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Birmingham Landmarks: People and Places of the Magic City
Though the landscape has certainly changed, many of Birmingham's early landmarks--testaments to the steelworkers who built the city after the Civil War, as well as those who have since prospered here--remain. In Birmingham Landmarks, Alabama native Victoria Myers explores the Magic City's most prominent industrial and cultural features. Step back in time to discover Rickwood Field, one of America's oldest baseball parks, and the Carver Theater, the only venue that allowed African Americans to view first-run movies before the civil rights movement. Find out why Birmingham is known as the Pittsburgh of the South at Sloss Furnaces and learn the secrets of Vulcan, who was commissioned for the 1904 World's Fair and has become one of the state's most recognizable monuments.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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June 30, 2022
I very much enjoyed this book - it is a great depiction of the history of Birmingham, complete with the discussion of iron, civil rights, sports, and everyday life. Took many notes as I read and I am inspired to visit many of these sites as time allows...
"You can't truly understand or appreciate this living, pulsating, drawling, sophisticated, redneck rock-strewn place without going back to that beginning."
Discussion of the coal strike of 1908 - two-month labor dispute between the United Mine Workers Union/District 20 and US Steel for higher wages and better working conditions. On July 8, 1908, 4000 walked off the job site, and soon over half of the 20k workforce was out. The governor sent in armed troops, etc. This unit was interracial, which posed perhaps the greatest threat to the state of all - blacks and whites united with a common cause in the south.
Magic City, Steel City, Iron City...
Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens - originally a four-room, two-story home on 475 acres, but it expanded after the 1842 transfer of title under slave labor. Mudd became the new owner, and it is due to his cooperation with invading Union forces that the home still stands today. His home served as a headquarters for Union general Wilson (1865) and is likely the place that he laid plans for Croxton to seize Tuscaloosa. It is located in Elyton, a town that was the headquarters for building Birmingham. after the war.
After the war - Birmingham was named for England's iron city - 10 shareholders together formed Bham. By 1873, 4000 people in Birmingham, and a huge cholera outbreak killed 128 within a couple of months.
However, it was Levin Goodrich who put Birmingham on the road to become the "Pittsburgh of the South" with his new process for development - Birmingham is the only place in the world with all three natural resources necessary to create iron located in abundance closely together. Elyton donated land to Goodrich, Sloss, DeBardelebon (who was the next owner of Arlinton after Mudd died)
Samuel Ullman - writer of "Youth" in Reader's Digest; well-known in Japan because of this poem which emphasized that youth is always within us; social rights and education actovist
Working in the mines was really only a small step above slavery - only the New Deal and the Fair Labor Standards Act raised wages. Today, the mines stand as a silent testament to the thousands who worked there. Again - bham only place in the world with coal, iron ore, limestone. Sloss wanted to shift from pig iron to steel, but the high phosphorus content created inferior steel. The purchase of TCI (Tennessee coal and iron company) by JP Morgan in 1907 created discriminatory pricing so Birmingham would not outpace Pittsburgh. Bham was also slow to modernize equipment because of its reliance on manual labor, which decreased as more blacks moved to the north throughout the 1920s.
Ghost story of Captain Jowers at Alice Furnace #1 - he fell in the molten iron and people claim to see his ghost walking around Sloss Furnaces even today.
Ruffner Mountain - stands on old ground that testifies to the heritage of Birmingham. In 1929, revenue was the lowest it had been in 1896, prompting FDR to say that Birmingham was the hardest hit of anyone by the depression due to its reliance on iron. However, WWII increased revenue with the necessary production of iron and weapons, until the building of overseas furnaces in Japan and other places by the US pushed us out of business in the modern age.
Vulcan was commissioned in 1903 as a fifty-ton cast-iron statue, standing at 56 feet tall. Vulcan was the Roman god of the forge, thrown down from heaven because of his ugly and awkward looks. The son of Juno and Jupiter, he was a major disappointment. However, he became a blacksmith on an island in the Mediterranean, using the volcano as a forge and one-eyed cyclops as his helpers.
Alabama Penny Savings Bank - opened by Pettiford, a former pastor for 16th Street Baptist Church who stepped down to help the black community with finances, advocating home ownership and savings. Book titled "God's Revenue System" published in 1895. By 1914, his bank was the strongest African-American owned bank in the United States, but he died and the bank failed just a year later. Today, it is called the Pythian Temple and located in the Civil Rights District.
16th Street Baptist Church - first African-American house of worship in Birmingham
On April 3, 1963, a band of demonstrators marched out wanting service at white lunch counters - 2000 went to jail.
On September 15, 1963, the day of a sermon titled, "the Love that Forgives" 3 young girls died while changing into choir robes in the basement of the church. Violent erupted in the streets. 14 years later, someone was finally arrested for the bombing.
Kelly Ingram Park - "We're going on in spite of dogs and fire hoses" -MLK
The park is named after local firefighter Kelly Ingram - the first US Navy soldier killed in WWI - how the story of the USS Cassin became known worldwide. It was attacked by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland.
May 2, 1963 - Children's Crucades - 1000 skipped school to march downtown, gathering at 16th street church - schools and paddywagons carted kids to kail.
