Exploring Montgomery

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

Monthly Archives: January 2018

Built in the heady days when Cloverdale was its very own town, but soon to be incorporated into Montgomery. But when that came to pass, Montgomery had two white high schools, so there was this football game to decide which school would get to keep its name. Poor Cloverdale High […]

Cloverdale Highschool

January 29, 2018 in Education tagged cloverdale / highschool / huntingdon

One of our many schizo bank buildings, this one having been built in the early 1970s as the main offices of Montgomery’s Exchange Bank, highly and proudly visible from the brand new I-85. That entity morphed into Southtrust Bank and was one of our favorite clients. Later still, the poor […]

Exchange Bank

January 26, 2018 in Commercial tagged bank / exchange

Now offices make a wonderful reuse of the historic building. This was the old Ice House, which, in its heyday, filled such an important place in the fabric of our community. The structure housed the Segall-Nathan Ice Manufacturing Co, founded at this location during the 1920s, and it was a […]

Old Ice House

January 22, 2018 in Commercial tagged house / ice / segall-nathan

Here stands the enduring hulk of the Highland Theater, the one-time pride and joy of Montgomery’s Highland Avenue “streetcar community”. This neighborhood picture show was opened just after WW II, and managed to stay open for little more than 20 years. In 1950 it was one of 13 single screen […]

Highland Theater

January 19, 2018 in Commercial tagged highland / shelton / theater

stands on West 5th Street at the foot of Forest Avenue, and has been a quiet but vital cog in the Montgomery school system for neigh onto 90 years. It traces back into the 1920s, but even today it serves as a magnet elementary school in our system. In 2007, […]

Forest Avenue School

January 15, 2018 in Education tagged avenue / elementary / forest / school

…placed on the Capitol Grounds by the Daughter’s of the American Revolution in 1925 to acknowledge General Marquis de La Fayette’s service during the Revolution, and to commemorate his visit to Montgomery 100 years earlier. According to family records and keepsakes, my wife’s gggg-GF came from France with the General […]

The LaFayette Rock

January 12, 2018 in Places and Things tagged lafayette / marquis / rock

at 400 South Union Street, built in 1990 by Bubba Bailey, and for years the bastion of gambling mogul Milton McGregor. It is the only major, non-govt construction that contributed to the startling rebirth of what was a quiet rundown residential street, from which all the residents could walk to […]

Bailey Building

January 8, 2018 in Commercial tagged bailey / mcgregor

at 1655 Federal Drive was dedicated in 1986, and is one of four such markets operated in Montgomery by the Alabama Farmer’s Market Authority. During these days of austerity, it barely clings to life. This building is the produce marketing outlet, one of a half-dozen buildings in the complex, all […]

Montgomery State Farmers Market

January 5, 2018 in Commercial tagged farmers / market / state

Part of the Montgomery State Farmers Market on Federal Drive at Coliseum Boulevard. It has provided breakfast and lunch for produce vendors and their customers for a quarter century. This building was the one most visible from the intersection, and it stood as the image of the complex. Notice in the […]

State Market Cafe

January 1, 2018 in Commercial tagged cafe / farmers / market / state