Exploring Montgomery

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

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

Exchange Hotel — Above is the Exchange corner that I knew, as it existed in 1957 when I was 30. First National was just across Commerce Street to the right, and this was the center of the world. When I worked in the Bank Bldg 1951-55, my desk was against the window and […]

Exchange Corner (Hotel)

Faulkner University — a private, 2500 student, university affiliated with the Church of Christ, and located on the Atlanta Highway just west of East Boulevard. It was founded in 1942 as a small Bible school, and became Alabama Christian College a decade later. In the beginning its modest campus was located on Ann […]

Faulkner University

RSA Activity Center — While the six RSA office structures in Montgomery are clad in white pre-cast concrete (in deference to the six concrete State office buildings in the Capitol Complex), the Activity Center is red brick to compliment the Seed & Feed, which stands facing Dexter on the opposite end of the block. […]

RSA Activity Center

Inside Stadium — … at the corner of Tallapoosa and Coosa Streets, is surely the centerpiece of Montgomery’s riverfront development. The home of the Montgomery Biscuits. Opened in 2004 with a capacity of 6,000 fans. It is said to be the best utilization of an existing building in stadium design, of any minor league […]

Riverfront Stadium

Brew Pub — Here at 12 West Jefferson Street, only a short block from the Biscuit Stadium, stands the Brew-Pub, now part of the Riverfront development. The building was constructed in 1913 as a heavy equipment storage facility by the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad. It is of brick bearing-wall construction, with plank […]

Brew Pub

Colonial Bank Downtown — …As seen across Court Square. The handsome granite-clad building on the right was the home office of Colonial, Montgomery’s only home bank, before it moved out to the Techna’ area off I-85 and died. However, us real old timers still look at this corner and think of the Exchange Hotel, […]

Colonial Bank Downtown

Colonial Bank East — Poor Colonial Bank, which fled downtown, only to fall on its face two years later. Below you see its new 210,000 sf headquarters out East, next to the Technacenter, with BB&T banners covering the name. Colonial was the only bank with its home in Montgomery, ergo a source of much […]

Colonial Bank East

Scott Street Firehouse — …was built ca 1890, when Montgomery had grown up the hill from downtown, and it was too difficult for the fire horses to pull the heavy fire equipment up the steep slopes to an outbreak. Ergo, they built a new station up the hill in the residential neighborhood. Back then […]

Scott Street Firehouse

Seed and Feed — “Seed and Feed”, that’s what we called it for the last 30+ years. This nice little building on Dexter was built by the Crenshaw family in 1907 –their family crest is built into the frieze. For years it was Brown Printing Co. (see below), and then circa 1960 it turned […]

Seed and Feed

…the one with the unique built-in Gazebo, stands on Goldthwaite Street at the foot of Martha, another of those grand old homes that made up the once proud Cottage Hill District. I’m told that the structure dates to 1895, and that Walker was from Tuskegee (where his great uncle, […]

B W Walker House

Kress Monroe — Oh Kress, how sad you look standing in the decay of lower Dexter. S. H. Kress was founder of one of the early dime-store chains that dominated our country 50 years ago. Most of them are now gone. Kress, different from all the others, believed that his stores should incorporate […]

S. H. Kress Store

…was built in 1909 as a white clapboard by banker Louis Moore. Warren Tyson owned it in 1923 and converted it to the then popular Tudor Style. I believe that Felder was the city limit line about then. The renowned Helen Keller stayed here often, as her sister, Mildred Keller, […]

Moore-Tyson House

Montgomery’s most well known landmark. Sorry this is an old picture. The immodest nymph on top is supposed to be Hebe, Greek Goddess of Youth, raising her cup to welcome visitors. The fountain was erected in 1885, and the iron work was cast by Mott Iron Works of New York. Beyond […]

Court Square Fountain

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

Helen Hunt Learning Center — What you see is the drop-off entrance and canopy, located on a private alley that runs between Hull and McDonough Streets. The center is one of the elements of the RSA’s Monroe Street project, the piece which secured Governor Hunt’ vital support of the massive undertaking (Hunt had opposed the […]

Helen Hunt Early Learning Center

Garrett Coliseum — Behold our once splendid, but now rundown, State Coliseum, bereft of its former glory. Its construction began in 1949, and as an architectural student I went on field trips to Montgomery to gape at the amazing concept. The structure’s circular plan is 340-feet in diameter, and its barrel arch concrete […]

Garrett Colisuem

This picture above was taken from the rear balcony of the State Capitol. What you see is the left half of the envisioned structure, with the big glass bow-front section as the center element. This half was built in the late 1980s on land purchased by Fob James and Dr Bronner […]

Gordon Persons Building

Teague House — …was built in 1848, and is on the corner of Perry and High Streets. It has been described as Montgomery’s quintessential “Southern Mansion”, even though it had been built as a townhouse, not as a plantation mansion.. In 1865, after the surrender, Yankee General James Wilson rode in and took […]

Teague House

Barnes School for Boys — Now at 512 South Court Street, was a desperate salvage of the Montgomery County Historical Society, and now serves as Society headquarters. In 1996 that group moved the landmark from Catoma Street, where it had been evicted by GSA’s Federal Courthouse project. The Barnes School closed in 1942, and the […]

Barnes School For Boys

Four Sisters Houses — The houses are on Perry Street, diagonally opposite First Baptist. The original owner, Dr W.O. Baldwin 1818-1886, highly successful banker and respected physician, spent his entire life in Montgomery. Even so, Baldwin opposed the war, not because he didn’t believe in the cause, but because he thought the South would lose. […]

Four Sisters Houses

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

…was built by local judge Frederick Rice in 1855. After its ardiouus journey from its former site on Monroe Street, the poor structure was resituated on a lot at the corner of Court and High Streets, but its vast array of outbuildings was lost in the relocation. It now backs […]

Rice-Semple House

Alabama State House — …was built in 1963 as a new home for the Highway Department. The Highway Department moved out onto Coliseum Boulevard circa 1990, as part of a scheme to convert the then 30-year old building into a home for the State Legislature. Ergo, the old structure was extensively remodeled in 1991, […]

Alabama State House

Murphy House — …at 22 Bibb Street, the present-day offices of the Montgomery Water Works, was built in 1851 for John Murphy, a cotton broker who moved here from Virginia and quickly amassed a goodly fortune. He built this outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture as evidence of his financial status, and there […]

Murphy House

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

While this was being built I complained that such a massive structure was turning its back on downtown. Now I see it created a seperate night-life subcity in a bowl bounded by itself, Embassy Suites, Union Station, the river front, Riverwalk Stadium, and the alley bars. I still say it […]

Renaissance Hotel