May 3 - another 1000 gather at church and begin to walk - firehoses ordered on, ripping off shirts and pushing people over the tops of cars, becomes very violent
May 4 - Jails full and fair grounds used to imprison
May 5 - blacks show up at white churches, many knelt and prayed till arrested
May 6 - took more than 4 hours to distribute breakfast
May 7 - firehoses again, Reverand Fred Shuttlesworth injured and over 2500 arrested - governor sends in troops
May 7 - white business leaders agree to most demands
May 10 - MLK and Shuttlesworth announce there has been an agreement
May 13 - 3000 federal troops arrive in Birmingham; Bull Connor calls it the worst day of his life
"You can't truly understand or appreciate this living, pulsating, drawling, sophisticated, redneck rock-strewn place without going back to that beginning."
Discussion of the coal strike of 1908 - two-month labor dispute between the United Mine Workers Union/District 20 and US Steel for higher wages and better working conditions. On July 8, 1908, 4000 walked off the job site, and soon over half of the 20k workforce was out. The governor sent in armed troops, etc. This unit was interracial, which posed perhaps the greatest threat to the state of all - blacks and whites united with a common cause in the south.
Magic City, Steel City, Iron City...
Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens - originally a four-room, two-story home on 475 acres, but it expanded after the 1842 transfer of title under slave labor. Mudd became the new owner, and it is due to his cooperation with invading Union forces that the home still stands today. His home served as a headquarters for Union general Wilson (1865) and is likely the place that he laid plans for Croxton to seize Tuscaloosa. It is located in Elyton, a town that was the headquarters for building Birmingham. after the war.
After the war - Birmingham was named for England's iron city - 10 shareholders together formed Bham. By 1873, 4000 people in Birmingham, and a huge cholera outbreak killed 128 within a couple of months.
However, it was Levin Goodrich who put Birmingham on the road to become the "Pittsburgh of the South" with his new process for development - Birmingham is the only place in the world with all three natural resources necessary to create iron located in abundance closely together. Elyton donated land to Goodrich, Sloss, DeBardelebon (who was the next owner of Arlinton after Mudd died)
Samuel Ullman - writer of "Youth" in Reader's Digest; well-known in Japan because of this poem which emphasized that youth is always within us; social rights and education actovist
Working in the mines was really only a small step above slavery - only the New Deal and the Fair Labor Standards Act raised wages. Today, the mines stand as a silent testament to the thousands who worked there. Again - bham only place in the world with coal, iron ore, limestone. Sloss wanted to shift from pig iron to steel, but the high phosphorus content created inferior steel. The purchase of TCI (Tennessee coal and iron company) by JP Morgan in 1907 created discriminatory pricing so Birmingham would not outpace Pittsburgh. Bham was also slow to modernize equipment because of its reliance on manual labor, which decreased as more blacks moved to the north throughout the 1920s.
Ghost story of Captain Jowers at Alice Furnace #1 - he fell in the molten iron and people claim to see his ghost walking around Sloss Furnaces even today.
Ruffner Mountain - stands on old ground that testifies to the heritage of Birmingham. In 1929, revenue was the lowest it had been in 1896, prompting FDR to say that Birmingham was the hardest hit of anyone by the depression due to its reliance on iron. However, WWII increased revenue with the necessary production of iron and weapons, until the building of overseas furnaces in Japan and other places by the US pushed us out of business in the modern age.
Vulcan was commissioned in 1903 as a fifty-ton cast-iron statue, standing at 56 feet tall. Vulcan was the Roman god of the forge, thrown down from heaven because of his ugly and awkward looks. The son of Juno and Jupiter, he was a major disappointment. However, he became a blacksmith on an island in the Mediterranean, using the volcano as a forge and one-eyed cyclops as his helpers.
Alabama Penny Savings Bank - opened by Pettiford, a former pastor for 16th Street Baptist Church who stepped down to help the black community with finances, advocating home ownership and savings. Book titled "God's Revenue System" published in 1895. By 1914, his bank was the strongest African-American owned bank in the United States, but he died and the bank failed just a year later. Today, it is called the Pythian Temple and located in the Civil Rights District.
16th Street Baptist Church - first African-American house of worship in Birmingham
On April 3, 1963, a band of demonstrators marched out wanting service at white lunch counters - 2000 went to jail.
On September 15, 1963, the day of a sermon titled, "the Love that Forgives" 3 young girls died while changing into choir robes in the basement of the church. Violent erupted in the streets. 14 years later, someone was finally arrested for the bombing.
Kelly Ingram Park - "We're going on in spite of dogs and fire hoses" -MLK
The park is named after local firefighter Kelly Ingram - the first US Navy soldier killed in WWI - how the story of the USS Cassin became known worldwide. It was attacked by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland.
May 2, 1963 - Children's Crucades - 1000 skipped school to march downtown, gathering at 16th street church - schools and paddywagons carted kids to kail.
May 3 - another 1000 gather at church and begin to walk - firehoses ordered on, ripping off shirts and pushing people over the tops of cars, becomes very violent
May 4 - Jails full and fair grounds used to imprison
May 5 - blacks show up at white churches, many knelt and prayed till arrested
May 6 - took more than 4 hours to distribute breakfast
May 7 - firehoses again, Reverand Fred Shuttlesworth injured and over 2500 arrested - governor sends in troops
May 7 - white business leaders agree to most demands
May 10 - MLK and Shuttlesworth announce there has been an agreement
May 13 - 3000 federal troops arrive in Birmingham; Bull Connor calls it the worst day of his life
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