Exploring Montgomery

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

Religious

All but the young will recognize this as the former St Margaret’s Hospital, which was turned to face Ripley Street in 1980, a decade before its demise. Today, thanks to the RSA, the property is the home of the State’s Departments of Corrections, Public Safety, and Pardons and Paroles. This […]

Criminal Justice Center (St. Margaret’s)

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged corrections / hospital / parole / public safety / rsa / st margaret

Turzillo Begins — Having gotten past the architect selection and with the design effort underway, Sister Susan and Tribrook set out to hire a construction manager. Nothing I could say served to persuade her to the contrary. My experience convinced me that Construction Management was a sham that would not be in the […]

St. Margaret’s – McBro And The Packages

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged mcbro / packages / st margaret

POB Under Construction — Months before Klein and PH&J were even introduced and interviewed, Sister Susan and her Order had employed the Pearce Corporation of St. Louis to design and construct a physician’s office building (POB) and parking deck. We were well into our design process for the hospital before we even knew that […]

St. Margaret’s – The Design Build Part

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged build / design / st margaret

Debakey — Chicago – Drinking Buddies Working out acceptable contract terms took so long, that Susan wanted us to start the design process even before any agreement was reached. Thus we began study trips long before we had a contract in hand. Sister Susan, Klein and Tribrook decided that we and key […]

St. Margaret’s – The Trips

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged chicago / houston / st margaret / trip

Construction Sign — St. Margaret’s demanded that we accept one of the lowest fees and some of the harshest contract provisions I have ever faced. Again I wanted to back out, but Bill and Renis counseled continued involvement. I considered the fee offered to be 25-percent below standard, and it was made even […]

St. Margaret’s – A Harsh Contract

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged contract / harsh / st margaret

St Margaret Front Wing — Montgomery’s St. Margaret’s Hospital was at a crossroads, and in Indianapolis the Order was most concerned. Around 1973 they retired our good friend Sister Scholastica and replaced her with a youngish, big boned, brusque administrator of Scandinavian descent. Her name was Sister Susan Radzke. She and I immediately developed an […]

St. Margaret’s – The Challenge

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged challenge / st margaret

St Margarets at End — A year or so after all the construction was complete, and the hospital had been virtually rebuilt, it became apparent that neither the patient occupancy rate nor the financial plight of St. Margaret’s had been improved. All that money had been spent to no avail. The neighborhood blight problem had […]

St. Margaret’s – The Last Gasp

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged last gasp / st margaret

PHJ Principals — Sister Susan called me to her office and shared the news sent down from Rome. She went on to say that PH&J could not be considered for the work. Following Tribrook’s lead, she declared that only architectural firms of national repute would be invited for an interview. To justify her […]

St. Margaret’s – Architect Selection

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged architect / st margaret

St. Margarets — In 1975, St. Margaret’s was, and had been for many years, the premier hospital and deliverer of health care services to Montgomery; it had filled that role since the hospital’s founding here in 1902. It was a Catholic institution, and was operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent […]

St. Margaret’s – Greatness and Decline

March 22, 2016 in Government / Religious tagged decline / greatness / st margaret

First Baptist — at 347 North Ripley, was organized in 1866 as an offspring of the First Baptist now located on South Perry Street, at which these founders worshiped as slaves. This church hosted the first baccalaureate service for Alabama State (then State Normal) in 1890. Fire destroyed their building ca 1910, and […]

“Brick a Day” First Baptist Church

March 19, 2016 in Religious tagged baptist / brick a day / church / first

Kahl Montgomery — …meaning Jewish Congregation of Montgomery, was chartered in 1852. The Kahl completed this Romanesque Revival structure on Catoma Street in 1862, even as the Civil War raged, using the design of a Philadelphia architect. The Lehman brothers, who had started a most successful store and cotton exchange in Montgomery, worshiped […]

