Exploring Montgomery

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

Greystone Hotel — The once-grand Greystone, at 100 Commerce Street, was built in 1928. It was constructed as the Armstrong Hotel, or Cherokee Hotel, but was damaged by a fire in 1921 and sold off to become the Greystone. The 10-story classical structure was once nominated for listing on the National Register of […]

Greystone Hotel

Capri — They stand together on Fairview at the foot of the Old Cloverdale district. The Capri was built in 1941 and began life as the Clover Theatre, Montgomery’s first neighborhood movie house . Sinclair’s is a highly successful theme restaurant, and it occupies the old Sinclair Service Station structure. About the […]

Capri, Sinclairs & Stonehenge

Davis Theatre — Formerly the old paramount, on Montgomery Street, was built in 1929 (only two years after Al Jolson appeared in the first “talkie”), and it is one of a very few movie houses in the South designed to accommodate both motion pictures and live vaudeville. It could seat 1200. Early on, […]

Davis Theatre

Occupies a commanding location on the corner formed by I-85, Perry Hill and Carmichael Road. Besides its high visibility, the Aronov 5-story Class-A office building boasts nicely landscaped, well kept grounds. -Charles Humphries

Carmichael Center

It was founded in the early 1920s, positioned midway between the then mature Highland Avenue neighborhoods (made possible by the electric streetcar), and the new suburb of Cloverdale (made possible by the availability of the automobile). In 1930 it was called Mulberry St Presbyterian, and was listed as one of […]

Oak Park Presbyterian Church

Nee Ridgecrest Baptist, sits at 3703 Rosa Parks Avenue (which in the long ago was named Cleveland Avenue and was part of a fashionable neighborhood). This sanctuary was built in 1966 as part of Ridgecrest Baptist, which moved itself out onto the Vaughn Road ca 1975. Thus, for the past […]

Beulah Baptist Church

Located in the bottom immediately behind the Crump Community Center (previous slide), alongside the old C of Ga tracks, boasts 12 lighted, hard surface tennis courts, shuffle board, picnic tables and the pictured clubhouse/ pro-shop. The park was originally opened as Bruce Park in 1971 during Mayor Earl James’ administration, […]

O’Conner Tennis Center

Rosa Parks Museum — is part of the Troy campus, and it stands at the corner of Montgomery and Moulton Streets, directly across from the old Paramount (Davis Theater). It occupies the former site of the Empire Theater, and is contiguous to the very bus stop made famous when Rosa Parks was arrested there […]

Rosa Parks Museum

St Peters — The site of the traditional Red Mass, started by Alabama Chief Justice Howell Helfin in 1973, and held every year to mark the beginning of the new judicial year. In 1834 a wood frame church was built here at the corner of Adams and Lawrence, and there was conducted the […]

Saint Peter’s Church

Hank Williams Monument — stands in Lister Hill Park directly opposite the City Hall Auditorium. Hank is revered as “the father of contemporary country music”; he was even awarded a rare Pulitzer music citation in 2009. His funeral in 1953 attracted more people than any Montgomery event since Jeff Davis was inaugurated 90 years […]

Hank Williams Monument

Hank Williams Grave — The renowned Hank Williams Grave, where ceremonies are held each and every year to celebrate his life, despite its sordid end. The elaborate and gaudy cemetery plot is flood-lighted at night to retard vandalism. It’s sad to me, that with as many historical and deserving people as are interred in Oakwood […]

Hank Williams Grave

Craftsman house — This house seems to be the first home built on Galena Ave in Old Cloverdale. It was probably constructed about 1912 for an O A Richardson. The house has the basic accoutrements of the classic Federal style, over which has been applied many of the features brought on by the […]

Craftsman House

shearon elebash — This interesting old mansion at 805 Cloverdale Road sits at the south end of the huge but now vacant frontage that once held the estate of Coca-Cola magnet William A Bellingrath. The house had already endured several prior owners, but in the 1960s and ’70s the pictured structure was the […]

Shearon Elebash Residence

513 Madison — Bill Pearson and I were two chastened young men, when in 1956 we moved into this building at 513 Madison Avenue to make our second try at starting an architectural practice. We rented a single room at the very back of the neigh vacant upper floor and set out on a 50-year […]

