Sloss Blast Furnaces has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.
1981.
ASM International has designated Sloss Furnaces an . . . — — Map (db m173375) HM
The crossing of railroads in 1872 adjacent to this site gave rise to the industrial city of Birmingham. In 1881 Alabama railroad magnate and entrepreneur James Withers Sloss, capitalizing on the unusual coincidence of coal, iron ore and limestone in . . . — — Map (db m23498) HM
This residential area was carved from the Joseph Riley Smith plantation, a 600 acre antebellum farm, one of the largest in 19th century Jefferson County. Smithfield lies to the west of Birmingham's city center on the flat land & hills north of . . . — — Map (db m26990) HM
The Birmingham Movement was a defining moment for African
Americans determined to win equal citizenship in their own country.
Pictures and stories from the Birmingham struggle touched the hearts of
the nation and the world. Often injured by . . . — — Map (db m188908) HM
At the turn of the last century, Birmingham residents seeking home ownership and escape from the smoke, congestion, and unhealthy living conditions of an industrial city, began moving south. New streetcar lines encouraged the move “over the . . . — — Map (db m83840) HM
In Alabama, White parents used the 1956 Alabama Pupil Placement Act that
let them “choose” which public schools their children would attend. When
Black parents in Birmingham tried to use the same law to send their children
to White schools, . . . — — Map (db m187685) HM
Built 1973, 708 15th St. N.
St. John AME Church and Day Care Center are on the site of
the former church that hosted Monday night mass meetings
during the early 1960s. It was also a center where “Project
C" leaders came to strategize about . . . — — Map (db m187892) HM
Built 1904; Renovations 1948-51, 1500 6th Ave. N.
St. Paul United Methodist Church was the site of the first
mass meeting held on Dec. 26, 1956, following the ACMHR's
(Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights) first
major direct action . . . — — Map (db m187868) HM
Named for St. Vincent de Paul, founder of the Daughters of Charity in France in 1633, the hospital opened December 20, 1898 in the temporarily rented Henry F. DeBardelaben mansion at 206 15th Street South. Father Patrick A. O’Reilly founded the . . . — — Map (db m27523) HM
Construction of the stock trestle/tunnel complex was part of the extensive modernization that Sloss carried out between 1927 and 1931. Much of the work focused on mechanizing the charging operations and equipment—the stock trestle/tunnel . . . — — Map (db m69077) HM
Built 1949, 1622 4th Ave. N.
This small, one-story, brick commercial taxi stand building was
constructed after the passage of a 1930 City of Birmingham
ordinance that required separate taxi services for Blacks
and Whites. Rev. George . . . — — Map (db m188185) HM
Temple Wilson Tutwiler, II
“Tutwiler Green”, this section of Birmingham Green was so named in a resolution passed by the Birmingham City Council to honor the life and work of Temple Tutwiler II, who contributed greatly to the . . . — — Map (db m27525) HM
Built by the Publix Theater division of Paramount Studios. This movie palace opened on December 26th, 1927. The theatre, in Spanish / Moorish design by Graven and Mayger of Chicago, seated 2500 in a five story, three-tiered auditorium. Paramount's . . . — — Map (db m27337) HM
1946
This two-story Queen-Anne-style house at the
corner of Center Street and 11th Court North was built
around 1900 for the Hayes family. White neighbors
objected when they learned the Hayes family sold
their house to a Black couple, . . . — — Map (db m189180) HM
A key player in the Birmingham civil rights drama was Public Safety
Commissioner Theophilus Eugene Connor. He earned the nickname
"Bull” because of his booming voice as a radio sports announcer. White
voters who supported his politics of racial . . . — — Map (db m187780) HM
This row of buildings from 2009 to 2017 Second Avenue dates from the early years of the 20th century and has undergone a variety of changes and modernizations over the years. Originally part of a larger building that burned in 1944 (now the site of . . . — — Map (db m38563) HM
Birmingham’s first library was organized in 1886 and in 1891 became a subscription library for the general public. In 1908 the Birmingham Public Library Association established a free public library, and the City created an independent Library Board . . . — — Map (db m83856) HM
In the blast furnace the combination of iron ore, flux (limestone and/or dolomite), coke, and hot air produced molten iron and two waste products: molten slag and blast furnace gas. The molten products collected in the bottom of the furnace and . . . — — Map (db m69078) HM
