Exploring Montgomery

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

Yearly Archives: 2016

Library Museum — The downtown Library Museum was built in the 1960s, and it extended thru the block. The library had the lower level and faced South Lawrence Street; the Museum occupied the upper level and faced McDonough. This was the face of the museum. When the museum moved out to Blount Park, the library […]

Downtown Library-Museum

February 26, 2016 in Education / Government tagged downtown / library / museum

RSA Union — The ten-story RSA Union office building stands at the intersection of Monroe and Union streets, diagonally adjacent to and behind the State Capitol. It turned out to be my favorite of the Retirement Systems buildings which PH&J designed. Perhaps my favor resulted from its low-keyed elegance. Possibly it was […]

RSA Union

February 26, 2016 in RSA tagged rsa / union

This tiny odd-shaped park utilized the last scrap of land assembled by RSA for its mammoth Monroe Street undertaking in 1992. The park, dedicated in January of 2000, acknowledges Montgomery’s seven historical eras and honors six unsung heroes who contributed to the progress of each era. I am afraid that […]

RSA Pavilion Park

February 26, 2016 in RSA tagged flags / heroes / park / pavilion / rsa

…at the corner of Court and Scott Streets. Built ca 1950. Award winning design. Prestigious address. Successful real estate. A decade or so later a deal was made to build a clone of Birmingham’s successful restaurant, Dale’s Cellar, as a penthouse on the building. Ergo, a glass enclosed restau-rant, Dale’s […]

Walter Bragg Smith Apartments

February 25, 2016 in Commercial tagged apartments / capital towers / dale / fire / penthouse / smith / walter

Winter Buidling — …at No. 2 Dexter Avenue, sort of dominates Court Square, based on its age, its Early Italianate Style, and its role in history. It was from this building in 1861 that was sent the telegram which authorized the firing on Ft. Sumter, and thus was started the War Between the […]

Winter Building

February 24, 2016 in Commercial tagged historic registry / italianate / winter

…built ca 1937 by Montgomery contractor Algenon Blair, a friend of my Grandfather Banks. Montgomery’s city hall burned in 1932, and this was the replacement. For 30-odd years this auditorium was the scene of Montgomery’s big events, balls, and productions. It was cooled by sliding huge blocks of ice into the […]

City Auditorium (City Hall)

February 24, 2016 in Government tagged auditorium / city hall / hank williams

It is difficult to overstate the importance of the ramp down to the river at the foot of Commerce in the mid-1800’s. Each year, cotton bales by the hundred made their way to river steamers down the ramp, pulled by slaves, on to worldwide markets. Trade goods came the other […]

Commerce Street Tunnel (Riverfront)

February 24, 2016 in Places and Things tagged amphitheater / cotton / riverfront / tunnel

…at 221 South Court Street is typical ante-bellum Greek Revival. It was built in 1845 by the same John Figh as is mentioned as contractor for several other buildings covered herein, for his personal residence. But Figh sold it even before he moved in for the princely sum of $5,800. […]

Lomax House

February 24, 2016 in Residential tagged colonel / lomax / tennent

Montgomery Zoo — is located at 2301 Coliseum Parkway out in Chisolm, probably on land that was one time a part of the Kilby reservation. It was founded as part of Oak Park in 1920; declared to be the Montgomery Zoo in 1935, and moved to this 48-acre site in Chisolm in 1974. […]

Montgomery Zoo

February 24, 2016 in Commercial / Education tagged zoo

Martins Restaurant — has been in operation since the 1930s, and is located on Carter Hill Road at Narrow Lane, in the Country Club Shopping Center. In the 1950s it was in an old house about three blocks further West on Carter Hill. I had a business partner who adored the place, and […]

Martin’s Restaurant

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged dining / martins / restaurant

Shakespeare Theatre — …began as a Summer program up in Anniston AL in 1972, on the stage of an old high school. It had remarkable early success, but was about to expire ten years later. Wynton & Carolyn Blount offered to build it a grand new theatre if the organization would move to […]

The Shakespeare Festival Theater

February 22, 2016 in Commercial / Education tagged festival / shakespeare / theater

ACC — on Adams Avenue, was constructed by RSA in 1989 in the same contract with the RSA Plaza. The ACC was conceived as an appropriate venue in which to assemble all the State’s industry seeking arms, and to provide for them all the tools necessary for their success. Besides ADO, ADECA, […]

