Exploring Montgomery

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

Monthly Archives: December 2016

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

Hillcrest — the one-time home of the Montgomery Federation of Garden Clubs. The Federation purchased the former residence of Judge William Hill in the late 1960s, and for at least 35 years it used the facility to stage weddings, receptions, luncheons, teas and meetings. Garden parties amidst the lush landscaping were a […]

Hillcrest

December 23, 2016 in Residential tagged bed and breakfast / club / garden / hillcrest

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

Downtown Post Office — on Catoma Street sits directly opposite the Davis Building on the site of the old Davis Motor Co (whose mechanic wrecked my Pontiac in 1953, when he took it from the shop to run a personal errand). This was built in 1977, during the Carter Administration, when our “real Post […]

Downtown Post Office

December 12, 2016 in Government tagged downtown / office / post

Sage Blockhouse — The 4-story reinforced concrete blockhouse . . . at Gunter Annex was constructed in 1957 as part of a hush-hush AF system which was to provide early warning of a Soviet nuclear attack. Us citizens were sure this facility would lead the Soviets to target Montgomery if they decided to attack. […]

Sage Blockhouse

December 9, 2016 in Government tagged blockhouse / computer / nuclear / sage

Meadhaven — an adjunct of Baptist Hospital South, built in 1962 from a generous contribution of Arthur Mead. Initially it was a 40-bed nursing home; a decade later it was converted to hospital use, still later to psychiatric beds. Today its grand porch for rocking chairs has been filled in, its lawns […]

Meadhaven

December 5, 2016 in Commercial tagged baptist / meadhaven / south

Morningview — During the Depression years our Board of Education bore much criticism for the “extravagant castles” (Lanier and Capitol Heights JrHi) it had built during the Roaring Twenties. Ergo, even before WW II had started, a no-nonsense contractor, T L Bear, had been elected to the Board. Soon after the war […]

Morningview Elementary

December 2, 2016 in Education tagged elementary / morningview