The blast furnace required a tremendous amount of air - about two tons for every ton of iron produced. These three rooms, known collectively as the blower building, house the equipment used to pump air to the furnaces. Workers called this blast of . . . — — Map (db m43628) HM
Young Fred loved pulling pranks with the aid of his younger siblings
and friends. He enjoyed going to church every Sunday and began
teaching Sunday School. Because he was so mischievous, his siblings
could hardly believe that his secret goal was . . . — — Map (db m187630) HM
One popular element of the park’s original design was a water feature known as the cascade. Cascading fountains were important features in formal European gardens. Their terraced pools and waterfalls animated the landscape with the sounds and . . . — — Map (db m83857) HM
On May 2, 1963, more than 1,000 students skipped school and marched on downtown, gathering at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Bull Connor responded by jailing more than 600 children that day. So the next day, another 1,000 students filled the park . . . — — Map (db m73017) HM
After nearly a month, “Project C” seemed on the verge of collapse. The
presence of Dr. King and the SCLC did not rally Black Birmingham behind
the Movement as leaders hoped. The media began to lose interest and
the White community basically . . . — — Map (db m187840) HM
John Valentine Coe, president of Birmingham Lumber and Coal Company, commissioned this two-story Craftsman-Tudor Revival style house in 1908. Coe, who had previously been a lumber merchant in Selma, moved his family and business to Birmingham at the . . . — — Map (db m83858) HM
Rev. Bevel and his team worked with popular disc jockeys "Tall Paul”
Dudley White and Shelley “The Playboy" Stewart, whose jive talk on the
radio was actually a secret code that told young foot soldiers when it
was time to "move out.” Despite . . . — — Map (db m187770) HM
In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated buses
in Montgomery, handing the bus boycott and the growing Civil Rights
Movement a major victory. As a result, Rev. Shuttlesworth led the
ACMHR to target Birmingham's segregated . . . — — Map (db m189098) HM
When notoriously racist police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor sicced dogs on the "Foot Soldiers" of the movement, civil rights leaders hoped it would shine a national spotlight on their plight, but the country at large remained woefully ignorant. . . . — — Map (db m73398) HM
Built 1925, 1616-1622 4th Ave. N.
Located in the Historic Fourth Avenue Business District next to
the taxi stand and Colored Masonic Temple, this building
housed one of Birmingham's few hotels for Black travelers. It
also housed restaurants . . . — — Map (db m188186) HM
The Gas System
Gas produced in the furnace as a by-product of the ironmaking process was used in the plant as fuel. A large pipe called the downcomer carried gas from the top of the furnace to the gas cleaning equipment, which removed the . . . — — Map (db m43669) HM
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., hoped to gain more national attention for the
Birmingham campaign by planning marches during Holy Week - on Palm
Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But "Bull” Connor created serious problems for King. Connor got a . . . — — Map (db m187834) HM
At the turn of the 20th century, Birmingham was a small town of two and three story buildings with a few church steeples punctuating the skyline. During the industrial boom from 1902 to 1912 which made Birmingham the largest city in the state. Four . . . — — Map (db m27500) HM
Thirteen years after the American Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court
began to uphold Jim Crow segregation laws that kept African Ameri-
cans from enjoying their 14th Amendment rights. Its famous Plessy v.
Ferguson decision in 1896 supported a . . . — — Map (db m187632) HM
The giant, cast iron statue you see towering above you is Vulcan, the Roman god of metalwork and the forge. The 56-foot tall statue was commissioned by Birmingham leaders to represent their new, growing city at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. After . . . — — Map (db m26297) HM
Built in 1937 by Gen. Louis Verdier Clark from a design by architect William T. Warren as a community playhouse for cultural activities. It was recognized as one of the best of its kind in the nation. Mrs. Vassar Allen - first president, Bernard . . . — — Map (db m27513) HM
You are standing in front of the entrance to Lone Pine Mine Number 3. This mine is one of over one hundred ore mines on Red Mountain that were active between 1860 and 1960.
