Exploring Montgomery

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

Yearly Archives: 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

Whitfield Mansion — It’s sometimes erroneously called the “Pickle Palace”, at 1506 South Perry Street, is Mediterranean Style and was built in 1920. Today it is the home of gambling tycoon Milton McGregor, who is wont to say,” You could be a winner too!” But the house, designed by the favorite of Montgomery’s […]

Whitfield Mansion

March 31, 2017 in Residential tagged lockwood / mansion / mediterranean / palace / pickle / whitfield

Robert Steiner — I think Robert Steiner Jr built this Colonial Revival, probably in the 1930s, but his son, Robert E Steiner III became HOH during the 1950s when his father died. Bob Jr & III were both members of the prestigious law firm of Steiner, Crum and Baker, which was founded in […]

Robert Steiner Residence

March 27, 2017 in Residential tagged colonial revival / robert / steiner

Yost Res — For almost a half century this imposing house at 3191 Thomas Avenue was the Yost Residence. Back 70 years ago the property was so big it took two yardmen to keep it up (of course you didn’t have blow & go machines then). Mr Walter Yost was in the lumber […]

Yost Residence

March 24, 2017 in Residential tagged dragon / playhouse / yost

Marshall Lumber — Founded circa 1920, and for the 90-plus years since, it has been an institution in Montgomery. From the beginning it was a family endeavor, and it has survived through four generations of Marshalls. I think it was located right at this spot when I moved here 60-something years ago, and […]

Marshall Lumber and Mill

March 20, 2017 in Commercial tagged lumber / marshall / mill

Eagles Nest — Back 60 to 70 years ago this house at 3541 Thomas Avenue was the Eagle’s Nest, but today its picture is interesting because of the arbor formed by the trees lining the short entrance drive. It makes you feel like you are entering a special place. But back 60+ years […]

Eagle’s Nest

March 17, 2017 in Residential tagged aronov / eagle / nest

Diplomat Hotel — I always chuckle when I drive by the old Diplomat Hotel . . . out on the Southern By-Pass (now grandly called “Southern Boulevard”) at its intersection with Norman Bridge. Around 1960, when all this appeared, that intersection was the largest (by number of lanes) of any in the city. And […]

Diplomat Hotel

March 13, 2017 in Commercial tagged diplomat / hotel / inn

Grace Episcopal Church — The much revered Grace Episcopal Church . . . out on the Pike Road near Mt. Meigs, a mile or two South of I-85. The Church was founded circa 1858. However, while this nice Carpenter Gothic style structure was designed by Pennsylvania architect Joseph Pierson in 1861, soon after the […]

Grace Episcopal Church

March 10, 2017 in Religious tagged church / episcopal / flowers / gardens / gothic / grace

Thigpen House — The very impressive Thigpen House. . . at 1412 South Perry, situated at the head of Clanton Avenue. This was probably built around the turn of the previous century and seems to be a blend of Greek Revival and Italianate. The Thigpen Family lived here for neigh onto a half-century, […]

Thigpen House

March 6, 2017 in Residential tagged greek revival / italianate / thigpen

Richardson RX — Fifty years ago as I recall it, the major oil companies were taking hits for the garish appearance of their stations, especially for those built in settled neighborhoods or historic districts. Shell Oil must have been sensitive to the criticism, because in the mid-sixties it began to hire local architects […]

Richardson’s Pharmacy

March 3, 2017 in Commercial tagged oil / pharmacy / richardson / shell

CH Lions — Here are the familiar Capitol Heights Lions . . . which flank Madison Terrace at its intersection with Madison Avenue. Capitol Heights was incorporated in 1909 as a suburb with a population of 12,000. Such growth was made possible by the extension of the streetcar line way out to Electric Park […]

Capitol Heights Lions

February 27, 2017 in Places and Things tagged capitol / heights / lions / statue

Furlong Hall — The campus green at St James School on the Vaughn Road looked awfully vacant last summer when I took this, but school has now started and the place teems with young people. My view looks at Furlong Hall, one not seen by the casual passers-by. STJ moved to this campus […]

Furlong Hall

February 24, 2017 in Education tagged furlong / school / st james

Louis Whitfield House — Louis B Whitfield Jr’s modern style residence at 2080 Allendale Road was built circa 1930, about the time the road was opened. As a young man, Junior faced the daunting task of following in his father’s footsteps. The Senior Whitfield had started the ALAGA Syrup Company in 1906, and subsequently […]

Louis B Whitfield Jr. House

February 20, 2017 in Residential tagged louis / whitfield

Doctor Blue House — The Doctors Blue House . . . That’s what I named it, because Dr John H Blue and Dr George Blue both lived here in the early part of the 1900s, descendants of the Henry Blue family, subjects of Ms Neeley’s recent publication, “The Works of Matthew Blue”. I could […]

Doctors Blue House

February 17, 2017 in Residential tagged blair / blue / colonial georgian / doctor / patterson

The artistic concept of a pair of reclining lions, one on guard and one resting, supposedly originated as part of an elaborate tomb for Pope Clement VIII in 1783. Over the next century the lions were replicated worldwide, and these became known as the “Vatican Lions”. Today Montgomery can boast […]

Knox Hall Lions

February 13, 2017 in Places and Things tagged greek / hall / knox / lions / marble / revival

Officers Quarters — This is a 3-star general’s housing in the Senior Officer’s Quarters Section at Maxwell. It represents one of several designs that were employed when some 100 such units were built at the Base in the early 1930s, funded during the Depression as one of many such appropriations FDR used in […]

Senior Officer’s Quarters

February 10, 2017 in Places and Things / Residential tagged french provincial / maxwell / officer / quarters

Goldwater Sweep — This Frank Lockwood design at 3230 Thomas Avenue was built ca 1930 by Alphonse Levy, who was founder and president of the highly regarded Al Levy’s, a ladies apparel store on Montgomery Street downtown. The house is a good example of Lockwood’s penchant for “drunken brickwork”, and lends veracity to […]

Goldwater Sweep

February 6, 2017 in Residential tagged goldwater / lockwood / sweep

Samuel Schloss House — at 3233 Thomas Avenue was built circa 1938 by Sam Schloss Sr and his wife Amelia. Sam so admired the house across the street (built about 8 years previously) that he hired Frank Lockwood (who had designed the other house) to draw up its mirror image for him. This is […]

Samuel Schloss House

February 3, 2017 in Residential tagged kahn / lockwood / samuel / schloss

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