Exploring Montgomery

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

Bldg 841 — one of the (formerly) historic hangers on the Base, built with WPA money during the depression years, and which, less than a decade later, met such a vital need for the flying school programs there just before and during World War II. Wonderfully constructed, probably under the supervision of Algenon […]

Maxwell’s Building 841

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ag and Industries — located on Federal Drive, appropriately enough, adjacent to the Coliseum. Old Federal Drive is now officially designated Congressman William L Dickinson Drive, nicknamed Cong Drive; I was in the Jay-Cees with Dickinson, but that name is too much. The building was dedicated in 1971, and is called the Richard Beard […]

Department of Agriculture and Industries

…at 307 South Decatur Street, where it has stood for 40+ years, but it has not been a happy four decades for the Board, or for education. For 40 years before that, this was the site of the Decatur Street Elementary School, which in its last decade was called Ledbetter […]

County Board of Education Offices

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

VA Regional Office — Located off Perry Hill Road on the grounds of the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, was built in 1994. Let’s call it “VA Georgian”, a creation evolved and imposed by a VA staffer in Washington (he first imposed it on a project that PH&J had at the Tuscaloosa VA back in […]

VA Regional Office

Jeff Davis Hotel — Located on Montgomery Street, it was our convention center in 1969. That year the Gulf States Region of the A.I.A. met in Montgomery for its semiannual gathering. The hotel had recently added two stacked banquet halls by enclosing the space between itself and the adjacent Sheppard Building. Wonderful accommodations. At […]

Jefferson Davis Hotel

Highland Avenue — Built in 1903, somewhat Romanesque in style. Still a school after 100-plus years. It fronts on a wide boulevard which originally had street car tracks in its median. The tracks were laid about 1890 when Montgomery’s streetcar system was electrified –the first in the world. My wife’s great grandfather, Robert […]

Highland Avenue School

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

Green Lantern — It’s at the corner of Carter Hill and McGehee Roads and where I banked. Back as far as the “Roaring 20s”, out on the outskirts of town, there was this notorious dive called the Green Lantern on this site. It was “gangster built”, dark inside, had a dance floor, served platter-sized steaks. […]

Green Lantern Branch Bank

2nd spencer longshore — This is the second Spencer Longshore House . . . and this one is at 3284 Bankhead Avenue. The first one, a standout two-story Federal Style at 3285 Bankhead, was posted earlier. Spencer liked Bankhead, but as he aged, the two-story climb became burdensome, so circa 1963 he built this long, […]

Second Spencer Longshore House

Spencer Longshore — The beautifully kept Spencer Longshore House . . . at 3285 Bankhead Avenue. It was designed in the late 1930s to resemble the Federal Style popular along the Atlantic Coast during the 50 years following our Revolutionary War. However, the “broken-scrolled pediment” framing the entrance is a holdover from the […]

Spencer Longshore House

Klein Clock from afar — The Klein Clock is back at No. 1 Dexter! From this late afternoon view across Court Square, we can see the former Klein’s Jewelers, nee Central Bank, standing proudly with its landmark clock restored to its rightful place at the foot of Dexter Avenue. Kudos to Kleins for this contribution […]

Klein Jeweler’s & Klein Clock

Knox Hall — …on South Perry is said to be the finest example of a Greek Revival mansion in Montgomery. Its architect, Stephen Decatur Button, was from Connecticut, and he also designed the 1847 Capitol here. It was built in the 1840s but underwent a restoration in 1981. Knox Hall was one of […]

Knox Hall

Pete Peterson Lodge — situated in the NE corner of Lagoon Park, on the lake edge and sort of tucked up under the plateau formed during WW II to facilitate extension of the Gunter Field runways. The lodge started as a picnic place and rec area which the AF provided for its airmen. I […]

Pete Peterson Lodge

Armory Learning Arts Center — on Madison Avenue between the old curb market and Cramton Bowl, was built around 1935 as a National Guard Armory to replace the drill hall of the renowned Montgomery Grays. Their drill hall was located on the third floor of city hall, and the building burned down in 1932. WPA […]

Armory Learning Arts Center

Crampton Bowl — Cramton bowl is on Madison Avenue, and long past its glory, but it did have its era. It was built in 1922, and officially seats 25,000 or so. Both API (Auburn) and Alabama played here up until the late 1930s, and API continued to schedule non-conference games here until the late 1940s. […]

Cramton Bowl

City Water Works — at 608 North Court Street, was built in 1886 as part of a new city water works system installed by the A H Howland Company of Boston, in contract with Montgomery Mayor Warren S. Reese. The system included the 100-foot tall standpipe tank located on a city hi-point on Monroe, […]

City Water Works

Old Montgomery Theatre — at the corner of Perry and Monroe Streets, is one of the three pre-war buildings still standing in the City Hall neighborhood. When it was built (by female slave masons) in 1860, the Post Office occupied the street floor, and the upper two floors were taken up by the theatre […]

Old Montgomery Theatre