TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A significant effort is underway around the nation and in Alabama to preserve and re-use historic commercial buildings. Often these restoration projects are so successful — both aesthetically and financially — that they encourage other preservation efforts around them and bring life back to downtown.
Such is the case in four Alabama cities chronicled by Mary Johnson Huff in the winter 2000 issue of Alabama Heritage. Montgomery, Birmingham, Florence, and Anniston have all seen dramatic transformations of neglected commercial properties in recent years.
The defense firm of Balch & Bingham in Montgomery, spearheaded by a partner in the firm, Maury Smith, bought the disheveled Winter Building on Dexter Avenue. Once a bank and later a Southern Telegraph Office, the orders to fire on Ft. Sumter were issued there in 1861. In renovating the structure, all while carefully measuring aesthetics against practical issues such as privacy and noise reduction, Balch & Bingham has revived the building and set off a chain reaction of similar projects along Dexter Avenue.
Likewise, the Birmingham law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin, & White has renovated the Clark Building on the corner of downtown Birmingham. Home to several businesses over the years — most notably, Schwobilt, Suits of the South — it is once again a vital part of downtown Birmingham.
Such revitalization projects are not just going on in Alabama’s largest cities. Downtown Florence is enjoying a renaissance as well. The old Cotton Exchange Building on East College Street and three buildings on the corner of Court and Tennessee Streets are being adapted to suit contemporary needs, while restoring their original charm with historically accurate repairs. Developers there see such projects as part of a town center that will promote a more urban lifestyle for Florence.
And finally, in Anniston, David and Rhonda Walters have turned personal disaster into a do-it-yourself success story. Things seemed to be on the rise for the Walters in the early 1990`s when they purchased a circa 1880s two-story brick building in Anniston to remodel and use as a studio for David`s photography business. Then, in November of 1994, tragedy struck when their home near Jacksonville burned to the ground. Homeless and broke, the Walters stayed at a friend`s house for the next six months, and used the insurance money to remodel the building in Anniston to accommodate both a studio and a loft apartment. “We didn`t have a lot of money,” says David Walters, “We didn`t have a lot of help. We did, however, have a lot of guts and at least a little talent.”
Words to live by for preservationists everywhere.
Huff holds a master`s degree in clothing and textiles from the College of Human Environmental Sciences at The University of Alabama. She has written numerous books on quilts, including Star Quilts (1992, Crown Publishers, Inc., New York), which she adapted for an Alabama Heritage article appearing in Fall 1993.
Alabama Heritage is a non-profit quarterly magazine published by The University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. To order the magazine, write Alabama Heritage, Box 870342, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0342, or call 205/348-7467.
Contact
Sara Martin or T.J. Beitelman, 205/348-7467