In the early twentieth century, iron ore was extracted from this . . . — — Map (db m83859) HM
The Christmas night bombing by White terrorists was intended to kill
Rev. Shuttlesworth, or at the very least, to scare him into leaving town
and his new organization. A police officer who came to the bornbed
house and church told Rev. . . . — — Map (db m189105) HM
In late 1958 and the summer of 1959, a series of articles in Time
magazine and the New York Times addressed the dangers Black
church leaders and others involved in the Movement faced as angry
pro-segregation Whites took more and more violent . . . — — Map (db m189131) HM
The New Pilgrim Baptist Church
Civil Rights Gathering Place.
This church served as a gathering place and strategic hub for Birmingham's Civil Rights Movement in 1956 under the leadership of Rev. Nelson H. Smith, Jr., . . . — — Map (db m188891) HM
By the end of April 1963, the national media and local Whites were
losing interest in “Project C.” Fewer Blacks volunteered to be arrested at
downtown stores and lunch counters. So, Rev. James Bevel, a field
Secretary with the SCLC, turned to a . . . — — Map (db m187765) HM
Ministers in 60 Black churches across the city played key roles in the
Birmingham Movement. In the mass meetings, ministers fired up their
working-class members and encouraged commitment to the struggle
against segregation with revival-style . . . — — Map (db m187529) HM
August 1963
The Shores daughters said their father handled civil
rights cases across Alabama and across the South. As he
advanced the African American struggle against unfair
segregation through the courts, angry White militants
turned . . . — — Map (db m189189) HM
1937
Starting in the 1920s, demand for all housing in
Birmingham increased year after year as the
population grew. Residential areas zoned for
"Negroes,” however, remained the same. By the
1940s, surging Black demand and a postwar . . . — — Map (db m189168) HM
On May 10, 1919, soon after its completion, this 21st Street Viaduct was named the Rainbow Viaduct in tribute to Alabama's famous 167th Infantry of the Rainbow Division, renowned for Bravery and Honor. The 167th was the Nation's only regiment in . . . — — Map (db m83860) HM
Another strategy of “Project C” was voter registration for Birmingham
Blacks. At the time, only 12,000 of 150,000 voting-age African-Americans
in Jefferson County could vote. White state and local officials used such
methods as reading tests and . . . — — Map (db m187708) HM
Southern governors, mayors and elected officials employed every means to
resist public school integration, even famously using armed state guards to
block Black students from entering. For example, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus
called the Arkansas . . . — — Map (db m187680) HM
June 1958
Rev. Shuttlesworth called 1958 “a year of harassment” as terrorist
violence against the ACMHR's movement grew worse. Bethel
Baptist Deacon James Revis offered his home near the new
parsonage as a guardhouse. Other men from the . . . — — Map (db m189119) HM
"Bull” Connor's police force still tried in vain to stop the marches to
City-Hall. The number of well-organized protestors overwhelmed
the police. Some marchers actually made it to Woodrow Wilson
Park (now Linn Park) that connects City Hall and . . . — — Map (db m187706) HM
The raw materials for making iron—iron ore, limestone and dolomite, and coke—came to Sloss by railroad and were stored in the stock bins below. An inclined, steam-driven "skip hoist" carried the stock to the top of the furnace and . . . — — Map (db m83861) HM
The Tutwiler Hotel
In 1913, George Gordon Crawford, President of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, complained to Robert Jemison Jr., that when friends and officers from U.S. Steel came to town they had no decent place to stay. . . . — — Map (db m99317) HM
The "sudden" emergence of the ACMHR ministers left White leaders
"dumbfounded” and deeply concerned about how they could be
controlled. At first, they called Rev. Shuttlesworth and his fellow
ministers “radicals” and “Communists," "outsiders” who . . . — — Map (db m189084) HM
The WPA (Works Progress Administration) funded the design and construction of Vulcan Park in the late 1930s. This was done in conjunction with the Alabama Highway Department’s improvement of U.S. Highway 31, the major north/south route that runs . . . — — Map (db m69022) HM
Designed by William C. Weston and erected in 1902, the Title Building was the second skyscraper built in Birmingham. It was the first building to supply its tenants with electric power with its own power-generating plant and the water supply was . . . — — Map (db m27501) HM
Built in the 1940S, 4th Ave. N. & 19th St. N.
