Yearly Archives: 2018

Certainly inspired by George Washington’s Virginia home, Mt Vernon, was built circa 1933. At the time it was the last house out on the Woodley Road as you headed off to Troy. Hardie was one of the owners of the highly successful McGehee Brothers Drug Store located downtown on the […]

Hardie McGehee House

 in Residential  tagged hardie / mcgehee
The unit moved there around the turn of the Century, after a 35-year stint on Ripley Street, opposite Saint Margaret’s Hospital (today that site is part of the State motor pool). The Red Cross was founded in 1881, gained prominence during WW I when it went along as part of […]

American Red Cross Offices

 in Commercial  tagged red cross
In 1954 there were only three banks in Montgomery, and all three sat side by side on Commerce Street downtown. That year two of the three, First National and Union, began a race to build the first branch bank. PT&N Architects saddled up with First, and SS&A Architects was hired […]

Regions Cloverdale Branch

 in Commercial  tagged cloverdale / regions
The flags form the circular drive which enables dignitaries to be dropped off at the South Entrance to our State Capitol. Each pole displays the State Flag of a sister state, and at the bottom of each pole is a native stone of that State engraved with its name. The […]

Avenue of Flags

 in Places and Things  tagged capitol / flags
Those who have missed it all, should revisit the Riverfront! The City has put tourist-friendly signs everywhere, black lamp posts, black bollards, even an arch sign over the old cotton-bale tunnel leading down to a former river steamer wharf. I think the sign was inspired by the 1910 sign that […]

Riverfront

 in Places and Things  tagged riverfront
The Fuller & Dees Gold Mine . . . still stands at 3736 Atlanta Highway. In 1960, Millard Fuller (ex baseball pitcher) and Morris Dees (ex political operator), were enterprising students at the U of A Law School. Soon thereafter the pair settled in Montgomery, started a modest law practice. […]

Fuller & Dees Gold Mine

 in Education  tagged dees / fortis / fuller
The APLS (Alabama Public Library Service) is actually two-story and deceptively large, was built 1976, and is a separate State Department created to assist (and rule over) public libraries throughout Alabama. It was started way back in 1939, probably by Marie Bankhead Owen, as a small arm of her Archives […]

Alabama Public Library Service

 in Education / Government  tagged apls / library
At 900 Bell Street (now Maxwell Boulevard). The Army is a Protestant Church based, international movement started in London in 1865. Its Montgomery headquarters moved out onto Bell Street in the early 1970s, and some years later replaced its original building at that site with this (almost too elegant) structure. […]

Salvation Army Headquarters

 in Commercial  tagged army / headquarters / salvation
Officially at 1255 Madison Avenue, but as you can see, it’s actually tucked into the back left corner of the Paterson Field parking lot. Two forsaken entities side by side, the TV studio on the left, the edge of the baseball stadium on the right. Alabama Public Television was established […]

WAIQ TV Studios

 in Commercial  tagged APT / studios / WAIQ
Poor, forsaken, Paterson Field Baseball Stadium . . . on Madison Avenue, directly across from Cramton Bowl. It was built in 1949; its 7,000 capacity made it an impressive facility back then. In its heyday it was home field for the reincarnated Montgomery Rebels, a Class AA minor league affiliate […]

Paterson Field

 in Commercial  tagged baseball / field / paterson
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Comforter . . . at 2911 Woodley Road, anchors the Southern tip of the triangular shaped Gay Meadows subdivision, almost touching Southern Boulevard. The church was carefully crafted to resemble its former Carpenter Gothic home in the once elegant Cottage Hills District. The Holy […]

Holy Comforter

 in Religious  tagged church / comforter / episcopal / holy
built this structure at 1021 Madison Avenue (directly opposite the Bibb Graves Armory) in the early 1950s, complete with the awful insertion of glass block. But despite that faux pas, it has this slight Federal Style feel, and appears somewhat staid to be a Shriner redoubt. I do understand that […]

Alcazar Shrine

 in Commercial / Government  tagged alcazar / shrine
I must pay homage to the D W Moody Hardware Store. Moody hardware stores have been important fixtures in Montgomery as long as I have lived here. Soon after he returned home from WW II, Dempsey Moody opened this store, and despite numerous setbacks, he refused to surrender. DW did […]

D W Moody Hardware Store

 in Commercial  tagged hardware / moody