Alabama Center for Commerce

February 22, 2016 in RSA tagged center / commerce / rsa

St Judes — …at 2048 West Fairview was constructed in 1937 as the first step in Father Harold Percell’s dream to come South and erect “a city dedicated to the religious, charitable, educational, and industrial advancement of the Negro people”. Percell had architectural talent, and he felt that red brick Romanesque was the […]

St. Jude’s Roman Catholic Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged catholic / jude / roman / romanesque / saint

Baptist East — at 400 Taylor Road is a 150-Bed, short term, acute care medical facility, probably established around 1990, and is expected to become the dominant medical center in central Alabama one day, as Baptist South suffers the same geographic and economic disadvantages that felled old Saint Margaret’s 30 years ago. And […]

Baptist Hospital East

February 22, 2016 in Commercial / Religious tagged baptist / hospital / medical

STJ_Entrance — …is an independent nonsectarian private school located at 6010 Vaughn Road. It serves over 1,000 students, and this is its administrative building, situated at the head of a 25 acre campus. The school was founded in 1955 by Dr Stanley Frazer, pastor of St James Methodist Church, then located on […]

St. James School

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged james / saint

Museum of Fine Arts — …moved from its previous quarters on McDonough Street downtown into this structure in the Blount Park in 1988. The museum was founded in 1930 and is the oldest fine arts museum in Alabama. It draws 160,000 visitors a year. Although its most outstanding holdings are built around the 41-piece American […]

Museum of Fine Arts

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged arts / fine / museum

Auburn Montgomery — …a 5,000 student branch campus of Auburn University, is situated on a 500-acre campus seven miles east of downtown. It was officially founded by an Act of the State Legislature in 1968, but its roots go back to 1936, when the University of Alabama operated the entity as an extension […]

Auburn University Montgomery (AUM)

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged auburn / aum

Gov Thomas Jones House — The huge scale of the adjacent ACC office building makes the Jones Victorian-style home look like a dollhouse. The house was built ca 1855, but Thomas Jones acquired it in 1866, right after the war. He purchased it from a local lawyer, Daniel Troy. Troy owned the house for only […]

Gov. Thomas Jones House

February 22, 2016 in Residential tagged governor / historic registry / jones / mansion / thomas / victorian

…built in 1835 for William Sayre, one of the founders of First Presbyterian Church, Montgomery’s first organized church. It is perhaps “Federal Style Colonial”, with Italianate detail added circa 1850. The house originally stood at the corner of Bibb and Lee Streets, and was moved to its present location in […]

First White House of the CSA

February 22, 2016 in Residential tagged confederacy / historic registry / house / jeff davis

Gayle Planetarium — at Oak Park, built in 1966 under the administration of Earl James, and named for “Tacky” Gayle, the last of the Gunter Machine mayors. Tacky held the office for eight years, until Earl James beat him in 1958. My memories include discussions with WMP as to how to build the […]

Gayle Planetarium

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged gayle / planetarium

Blount Design — This 250-acre park is home to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Hannah Daye Ridling Bark Park. The park features ponds, miles of walking trails, a natural amphitheater and picturesque scenery. The park is open seven days a week and closes at sundown except for […]

Blount Cultural Park

February 22, 2016 in Places and Things tagged blount / park / puck / puddle jumpers / thunder bridge / wee top

Federal Courthouse — Completed 1933 on the site of the Court Street Methodist Church –which moved itself to the new Cloverdale suburb and became First Methodist. The 5-story structure faces Church Street and was designed in Renaissance Style by Montgomery’s renowned architect, Frank Lockwood –probably his outstanding work. It was added to the […]

Federal Courthouse (Old Post Office)

February 22, 2016 in Government tagged court house / federal / historic registry / post office

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

February 22, 2016 in Government / Residential tagged governor / mansion

Montgomery Mall — The dead, dead Montgomery Mall . . . so convenient, so wonderful, in its day. The empty hulk stands at the intersection of McGehee Road and Southern Boulevard, a spot believed in 1970 to be the future epicenter of Montgomery. The Montgomery Fair, frightened by an inroad of Lovemans and […]

Montgomery Mall

February 22, 2016 in Commercial / Government / Places and Things tagged fire / mall / police

Alfa ins — 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

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged alfa / insurance

Camp Sheridan — The old Camp Sheridan, active during WW-I, was located in North Montgomery on land that became the Kilby Prison reservation shortly after the war ended. The entire camp covered many square miles. For a variety of reasons, this war (which was going on long before the United States got into […]

Camp Sheridan

February 22, 2016 in Government / Places and Things tagged camp / sheridan / ww I

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

February 22, 2016 in Government tagged office / post / winton