On Mother's Day in 1961, the Freedom Riders, Black and White
members of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), arrived at
Birmingham's Trailways bus station. Though integrated . . . — — Map (db m187994) HM
"Tuxedo Junction" was the street car crossing on the Ensley-Fairfield line at this corner in the Tuxedo Park residential area. It also refers to the fraternal dance hall operated in the 1920's and 1930s on the second floor of the adjacent building, . . . — — Map (db m25623) HM
(front): United Confederate Veterans Camp Hardee No. 39 Camp Hardee No. 39 was organized as a camp of the United Confederate Veterans on August 7, 1891. This cemetery plot was acquired by the camp to provide a final resting place for the men . . . — — Map (db m12487) HM
On March 3, 1899, the United States Pipe and Foundry Company was incorporated consolidating 14 iron and steel foundries in 9 states. One of these foundries, the Howard-Harrison Iron Company of Bessemer, was founded in 1889. In 1911, the Dimmick Pipe . . . — — Map (db m27526) HM
1936
Slum clearance became another facial zoning
Weapon. City health officials described. "Negro
quarters” as the unsanitary source of diseases that
threatened community health: Civic leaders used this
reasoning to win millions in federal . . . — — Map (db m189164) HM
C28 Side
Built 1921, 1800 5th Ave. N.
Lawyers like Arthur Shores and Thurgood Marshall (shown
with Autherine Lucy, the first Black student to integrate the
University of Alabama) filed numerous lawsuits challenging
racial . . . — — Map (db m188003) HM
On Aug. 18, 1915, Alabama
Equal Suffrage Association
and Birmingham Barons
hosted suffrage day here in
support of women's suffrage — — Map (db m188885) HM
When it was first proposed in 1905 that Vulcan be placed on Red Mountain, the time was not right for such a move. But by 1935 when the idea for Vulcan Park was proposed, iron ore mining had ceased here, the mineral railroad had been abandoned and . . . — — Map (db m95335) HM
In 1818 before Alabama, Jefferson County, Elyton or Birmingham existed, The Elyton Methodist Church was established on Center Street. It was moved to 14 Second Avenue, and in 1909, to its present site. Renamed in 1910 for Corilla Porter Walker . . . — — Map (db m24348) HM
Bull Connor ordered the fearless "Child Crusaders" to be blasted with high-pressure fire hoses, and he once again loosed the dogs on the young demonstrators. When the media finally exposed the nation to the cruel scene, President John F. Kennedy . . . — — Map (db m73019) HM
Wilson Chapel was built in 1916 as a memorial to James and Frances Wilson by their daughters, Rosa Wilson Eubanks and Minerva Wilson Constantine. At the time of its construction the area was developing into a community of country homes known as . . . — — Map (db m26681) HM
Gen. James H. Wilson, USA, having crossed the Tennessee River with a large force of well equipped cavalry, grouped them here at Elyton.
Their mission: to destroy Alabama's economic facilities for supporting the War.
