Avondale Progressive Taste & Trivia: Clues to Questions
by Pat Rumore, President of Friends of the Birmingham Public Library
Are you preparing to make sure your trivia team wins this year's progressive taste and trivia event happening Tuesday, April 23, in the Avondale district? Check out this essay about the history of Avondale and its eastern neighbors. There are clues to the trivia answers in the essay below. Good luck!
You might call Birmingham a planned city since its founders incorporated the Elyton Land Company in 1871 for the purpose of creating an industrial center where the Alabama & Chattanooga and the South & North railroads were to intersect in Jones Valley. Conveniently located at the foot of Red Mountain, which was full of iron ore and limestone, and within a few miles of three different coal fields, the new city had the natural resources upon which to build the coal and steel industries with which it would become identified throughout its first 100 years.
The “city” was incorporated by the state legislature in December 1871 with a mere 1.4 square miles in its first city limits. Within three years the county seat was moved from the nearby town of Elyton to Birmingham. By 1889 Birmingham annexed new residential areas to expand its boundaries to three square miles, mostly within a one-mile radius of the original town.
On the eastern side of Birmingham in the Lakeview district, early industrialist James Withers Sloss is still remembered for his namesake Sloss Furnace, producing steel from 1882 to its closure in 1971, and today a national historic landmark near Avondale. Braxton Bragg Comer, who became governor of Alabama in 1906, organized the Avondale Mills in 1897 across the railroad tracks and 1st Avenue North from the town of Avondale, incorporated in the same year.
Avondale was considered by some historians as Birmingham’s first suburb and a “company town” attached to Avondale Mills since many of its residents lived in the 120 homes built on the campus of the Avondale Mills for its employees. The railroad tracks that divided Avondale Mills from the town of Avondale, which still run through Avondale today, are the original tracks of the Alabama & Chattanooga railroad whose crossing in Jones Valley inspired the establishment of Birmingham.
This Avondale Mills site was at one time the headquarters of a whole system of textile mills located primarily in Alabama but also in Georgia and South Carolinas, and it operated from 1897 until the 1960s when the headquarters was moved to Sylacauga, Alabama. The textile mill and its village were subsequently torn down and a business park was developed on the site along 1st Avenue North.
Because of his experience in Birmingham and with Avondale Mills, B.B. Comer supported the “Greater Birmingham Movement” in 1909 and 1910 while he was governor. Through the efforts of this movement which resulted in the adoption of legislation its proponents guided through the legislature, on January 1, 1910, seven independent municipalities and unincorporated lands which surrounded Birmingham were annexed to the city and Birmingham’s city limits expanded to enclose 48 square miles. They stretched 14 miles from Ensley to East Lake and five miles at their widest point from Red Mountain through the central business district and through the former town of North Birmingham. Its population “exploded” overnight from approximately 38,000 to an official 1910 census count of 132,685. Birmingham called itself “The Magic City” since overnight it became one of the top five largest cities of the old Confederate South. Among the seven towns which were absorbed into Birmingham were three on its eastern side: Avondale, Woodlawn, and East Lake.
Avondale was an industrial suburb with not only Avondale Mills, but also various foundries, machine shops, and railroad car works. Woodlawn lay further east along streetcar tracks originating in the central city.
It was a residential suburb which was relatively sparsely settled at the time when compared to East Lake, which was five miles farther out on the streetcar line, a middle-class residential suburb built around a popular wooded amusement part anchored by a thirty-acre spring-fed lake, today’s East Lake Park.
At that time, Howard College (today’s Samford University) was an East Lake streetcar stop. It had 200 students on a nicely landscaped campus.
Another important historic industry operating in the Avondale area, which was organized in 1896, was the Continental Gin Company. In its heyday it was the largest cotton gin manufacturing company in the world. Birmingham-based Ram Tool Company bought its property in the 1960s after Continental Gin closed and currently uses the renovated office building on the 28-acre industrial site as its headquarters. Also operating in this huge industrial park is the popular Cahaba Brewing Company’s brewery and tap room, United States Senator Doug Jones’ Birmingham campaign office, as well as the Southern Vintage Fire Apparatus Association and a mix of other small-business tenants.
The Continental Gin property abuts the Woodlawn neighborhood, which today is experiencing significant neighborhood-guided revitalization under the auspices of the Woodlawn Foundation and REV-Birmingham. Both are non-profits whose partnership with the Woodlawn community is demonstrating the success of revitalization based on building a vibrant commercial district that is a hub of cultural commerce.
Are you preparing to make sure your trivia team wins this year's progressive taste and trivia event happening Tuesday, April 23, in the Avondale district? Check out this essay about the history of Avondale and its eastern neighbors. There are clues to the trivia answers in the essay below. Good luck!