Kahl Montgomery

March 15, 2016 in Religious tagged catoma / jewish / kahl / romanesque

St Johns Episcopal — …at 113 Madison Avenue, was organized circa 1834, but its present sanctuary was constructed some 20 years later, in what might be called the “Episcopal Style”, foregoing the popular Greek and Romanesque Revival styles in favor of a more spiritual Gothic. It is truly a downtown landmark; its spire reaches […]

St. John’s Episcopal Church

March 4, 2016 in Religious tagged episcopal / john / organ / saint

Church of the Ascension — …at the corner of McDonough and Clayton Streets was established in 1909, supposedly for some 50 communicants of St John’s Episcopal that lived in the new suburb south of South Street (now I-85). Many of the transfers were not really effective until Genetta Ditch (Julia Street) flooded and the reluctant […]

Church of the Ascension

March 4, 2016 in Religious tagged ascencion / church / gothic / norman

St Judes — …at 2048 West Fairview was constructed in 1937 as the first step in Father Harold Percell’s dream to come South and erect “a city dedicated to the religious, charitable, educational, and industrial advancement of the Negro people”. Percell had architectural talent, and he felt that red brick Romanesque was the […]

St. Jude’s Roman Catholic Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged catholic / jude / roman / romanesque / saint

Baptist East — at 400 Taylor Road is a 150-Bed, short term, acute care medical facility, probably established around 1990, and is expected to become the dominant medical center in central Alabama one day, as Baptist South suffers the same geographic and economic disadvantages that felled old Saint Margaret’s 30 years ago. And […]

Baptist Hospital East

February 22, 2016 in Commercial / Religious tagged baptist / hospital / medical

AME Zion Church — …at 483 Holcombe Street, is home to the oldest African American congregation in our city, and deep within the structure is a part that qualifies as the oldest surviving church building in Montgomery. The church was planted by Court Street Methodist in 1850, and soon thereafter was offered the 1835 wood […]

Old Ship A.M.E. Zion Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged ame / church / historic registry / old ship / zion

Court Street Methodist — …the one that was demolished ca 1931 to make way for the new Post Office. It looks pretty grand to me. My mother-in-law was married in this church in 1925. The congregation moved out to the new suburb called Cloverdale and built the First Methodist Church that we know today. […]

Court Street Methodist Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged church / court / methodist

First Methodist Postcard — …claims to be the oldest organized church in Montgomery. For 100 years it stood on the downtown site now occupied by the Federal Court and our former main Post Office under the name Court Street Methodist. The church moved to this site in the suburb of Cloverdale in 1931, when […]

First United Methodist Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged church / first / methodist

Frazer — the Mega Church . . . at 6000 Atlanta Highway, began in 1899 as Frazer Memorial in a storefront on Holt Street in West Montgomery. It had grown to 500 members when it was displaced by I-65 construction in the early 1960s. The church relocated far out on the Atlanta […]

Frazer Methodist Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged frazer / methodist

Trinity Presbyterian — …was organized in 1891 as a split-off from First Presbyterian, and named itself Central Presbyterian. In 1913 the church changed its name to Trinity, and relocated from downtown to the outskirts of town, at the corner of Hull and Felder. 35 years later it had become the dominant church in the […]

Trinity Presbyterian Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged church / presbyterian / trinity

First Presbyterian Church — The Church was founded in 1824, the oldest organized church in Montgomery. This structure was dedicated in 1847, the same year that Montgomery became the State Capital. Church member Andrew Dexter gave the land for the Church, as well as “Goat Hill”, the ground on which the Capital Building was […]

First Presbyterian Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged church / first / presbyterian

First Baptist Church — …was founded 1829, and its early sanctuary was on Bibb Street directly across from the Murphy House (now Water Works). The Baptists gave that up in 1908 and moved into their new building up the hill on Perry Street. That sanctuary (pictured above) was started in 1905, but lack of […]

First Baptist Church

February 22, 2016 in Religious tagged baptist / cathedral / first