Exploring Montgomery

The storytelling continues… a collection of stories and photos from Exploring Montgomery!

Commercial

The Offices of the Hatton-Brown Publishing Co, 225 Hanrick Street, sits at the very top of the hill between Clay and Herron streets, downtown’s parallel exit-access routes to Interstate I-65. From that vantage point it offers a grand view of the Alabama River and the I-65 bridge. The building occupies […]

Hatton-Brown Publishing Co.

December 1, 2017 in Commercial tagged brown / hatton / publishing

retirement home for the elderly, at 135 S Panama Street, stands directly behind Capitol Heights Baptist Church. It was built by the church in 1983, using Federal grant money. This is one of several massive structures that make up the complex. It nicely anchors the SE corner of Capitol Heights. […]

Capitol Heights Place

November 10, 2017 in Commercial / Residential tagged capitol heights

positioned itself right in front of Montgomery Mall, at the tip of the triangle formed by McGehee Rd and the Boulevard. In 1973, after 50 years in furniture row on Commerce Street downtown, Charlie Parker and his partner, Borum Bishop, took the plunge and opened a branch outlet out on […]

Bishop Parker Furniture Store

October 16, 2017 in Commercial tagged bishop / furniture / parker

on Washington Street near South Court. Back in the old days, AT&T (Ma Bell) was looked upon as a beguine old grandmother, and its buildings were substantial additions to the fabric of the community. In the 1940s, probably before, this old structure held all the tel exchanges, which meant every […]

Telephone Company Office

October 9, 2017 in Commercial tagged bell / operator / telephone

located in the woods just off Perry Hill Road at its juncture with Interstate I-85. California style. This is the initial building of a 9-building campus, probably planted in the mid 1980s. The Alabama Mental Health Dept was located out here in ca 1989, until it was brought back downtown […]

Interstate Office Park

October 2, 2017 in Commercial / Government tagged interstate park

The vast but empty ARONOV BUILDING . . . stands at 474 South Court, bereft of its former glory, when it was the most important privately owned building in Montgomery. It was built circa 1966, and by 1970 it was the leased home of the US Social Security offices, the […]

Aronov Building

September 18, 2017 in Commercial tagged aronov

Located just North of Jackson Hospital, between Forest Avenue and Mulberry Street. Ribbon cutting was held back in December 2011. It cost $15-million, of which our City and County Govts each put in over a mil. It is one of 15 such centers serving South-Central Alabama. This center is expected […]

River Region Health Center

July 17, 2017 in Commercial tagged center / health / healthcare / river region

Here, at the corner of South Decatur and High Streets, stands the last remnant of Capital City Laundry, for most of a century the laundry king of Montgomery. In 1970, Capital City boasted 11 branches, and its only real competitor, Empire-Rouse, had but 8 sites. On this corner, each one […]

Capital City Laundry

July 14, 2017 in Commercial tagged capital city / empire-rouse / laundry

Behold the remnant of the once grand Circuit City Store . . . at 500 Eastdale Loop (behind Max Credit Union). The Eastdale store opened with great fanfare circa 1990, a wonderland of electronic magic, with plenty of clerks, all real computer geeks with whom you could discuss a purchase. Circuit […]

Old Circuit City Store

July 10, 2017 in Commercial / Religious tagged circuit city / eastdale / ncc / safe harbor

At the intersection of South Court and our derelict Southern Boulevard. Fifty years ago there was no Interstate route thru Montgomery, and this was the highway travel path. Montgomery’s center of commercial and construction activity was along this strip, and the “88” was the keenest structure in the area. It […]

88 Building

July 3, 2017 in Commercial / Religious tagged 88 / good news ministries

You would never believe this (I almost didn’t), but this poor relic of a once grand plantation house, was where Sir George Waller grew up circa 1900. This structure, until just recently an AUM bookstore, stands on Taylor road opposite the University, giving no hint of its grandeur of a century […]

Sir George Waller

June 19, 2017 in Commercial / Education / Residential tagged aum / bookstore / george / jacks / sir / waller

Greystone Hotel — The once-grand Greystone, at 100 Commerce Street, was built in 1928. It was constructed as the Armstrong Hotel, or Cherokee Hotel, but was damaged by a fire in 1921 and sold off to become the Greystone. The 10-story classical structure was once nominated for listing on the National Register of […]

Greystone Hotel

June 2, 2017 in Commercial tagged armstrong / cherokee / greystone / hotel

Capri — They stand together on Fairview at the foot of the Old Cloverdale district. The Capri was built in 1941 and began life as the Clover Theatre, Montgomery’s first neighborhood movie house . Sinclair’s is a highly successful theme restaurant, and it occupies the old Sinclair Service Station structure. About the […]

Capri, Sinclairs & Stonehenge

May 29, 2017 in Commercial / Places and Things tagged capri / sinclairs / stonehenge

Occupies a commanding location on the corner formed by I-85, Perry Hill and Carmichael Road. Besides its high visibility, the Aronov 5-story Class-A office building boasts nicely landscaped, well kept grounds. -Charles Humphries