You might call Birmingham a planned city since its founders incorporated the Elyton Land Company in 1871 for the purpose of creating an industrial center where the Alabama & Chattanooga and the South & North railroads were to intersect in Jones Valley. Conveniently located at the foot of Red Mountain, which was full of iron ore and limestone, and within a few miles of three different coal fields, the new city had the natural resources upon which to build the coal and steel industries with which it would become identified throughout its first 100 years.
The “city” was incorporated by the state legislature in December 1871 with a mere 1.4 square miles in its first city limits. Within three years the county seat was moved from the nearby town of Elyton to Birmingham. By 1889 Birmingham annexed new residential areas to expand its boundaries to three square miles, mostly within a one-mile radius of the original town.
On the eastern side of Birmingham in the Lakeview district, early industrialist James Withers Sloss is still remembered for his namesake Sloss Furnace, producing steel from 1882 to its closure in 1971, and today a national historic landmark near Avondale. Braxton Bragg Comer, who became governor of Alabama in 1906, organized the Avondale Mills in 1897 across the railroad tracks and 1st Avenue North from the town of Avondale, incorporated in the same year.
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| Avondale Mills Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number 1556.22.34 |
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| Looking down 41st Street from 1st Avenue North. Note the railroad tracks that divide Avondale from the mill site. This same track continues to carry trains through Avondale to this day. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number BN720 |
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| A second set of tracks at 1st Avenue South still crosses 41st Street. Note the 3rd building on the left side of the street — today's Avondale Brewery. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number BN719 |
Because of his experience in Birmingham and with Avondale Mills, B.B. Comer supported the “Greater Birmingham Movement” in 1909 and 1910 while he was governor. Through the efforts of this movement which resulted in the adoption of legislation its proponents guided through the legislature, on January 1, 1910, seven independent municipalities and unincorporated lands which surrounded Birmingham were annexed to the city and Birmingham’s city limits expanded to enclose 48 square miles. They stretched 14 miles from Ensley to East Lake and five miles at their widest point from Red Mountain through the central business district and through the former town of North Birmingham. Its population “exploded” overnight from approximately 38,000 to an official 1910 census count of 132,685. Birmingham called itself “The Magic City” since overnight it became one of the top five largest cities of the old Confederate South. Among the seven towns which were absorbed into Birmingham were three on its eastern side: Avondale, Woodlawn, and East Lake.
Avondale was an industrial suburb with not only Avondale Mills, but also various foundries, machine shops, and railroad car works. Woodlawn lay further east along streetcar tracks originating in the central city.
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| Woodlawn's original city hall (1910) which still stands on 1st Avenue North today. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number1556.32.74 |
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| Mule-drawn streetcar at
on its way to Avondale on June 17, 1887. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number 1556.43.01 |
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| At First Avenue, North,
near 22nd Street, a steam dummy engine pulling an unusually long line of eight
cars preparing to leave on an excursion to East Lake Park on June 15, 1893. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number OVH100 |
It was a residential suburb which was relatively sparsely settled at the time when compared to East Lake, which was five miles farther out on the streetcar line, a middle-class residential suburb built around a popular wooded amusement part anchored by a thirty-acre spring-fed lake, today’s East Lake Park.
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| East Lake Park amusement
park on the south shore of the lake.
Rides included a Baby Rack, House of Mystery, roller coasters,
Merry-Go-Round, Shoot the Chute, the Whip, Aeroplanes, and 1001 Troubles. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number OVH407 |
At that time, Howard College (today’s Samford University) was an East Lake streetcar stop. It had 200 students on a nicely landscaped campus.
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| ”Old Main” the Main Building
at Howard College. The college (established in 1841) was located
in East Lake from 1887 to 1957. The name
of the college was changed to Samford University in 1965. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number BN98 |
Another important historic industry operating in the Avondale area, which was organized in 1896, was the Continental Gin Company. In its heyday it was the largest cotton gin manufacturing company in the world. Birmingham-based Ram Tool Company bought its property in the 1960s after Continental Gin closed and currently uses the renovated office building on the 28-acre industrial site as its headquarters. Also operating in this huge industrial park is the popular Cahaba Brewing Company’s brewery and tap room, United States Senator Doug Jones’ Birmingham campaign office, as well as the Southern Vintage Fire Apparatus Association and a mix of other small-business tenants.
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| Continental Gin Company’s office building at
4500 Fourth Avenue, South; February 18, 1959. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number 98.19415 |
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| Spectators at Continental
Gin Company for a ceremony to award the company the U.S. Navy Bureau of
Ordnance flag and the U.S. Navy ”E” pennant on November 8, 1941. Credit: Birmingham Public Library Archives Dept. Collection Number 1556.16.87 |
The Continental Gin property abuts the Woodlawn neighborhood, which today is experiencing significant neighborhood-guided revitalization under the auspices of the Woodlawn Foundation and REV-Birmingham. Both are non-profits whose partnership with the Woodlawn community is demonstrating the success of revitalization based on building a vibrant commercial district that is a hub of cultural commerce.
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