From these headquarters he . . . — — Map (db m24358) HM
For seven years before the 1963 Birmingham Campaign, Rev. Shuttlesworth
and other leaders of the ACMHR taught masses of Black citizens how
to take direct but non-violent actions to gain first-class American
citizenship. Inspired by faith, these . . . — — Map (db m187787) HM
Mt. Zion Baptist Church began burying here in the mid-1800s. On June 2, 1970, New Grace Hill Cemetery, Inc., a subsidiary of the Booker T. Washington Insurance Company in Birmingham, purchased this cemetery and officially named it Zion Memorial . . . — — Map (db m35602) HM
From 1820 until 1878 this bell hung in the
belfry of the old Elyton courthouse, one-half mile northeast of this spot. In 1861
Jefferson County boys were mustered in
there and the bell tolled them off to war.
John Felix McLaughlin was one of . . . — — Map (db m216063) HM
In response to oppressive jobs and livelihoods such as sharecropping and tenant farming during post-Civil War Reconstruction, large numbers of African American and poor families from the Black Belt regions began to migrate towards northern, more . . . — — Map (db m220602) HM
has been entered in the
National Register of
Historic Places
by the National Park Service
United States
Department of Interior
1983 — — Map (db m216137) HM
Congregation Beth-El was founded in 1907 on Birmingham's north side. Its leadership came from Knesseth Israel, the city's Orthodox Jewish congregation. Beth-El was established as a modern. yet traditional congregation. Construction on the synagogue . . . — — Map (db m216067) HM
Son of a Swedish ironmaster, Linn built Birmingham's first industry, Birmingham Car & Foundry Company (Linn Iron Works); the first bank, The National Bank of Birmingham; and the City's first park, called Linn Park.
When the population was less . . . — — Map (db m216140) HM
Built to house the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Historic Federal Reserve building was completed in 1927 out of poured concrete and white Stone Mountain, Georgia granite. The building was designed by architecture firm . . . — — Map (db m216138) HM
Built during the Roaring Twenties, the Altamont
Apartments broke ground in 1924 and were
completed in 1925. Designed by architect Jacob E.
Sallte as an apartment/hotel, they were built
to attract affluent businessmen who desired
luxury, . . . — — Map (db m216069) HM
Stephen E. Thompson was a native of Oberlin, Ohio who came to Birmingham in 1889 and became an active investor in real estate and land development. When he was ready to build his house on Highland Avenue, he chose an Oberlin architect, Daniel . . . — — Map (db m216071) HM
Seaboard Yard is a unique, award winning, mixed use, live-work project developed in 2005-2008 by Liz & Cory Mason John Lauriello, Bryan Holt and Julie Gieger.
The historic 35 acre site was once the home of the Seaboard Railroad's Birmingham . . . — — Map (db m220598) HM
Lynching In America.
Thousands of black people were the victims of lynching and racial violence in the United States between 1877 and 1950. The lynching of African Americans during this era was a form of racial terrorism intended to intimidate . . . — — Map (db m101159) HM
(side A)
Brookside's Unique Heritage
Originally settled by the Samuel and Mary “Polly” Fields family in the 1820s, Brookside enjoyed a quiet life as an agricultural community until industrialists discovered rich coal . . . — — Map (db m43223) HM
The town of Cardiff, Alabama has a long, rich history. Situated
along the winding picturesque banks of Five Mile Creek, the area
of present-day Cardiff was originally settled in the 1830s by the
Crocker family. According to historian Martha . . . — — Map (db m153234) HM
In 1700s, Native Americans occupied the Springs property. Robert Reed's family arrived in the area from North Carolina in 1816. They obtained a land grant; soon others moved to the area. In 1871, Dave Franklin built a log cabin in the area which was . . . — — Map (db m37230) HM
Local Methodist connections for Clay Methodist Church were Cedar Mountain Church and Shiloh Methodist Church. Samuel, a Revolutionary War soldier, was a notable member of these early churches. Many of his descendants are buried here. James Self . . . — — Map (db m117209) HM
The oldest marked grave is that of Nancy Paerson, daughter of William S. Turner who was born September 23, 1813 and died September 19, 1830. Jesse Taylor deeded land for this church and graveyard on February 15, 1856.