Carmichael Center

May 22, 2017 in Commercial tagged carmichael / center

Located in the bottom immediately behind the Crump Community Center (previous slide), alongside the old C of Ga tracks, boasts 12 lighted, hard surface tennis courts, shuffle board, picnic tables and the pictured clubhouse/ pro-shop. The park was originally opened as Bruce Park in 1971 during Mayor Earl James’ administration, […]

O’Conner Tennis Center

May 12, 2017 in Commercial / Education tagged oconner / tennis

513 Madison — Bill Pearson and I were two chastened young men, when in 1956 we moved into this building at 513 Madison Avenue to make our second try at starting an architectural practice. We rented a single room at the very back of the neigh vacant upper floor and set out on a 50-year […]

Madison 513

April 17, 2017 in Commercial tagged madison / phj / vacant

1 Dexter — Oh, the memories a single picture can bring. But note that it is no longer Court Square, its name for almost 200 years; it is now named for that scoundrel Andrew Dexter. Essentially, what we see is the one-time Pizitz Department Store. Pizitz bet on downtown; Lovemans bet on Normandale. […]

One Dexter Plaza

April 3, 2017 in Commercial / Government tagged court / dexter / one / plaza / square

Marshall Lumber — Founded circa 1920, and for the 90-plus years since, it has been an institution in Montgomery. From the beginning it was a family endeavor, and it has survived through four generations of Marshalls. I think it was located right at this spot when I moved here 60-something years ago, and […]

Marshall Lumber and Mill

March 20, 2017 in Commercial tagged lumber / marshall / mill

Diplomat Hotel — I always chuckle when I drive by the old Diplomat Hotel . . . out on the Southern By-Pass (now grandly called “Southern Boulevard”) at its intersection with Norman Bridge. Around 1960, when all this appeared, that intersection was the largest (by number of lanes) of any in the city. And […]

Diplomat Hotel

March 13, 2017 in Commercial tagged diplomat / hotel / inn

Richardson RX — Fifty years ago as I recall it, the major oil companies were taking hits for the garish appearance of their stations, especially for those built in settled neighborhoods or historic districts. Shell Oil must have been sensitive to the criticism, because in the mid-sixties it began to hire local architects […]

Richardson’s Pharmacy

March 3, 2017 in Commercial tagged oil / pharmacy / richardson / shell

Prado — Oh, this is so sad . . . the last vestige of The Prado. You are looking at what has to be two of the four survivors of some forty (?) buildings that made up the grand apartment complex that so proudly stood on the SW corner of Fairview and […]

The Prado

January 27, 2017 in Commercial / Residential tagged apartments / prado

SPLC — The Southern Poverty Law Center and its Civil Rights Memorial, located on the corner of Washington and Hull. Morris founded it in 1971, using his share of the Fuller & Dees cookbook killing, and it soon stirred up a wrath. Morris Dees and his Center was bombed along about 1982, […]

Southern Poverty Law Center

January 16, 2017 in Commercial tagged center / law / poverty / southern / splc

Shoppes Mulberry — This quaint little row of specialty shops sort of rose up by mutation over the last thirty years or so, and now the “Mulberry District” is a favorite place. It surely does represent American free enterprise at its best. At one time this land was part of A P Tyson […]

Shoppes at Mulberry

January 2, 2017 in Commercial / Places and Things tagged mulberry / shoppes

Ben Moore — The once fine Ben Moore Hotel . . . located at 902 High Street (where it intersects with South Jackson), was built in 1952 near the center of Centennial Hill, the prestigious Black business district and neighborhood of that era. It was still new in 1954, when Martin Luther King […]

Ben Moore Hotel

December 30, 2016 in Commercial tagged ben / hotel / MLK / moore / rose

Crump Center — Oh, the irony of it all. A couple years ago the Crump Center, a City-operated redoubt for the Still-Agile-Elderly, was moved from its former smallish Elizabethan Style home on Highland Avenue, way out onto Federal (now Congressman Dickinson) Drive, past the Coliseum. Today the center holds forth in this huge, […]

Crump Center

December 26, 2016 in Commercial / Government tagged center / crump / police

Alcazar Shrine Temple — was built in 1973, and it facilitated the relocation of the Alcazar Shrine from Madison Avenue (opposite Cramton Bowl). The Shriners is a fun-loving fraternity (no connection to Islam) founded some 120 years ago as a branch of the Masonic Order. Early on it adopted Arabian themes to herald it […]

Alcazar Shrine Temple

December 19, 2016 in Commercial tagged alcazar / community / concerts / events / shrine / temple

Bear Lumber — at 25 East Jefferson, where it has been ensconced for some 65 years. Rough-and-tumble T. L. Bear started it in the mid-1930s as a general building contractor, but in the early days he was frowned upon by the grand old-time contractors of the day. To fix that, “TL” got himself […]

Bear Lumber

December 16, 2016 in Commercial tagged bear / brothers / builders / construction / lumber