Exploring Montgomery

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

Monthly Archives: April 2017

Hank Williams Grave — The renowned Hank Williams Grave, where ceremonies are held each and every year to celebrate his life, despite its sordid end. The elaborate and gaudy cemetery plot is flood-lighted at night to retard vandalism. It’s sad to me, that with as many historical and deserving people as are interred in Oakwood […]

Hank Williams Grave

April 28, 2017 in Places and Things tagged grave / hank williams / monument

Craftsman house — This house seems to be the first home built on Galena Ave in Old Cloverdale. It was probably constructed about 1912 for an O A Richardson. The house has the basic accoutrements of the classic Federal style, over which has been applied many of the features brought on by the […]

Craftsman House

April 24, 2017 in Residential tagged craftsman / federal / mertins / richardson

shearon elebash — This interesting old mansion at 805 Cloverdale Road sits at the south end of the huge but now vacant frontage that once held the estate of Coca-Cola magnet William A Bellingrath. The house had already endured several prior owners, but in the 1960s and ’70s the pictured structure was the […]

Shearon Elebash Residence

April 21, 2017 in Residential tagged elebash / governor / jeweler / shearon / singer

513 Madison — Bill Pearson and I were two chastened young men, when in 1956 we moved into this building at 513 Madison Avenue to make our second try at starting an architectural practice. We rented a single room at the very back of the neigh vacant upper floor and set out on a 50-year […]

Madison 513

April 17, 2017 in Commercial tagged madison / phj / vacant

Huntingdon Hut — This is The Hut at Huntingdon College, built by the YWCA in 1922, as the campus social center. Back in those days the YW was far and away the strongest student organization on campus. That group conceived the idea for the building and raised the money. The structure cost about $11,000, […]

Huntingdon’s Hut

April 14, 2017 in Education tagged huntingdon / hut / ywca

Tale of Two Sisters — This overgrown sadness at 3125 Cloverdale Road overlooks the currently popular Cloverdale-Idlewild “Bottom” Park, and it once was the home of Allen C Rankin. Back in 1940 Mr Rankin was general manager of the renowned Teague Hardware Store on Commerce Street, and he was the father of a most talented […]

Rankin – Tale of Two Sisters

April 10, 2017 in Residential tagged rankin / sing / sisters / tale / two / voice

East Montgomery Library — Back in the 1950s, when Bear Brothers Land Co was developing Coliseum Blvd and Eastbrook Shopping Center, they donated a 12-acre parcel of that land to the city as a public park. The city accepted and named it Bear Park. Less than a decade later, when Federal Judge Frank Johnson […]

East Montgomery Branch Library

April 7, 2017 in Education / Government tagged bear park / branch / east / library

1 Dexter — Oh, the memories a single picture can bring. But note that it is no longer Court Square, its name for almost 200 years; it is now named for that scoundrel Andrew Dexter. Essentially, what we see is the one-time Pizitz Department Store. Pizitz bet on downtown; Lovemans bet on Normandale. […]

One Dexter Plaza

April 3, 2017 in Commercial / Government tagged court / dexter / one / plaza / square