Listed in the Alabama . . . — — Map (db m25134) HM
Samuel Massey and his brother - in - law, Duke William Glenn, first came to this Territory in February 1814 with Lt. Col Reuben Nash's Regt. South Carolina Volunteer Militia to help defeat the Creek Indians in the War of 1812. Samuel Massey returned . . . — — Map (db m25088) HM
On Cahaba Mountain to the NW, springs form a fragile stream that grows as it carves through the steep, rocky terrain of Birmingham suburbs, flowing south on the Gulf Coastal Plain to the Alabama River, at the site of Alabama's first capital, . . . — — Map (db m25110) HM
The clay soil of the area, first cultivated by Creek Indians, gave this agricultural community it name in 1878 when a post office was established. Clay’s historical roots date to the early 1800s through two small communities, Ayres and Self’s Beat, . . . — — Map (db m83863) HM
Established about 1850, Wear Cemetery is located off Old Springville Road to the northeast at Countryside Circle. In the 1800's the Wear family was among the first settlers of the community later known as Clay. Twenty-three remaining graves were . . . — — Map (db m25113) HM
Miles College Leaders. Students Active During Civil Rights Era
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church founded Miles College in
Fairfield in 1898. During the 1960s, President Lucius Pitts
encouraged students, faculty and staff to become . . . — — Map (db m153232) HM
Black Creek Park, part of the Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership, encompasses the Fultondale Coke Oven Park development. The Fultondale Coke Oven Park preserves the environment and history of the old mining communities of north Birmingham, . . . — — Map (db m50823) HM
Side A When Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, the subsequent Treaty of Fort Jackson and other treaties that followed ceded Indian land that made up most
of what is now Alabama. Abraham Stout . . . — — Map (db m39111) HM
Virgil Allen Howard, who was born in South Carolina in 1859, came to Alabama in 1884 seeking employment with the Alabama Waterworks. He and Ollie Grace Hogan were married on July 15, 1903 and made their first home in Gardendale on property they . . . — — Map (db m39221) HM
(side A)
In the latter 1800s and early 1900s, the city of Graysville was called Gin Town. Because Graysville had the only cotton gin for miles around, the town and community grew. As the community grew, the need for businesses and houses of . . . — — Map (db m43221) HM
Side A Located in Jefferson County in Shades Valley, Homewood came into existence with the combination of Edgewood, Rosedale, and Oak Grove. Hollywood, a fourth community, joined Homewood later. The City of Homewood was incorporated in 1926, . . . — — Map (db m37712) HM
Nathan Byars, II settled here in 1836, followed by William D. Satterwhite in 1853, and Phillip Thomas Griffin and his wife Mary Ann Byars Griffin in 1854. These early settlers cleared land, built homes and farmed in what was a vast wooded . . . — — Map (db m26946) HM
The developers of the Town of Edgewood, Stephen Smith and Troupe Brazelton, built the beautiful 117.4 acre lake and clubhouse in 1913-15. Amenities included a swimming pool, dance pavilion, fishing, boating and parking for hundreds of automobiles. . . . — — Map (db m26963) HM
In the early 1900's, among the many craftsmen who migrated south to build the booming industrial cities was Swedish brick mason A. G. Hallman. Hallman moved from the Lake Michigan area and purchased an acre of farmland along the north side of Oxmoor . . . — — Map (db m26986) HM
Clyde Nelson, born in Columbiana, Alabama, was only 26 when he began development of the Town of Hollywood in 1926. With a sales force of 75 and the slogan "Out of the smoke zone, into the ozone" his beautiful community soon took shape. Homes were . . . — — Map (db m27091) HM
Beginning in the mid 19th century settlers first emigrated into a vast wooded wilderness now known as Homewood.
On February 11, 1927, the merger of Edgewood, Grove Park and Rosedale became the new City of Homewood. On October 14, 1929 . . . — — Map (db m51156) HM
Benjamin F. Roden formed the Clifton Land Company in 1886 to develop this area. The development was reorganized in 1889 as the South Birmingham Land Company.
Theodore Smith, nurseryman and florist, moved here from Bedford, New York in the 1880's . . . — — Map (db m24344) HM
