
- 256-237-6261
- RA Rates:
- Worth a Detour
Adolf Hitler's silver tea set and rare spy assassination weapons are two highlights at the Berman Museum of World History.
Roadsideamerica.com Report...
- Anniston, Alabama - Adolf Hitler's Tea Service
The Berman museum is located on the main drag in Anniston, just before you get to the first Ft. McClellan gate. The items in the museum were donated by COL Berman (ret), an ex OSS officer in WWII. Some of us suspect he obtained the items in his collection by trading food to starving Germans at the end of the war. A number of the items in his collection really belong in the Smithsonian; Hitler's travelling silver set, gold/jewel encrusted swords, a greek helmet, etc.
This museum is really worth a visit (on my last visit there 2-3 years ago, the museum was only about 75% finished). I've heard he has since died and the rest of his stuff moved in. The building to house his collection cost over a million bucks, so you can imagine he had quite a private collection.
[Mark T., 05/05/2001] 56-foot-tall statue of Vulcan, the pagan, bare-butted Roman smithy god, watches Birmingham from his tower on the summit of Red Mountain. Surrounding park trails open from dawn to dusk.
Roadsideamerica.com Report...
Vulcan Park and Museum
- Address:
- 1701 Valley View Drive, Birmingham, AL
- Directions:
- Vulcan Park and Museum, atop Red Mountain. Entrance at the corner of 21st Ave. S. and Valley Ave.
- Hours:
- Daily 10-6 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
- Phone:
- 205-933-1409
- RA Rates:
- Major Fun
As of mid-November, 1999, the Vulcan statue is completely gone from its pedestal! The process of removing it took a few weeks, and along the way, workers discovered that much of the structure had severely decayed. Many of the bolts that held the right arm together were down to about a third of their original diameter. About half of the statue was filled with concrete (expansion and contraction of which caused some of the damage to the statue), and that slowed the job, as workers had to dig out much of it before removing the lower part of Vulcan's torso and his famed buttocks.
Latest reports still indicate that Vulcan will not have his torch when he returns to Red Mountain in a few years. If he has the spear instead, he may still have his function as a traffic safety reminder. One plan is to place red and green spotlights on the ground...at night, these would illuminate the spear head. This plan has much backing as it would preserve the statue's original form, but keep its latest function.
BTW, many folks did not realize that Vulcan's spear head has been in his hand all along -- the torch was just fitted over it when added to the statue.
[Uncle Flip, 12/05/1999]
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Also on display in the museum is Col. Farley Berman's collection of spy weapons, which includes a flute that fires bullets and a pen that can fire a .22 or a capsule of poison gas. The gift shop sells a DVD of the late Colonel firing his spy weapons.