Exploring Montgomery

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

Yearly Archives: 2016

Blount Bark Park — … located in Blount Park and named after Hannah Ridling, this dog park has it all. It has everything a dog and his best friend could want, fountains, wash stations, streams, walking trails, bridges, gazeebos, benches and the list goes on. The main entrance leads to two smaller entrances; one […]

Hannah Daye Ridling Bark Park

February 22, 2016 in Places and Things tagged bark / blount / park / ridling

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

February 22, 2016 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

February 22, 2016 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

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged academy / bridge / MA / montgomery

AME Zion Church — …at 483 Holcombe Street, is home to the oldest African American congregation in our city, and deep within the structure is a part that qualifies as the oldest surviving church building in Montgomery. The church was planted by Court Street Methodist in 1850, and soon thereafter was offered the 1835 wood […]

Old Ship A.M.E. Zion Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged ame / church / historic registry / old ship / zion

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

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged bell / historic registry

Court Street Methodist — …the one that was demolished ca 1931 to make way for the new Post Office. It looks pretty grand to me. My mother-in-law was married in this church in 1925. The congregation moved out to the new suburb called Cloverdale and built the First Methodist Church that we know today. […]

Court Street Methodist Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged church / court / methodist

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

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged baptist / hospital

Eastchase — The highly successful 330-acre development was opened in 2002 as a joint endeavor of ALFA and Jim Wilson Associates. The center currently boasts 70+ stores and eateries, a hotel and an office building. Its open-air concept attracted high-end tenants from the outset, and its opening was the dagger thru the heart that […]

Eastchase Shopping Center

February 22, 2016 in Commercial / Places and Things tagged eastchase / mall / shopping

First Methodist Postcard — …claims to be the oldest organized church in Montgomery. For 100 years it stood on the downtown site now occupied by the Federal Court and our former main Post Office under the name Court Street Methodist. The church moved to this site in the suburb of Cloverdale in 1931, when […]

First United Methodist Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged church / first / methodist

Frazer — the Mega Church . . . at 6000 Atlanta Highway, began in 1899 as Frazer Memorial in a storefront on Holt Street in West Montgomery. It had grown to 500 members when it was displaced by I-65 construction in the early 1960s. The church relocated far out on the Atlanta […]

Frazer Methodist Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged frazer / methodist

Exchange Hotel — Above is the Exchange corner that I knew, as it existed in 1957 when I was 30. First National was just across Commerce Street to the right, and this was the center of the world. When I worked in the Bank Bldg 1951-55, my desk was against the window and […]

Exchange Corner (Hotel)

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged corner / exchange / hotel

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

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged faulkner / jones / law

RSA Activity Center — 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

February 22, 2016 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

February 22, 2016 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

February 22, 2016 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

February 22, 2016 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

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged bank / colonial / east

Scott Street Firehouse — …was built ca 1890, when Montgomery had grown up the hill from downtown, and it was too difficult for the fire horses to pull the heavy fire equipment up the steep slopes to an outbreak. Ergo, they built a new station up the hill in the residential neighborhood. Back then […]

Scott Street Firehouse

February 22, 2016 in Government tagged fire / firehouse / scott

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

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged brown / feed / printing / seed

…the one with the unique built-in Gazebo, stands on Goldthwaite Street at the foot of Martha, another of those grand old homes that made up the once proud Cottage Hill District. I’m told that the structure dates to 1895, and that Walker was from Tuskegee (where his great uncle, […]

B W Walker House

February 22, 2016 in Residential tagged house

Kress Monroe — Oh Kress, how sad you look standing in the decay of lower Dexter. S. H. Kress was founder of one of the early dime-store chains that dominated our country 50 years ago. Most of them are now gone. Kress, different from all the others, believed that his stores should incorporate […]

S. H. Kress Store

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged art deco / elsaja / kress

…was built in 1909 as a white clapboard by banker Louis Moore. Warren Tyson owned it in 1923 and converted it to the then popular Tudor Style. I believe that Felder was the city limit line about then. The renowned Helen Keller stayed here often, as her sister, Mildred Keller, […]

Moore-Tyson House

February 22, 2016 in Residential tagged house

Montgomery’s most well known landmark. Sorry this is an old picture. The immodest nymph on top is supposed to be Hebe, Greek Goddess of Youth, raising her cup to welcome visitors. The fountain was erected in 1885, and the iron work was cast by Mott Iron Works of New York. Beyond […]

Court Square Fountain

February 22, 2016 in Places and Things tagged dexter / fountain

Trinity Presbyterian — …was organized in 1891 as a split-off from First Presbyterian, and named itself Central Presbyterian. In 1913 the church changed its name to Trinity, and relocated from downtown to the outskirts of town, at the corner of Hull and Felder. 35 years later it had become the dominant church in the […]

Trinity Presbyterian Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged church / presbyterian / trinity

Helen Hunt Learning Center — What you see is the drop-off entrance and canopy, located on a private alley that runs between Hull and McDonough Streets. The center is one of the elements of the RSA’s Monroe Street project, the piece which secured Governor Hunt’ vital support of the massive undertaking (Hunt had opposed the […]

Helen Hunt Early Learning Center

February 22, 2016 in Education / Government tagged helen hunt / learning / rsa

Garrett Coliseum — Behold our once splendid, but now rundown, State Coliseum, bereft of its former glory. Its construction began in 1949, and as an architectural student I went on field trips to Montgomery to gape at the amazing concept. The structure’s circular plan is 340-feet in diameter, and its barrel arch concrete […]

Garrett Colisuem

February 22, 2016 in Commercial tagged coliseum / garrett