Exploring Montgomery

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

Monthly Archives: January 2017

Lewis House — This house has been cited as one of Montgomery’s finest examples of the California Bungalow/ Craftsman Style residence. Sadly, the present owners are allowing the lines and details to be obscured by vegetation. Nonetheless, behind the distinctive triple gable, the house boasts 11-foot ceilings, a basement, decorative rafter ends, and […]

Lewis House

January 30, 2017 in Residential tagged bungalow / lewis

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

GWTN Mansion — I just knew this impressive GWTW Mansion at 3245 Thomas Avenue had a story to tell, but I just couldn’t find it. I knew it was the home of RR Equip mogul Royce Kershaw in 1946, and five years later it was the dwelling of William Thames, founder of Thames […]

GWTN Mansion

January 23, 2017 in Residential tagged gayle / gwtn / mansion

Algernon Blair House — Blair built it in 1904 for his wife Carolyne. She and their three children had just left Macon GA to join him in Montgomery where Blair had found success as a building contractor. But Carolyne died the very next year, and while Algernon remarried a few years later (into the […]

Algernon Blair House

January 20, 2017 in Residential tagged algernon / blair / builder

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

Brantwood — It is the first thing past Oakwood Cemetery, sitting on a hill so high it looks down on the cemetery. The home was established in 1917 by the Federation of Women’s Clubs, but for its first 40-odd years it was known as the Children’s Protective Home. The Home’s current quarters […]

Brantwood Children’s Home

January 13, 2017 in Education / Residential tagged brantwood / children

Belvoir Mansion — at 3250 Thomas Avenue, was built in the mid-1920s, when Thomas was little more than a country lane. The large estate is surrounded by an intimidating wall, and the structure appears to be a blending of Washington’s neo-classical Georgian Mount Vernon, and Thomas Jefferson’s penchant for Palladian style. In French, […]

Belvoir Mansion

January 9, 2017 in Residential tagged belvoir / mansion / palladian

Upchurch Residence — AKA Monticello lives on, at 2233 Woodley Road was built by Ken Upchurch Sr to fulfill a lifelong ambition. Ken founded Upchurch Construction Co in 1930, a venture that still exists today, carried on by Ken Jr, and now Ken III. Ken Sr spent 30 years planning and dreaming about […]

Upchurch Residence

January 6, 2017 in Residential tagged monticello / uphchurch

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