Madison 513

Huntingdon Hut — This is The Hut at Huntingdon College, built by the YWCA in 1922, as the campus social center. Back in those days the YW was far and away the strongest student organization on campus. That group conceived the idea for the building and raised the money. The structure cost about $11,000, […]

Huntingdon’s Hut

Tale of Two Sisters — This overgrown sadness at 3125 Cloverdale Road overlooks the currently popular Cloverdale-Idlewild “Bottom” Park, and it once was the home of Allen C Rankin. Back in 1940 Mr Rankin was general manager of the renowned Teague Hardware Store on Commerce Street, and he was the father of a most talented […]

Rankin – Tale of Two Sisters

East Montgomery Library — Back in the 1950s, when Bear Brothers Land Co was developing Coliseum Blvd and Eastbrook Shopping Center, they donated a 12-acre parcel of that land to the city as a public park. The city accepted and named it Bear Park. Less than a decade later, when Federal Judge Frank Johnson […]

East Montgomery Branch Library

1 Dexter — Oh, the memories a single picture can bring. But note that it is no longer Court Square, its name for almost 200 years; it is now named for that scoundrel Andrew Dexter. Essentially, what we see is the one-time Pizitz Department Store. Pizitz bet on downtown; Lovemans bet on Normandale. […]

One Dexter Plaza

Whitfield Mansion — It’s sometimes erroneously called the “Pickle Palace”, at 1506 South Perry Street, is Mediterranean Style and was built in 1920. Today it is the home of gambling tycoon Milton McGregor, who is wont to say,” You could be a winner too!” But the house, designed by the favorite of Montgomery’s […]

Whitfield Mansion

Robert Steiner — I think Robert Steiner Jr built this Colonial Revival, probably in the 1930s, but his son, Robert E Steiner III became HOH during the 1950s when his father died. Bob Jr & III were both members of the prestigious law firm of Steiner, Crum and Baker, which was founded in […]

Robert Steiner Residence

Yost Res — For almost a half century this imposing house at 3191 Thomas Avenue was the Yost Residence. Back 70 years ago the property was so big it took two yardmen to keep it up (of course you didn’t have blow & go machines then). Mr Walter Yost was in the lumber […]

Yost Residence

Marshall Lumber — Founded circa 1920, and for the 90-plus years since, it has been an institution in Montgomery. From the beginning it was a family endeavor, and it has survived through four generations of Marshalls. I think it was located right at this spot when I moved here 60-something years ago, and […]

Marshall Lumber and Mill

Eagles Nest — Back 60 to 70 years ago this house at 3541 Thomas Avenue was the Eagle’s Nest, but today its picture is interesting because of the arbor formed by the trees lining the short entrance drive. It makes you feel like you are entering a special place. But back 60+ years […]

Eagle’s Nest

Diplomat Hotel — I always chuckle when I drive by the old Diplomat Hotel . . . out on the Southern By-Pass (now grandly called “Southern Boulevard”) at its intersection with Norman Bridge. Around 1960, when all this appeared, that intersection was the largest (by number of lanes) of any in the city. And […]

Diplomat Hotel

Grace Episcopal Church — The much revered Grace Episcopal Church . . . out on the Pike Road near Mt. Meigs, a mile or two South of I-85. The Church was founded circa 1858. However, while this nice Carpenter Gothic style structure was designed by Pennsylvania architect Joseph Pierson in 1861, soon after the […]

Grace Episcopal Church

Thigpen House — The very impressive Thigpen House. . . at 1412 South Perry, situated at the head of Clanton Avenue. This was probably built around the turn of the previous century and seems to be a blend of Greek Revival and Italianate. The Thigpen Family lived here for neigh onto a half-century, […]

Thigpen House

Richardson RX — Fifty years ago as I recall it, the major oil companies were taking hits for the garish appearance of their stations, especially for those built in settled neighborhoods or historic districts. Shell Oil must have been sensitive to the criticism, because in the mid-sixties it began to hire local architects […]

Richardson’s Pharmacy