Todds lead LaGrange restoration efforts

For Janet and Max Todd, history isn’t something confined to books or preserved behind glass. It’s something meant to be lived in, and when possible, brought back to life.

That belief is what continues to guide their work at the LaGrange College Park Site in Leighton, where the couple has spent years helping preserve one of Alabama’s earliest institutions of higher learning. Now, with the site’s 200th anniversary on the horizon in 2030, their focus has turned toward something both deeply personal and transformative.

“We’re trying to take LaGrange back to what it would have looked like in the early days,” Janet said. “It’s a matter of restoring it and beautifying it, but also making it feel like it belongs to that time.”

The effort is part of a broader initiative led by the LaGrange Living Historical Association, where Max serves as vice president and Janet recently stepped into a more formal role as a consultant.

Together, they are helping shape a multi-year plan that blends preservation, education and community involvement, all leading up to the bicentennial of the college, which was first built in 1830.

Max’s path to LaGrange began decades ago with a simple invitation.

“I’ve always had an interest in history, especially the Civil War,” he said. “Several of the board members approached me and said, ‘Why don’t you come and be part of this?’ And I did. I’ve been involved in some capacity ever since.”

Over the years, that involvement has only deepened, fueled in part by a growing public interest in local history.

“People are more inclined now to look at their roots and where they come from,” Max said. “We’ve seen a renewed interest in all of this, and it’s wonderful.”

Janet, meanwhile, spent years supporting those efforts from the background.

The couple, both graduates of the University of North Alabama, shared a connection to the site’s legacy — LaGrange College is widely considered the precursor to what would become UNA — but she initially chose not to join the board alongside her husband.

“I always felt like husband and wife both didn’t need to be on the board,” she said. “But I’ve always supported what he was doing behind the scenes.”

That changed when the association began exploring new ways to enhance the site, particularly through landscaping.

“When he said they needed help, of course, the first thing I thought about was plants,” Janet said with a laugh.

A former Master Gardener, Janet has spent much of her life cultivating a deep knowledge of native plants, rooted in her upbringing on a working farm.

“We grew all of our own food,” she said. “Except for white bread, sugar and tea, all our food. I mean, we raised our own turkeys, our own hogs, our own beef. My mother would can 600 or 700 cans every year. Fill two freezers. So, that was my life growing up. I’ve always been the outdoors person.”

That lifelong passion is now shaping one of the most ambitious projects planned for LaGrange’s bicentennial. The board is planning a large-scale restoration of native vegetation across the site.

Working alongside the Shoals Master Gardeners, as well as volunteers from the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program, Janet has helped spearhead efforts to reintroduce plants that would have been common in the 1830s. The goal is not just visual authenticity, but ecological restoration — creating a landscape that reflects the region’s natural history as much as its cultural one.

“We’ve been researching what would have been native to Alabama during that time,” she said. “Using resources like the Lady Bird Johnson database and working with the Forestry Service, we’re identifying the right plants and finding sources for them.”

The vision includes pollinator gardens, heirloom plantings and rows of native trees like dogwoods, redbuds, sugar maples and azaleas. Many of those trees will line the road leading up to the site. In total, hundreds of plants are expected to go into the ground in the coming years with major planting efforts already being planned for early 2027.

“It’s going to take a lot of help,” Janet said. “We’re talking about 300 or 400 plants that will require digging. It’s not just going to be putting them in the ground. We’re partnering with RSVP, but they’re like us. Most of them are elderly. So, we’re going to holler at churches, UNA students and people who can still do things, people who are willing to come out and work.”

The landscaping project is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. In the years leading up to 2030, the Todds and the association hope to introduce a range of new features designed to make the site more interactive and accessible.

Among those plans are viewing scopes positioned at the site’s overlook, which sits atop a Colbert County peak and offers sweeping views into neighboring states. On clear days, visitors can see as far as Tennessee and Mississippi.

“We want people to be able to stand there and really take in the landscape,” Max said, “and at the same time, connect it to the history. What this place meant when the college was here.”

Other ideas blend technology with storytelling, including audio installations that would allow visitors to hear recorded narratives about the site’s history.

“We want L.C. and Louise’s 40 years of hard work to continue,” Janet said, referring to the site’s longtime caretakers, L.C. and Louise Lenz. “This would not exist without them. This is their story, in their voice.”

Plans also include educational elements for younger visitors, such as outdoor displays and tools that help identify native birds and plants, turning a walk through the grounds into an immersive learning experience.

“The whole thing is to make it user-friendly,” Max said. “We want people to come out here and feel like they’re part of it.”

That sense of connection is at the heart of everything the Todds hope to accomplish.

For Janet, it’s about ensuring that the history of LaGrange — once a thriving hilltop community with hundreds of residents, a post office and a general store — is not forgotten.

For Max, it’s about helping others see themselves in that history.

“We want people to understand, these are your roots, too,” he said. “This is your college.”

As the countdown to 2030 continues, the work ahead remains significant. Grants must be secured, volunteers recruited and projects carefully coordinated. But for the Todds, the effort is as meaningful as the outcome.

“It’s too important to let go,” Janet said. “We want to carry this forward, not just for us, but for everyone who comes after.”