Monthly Archives: February 2016

Alabama_Governor's_Mansion
This 1907 house, located on South Perry Street, has been Alabama’s Governor’s Mansion for almost 60 years now-despite numerous attempts to move it elsewhere to escape a decaying neighborhood. At ”Big Jim” Folsom’s urging, the State bought the place in 1950, paying $100,000, the most that had ever been paid […]

Governor’s Mansion

 in Government / Residential  tagged governor / mansion
Alfa ins 1
on Southern Boulevard, directly opposite Baptist Hospital South.  The company was founded in 1946 by the Alabama Farmer’s Federation, which was started itself in 1921 to serve the political, social, insurance and agri-business needs of its members. ALFA primarily sells casualty insurance, but is also involved in real estate, construction, […]

ALFA Insurance Headquarters

 in Commercial  tagged alfa / insurance
Post Office
on Winton Blount Boulevard, appropriate because Winton was US Postmaster General back when Nixon was president. This structure was dedicated in 1989, and it has this Byzantine flavor, strange for a Federal building.  Maybe it’s because Red Blount’s company built the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia (at $2-billion), the […]

Main Post Office

 in Government  tagged office / post / winton
Jones Law School
This view of the first block of Commerce Street conjures up so many stories. One of my favorites involves the Odyssey of the Jones Law School. The conversant amongst you will recall that the school was founded in 1928 by my very distant cousin, the omnipotent Judge Walter B Jones, […]

Jones Law School

 in Education  tagged jones / law
…on East Boulevard is the CBS affiliate for South Central Alabama, with remote studios in Selma, Troy and Greenville. The station was started in 1960 as an ABC outlet in Selma by my one-time neighbors, the Brennan Brothers of Big-BAM fame. But after two decades of repeated sale of its […]

WAKA TV Studio

 in Commercial  tagged cbs / tv / waka
MA Bridge
The Montgomery Academy was founded in 1959 by a small group of well-off Montgomery families who were determined to provide a quality substitute for the doomed public school system. For the first few years it held classes on Perry Street in the former “Sable Governor’s Mansion“. Just ahead of I-85 […]

Montgomery Academy

 in Education  tagged academy / bridge / MA / montgomery
Bell Building
…has towered over Montgomery Street for 100 years now. Newton Bell, whose dream it was, died during the construction, but his son, N J Bell Jr, saw it to completion, and his son N J III managed the property until the late 1960s. The building was actually U-shaped, having had […]

Bell Building

 in Commercial  tagged bell / historic registry
Baptist South Entrance
A huge complex, 450beds. Its initial unit was built circa 1963 by Winton Blount forces. By then his real contracting outfit had already grown too large to compete for Montgomery work, so Winton formed MidSouth Contractors, which won the job. That company turned out to be a real disaster and […]

Baptist Hospital South

 in Commercial  tagged baptist / hospital
Faulkner University
a private, 2500 student, university affiliated with the Church of Christ, and located on the Atlanta Highway just west of East Boulevard. It was founded in 1942 as a small Bible school, and became Alabama Christian College a decade later. In the beginning its modest campus was located on Ann […]

Faulkner University

 in Education  tagged faulkner / jones / law
RSA Activity Center 6
While the six RSA office structures in Montgomery are clad in white pre-cast concrete (in deference to the six concrete State office buildings in the Capitol Complex), the Activity Center is red brick to compliment the Seed & Feed, which stands facing Dexter on the opposite end of the block. […]

RSA Activity Center

 in RSA  tagged activity / center / rsa
Inside Stadium
… at the corner of Tallapoosa and Coosa Streets, is surely the centerpiece of Montgomery’s riverfront development. The home of the Montgomery Biscuits. Opened in 2004 with a capacity of 6,000 fans.  It is said to be the best utilization of an existing building in stadium design, of any minor league […]

Riverfront Stadium

 in Commercial  tagged biscuits / riverfront / stadium
Brew Pub
Here at 12 West Jefferson Street, only a short block from the Biscuit Stadium, stands the Brew-Pub, now part of the Riverfront development. The building was constructed in 1913 as a heavy equipment storage facility by the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad. It is of brick bearing-wall construction, with plank […]

Brew Pub

 in Commercial  tagged brew / pub / railyard
Colonial Bank Downtown
…As seen across Court Square. The handsome granite-clad building on the right was the home office of Colonial, Montgomery’s only home bank, before it moved out to the Techna’ area off I-85 and died. However, us real old timers still look at this corner and think of the Exchange Hotel, […]

Colonial Bank Downtown

 in Commercial  tagged bank / colonial / downtown
Colonial Bank East
Poor Colonial Bank, which fled downtown, only to fall on its face two years later. Below you see its new 210,000 sf headquarters out East, next to the Technacenter, with BB&T banners covering the name. Colonial was the only bank with its home in Montgomery, ergo a source of much […]

Colonial Bank East

 in Commercial  tagged bank / colonial / east
Seed and Feed
“Seed and Feed”, that’s what we called it for the last 30+ years. This nice little building on Dexter was built by the Crenshaw family in 1907 –their family crest is built into the frieze. For years it was Brown Printing Co. (see below), and then circa 1960 it turned […]

Seed and Feed

 in Commercial  tagged brown / feed / printing / seed