Welcome to the Birmingham History Center
inside the exhibit hall, under a vaulted ceiling and surrounded by historical images and artifacts. Groups can also add food and wine to their meeting menu: Young & Vann's broad and skylighted entryway make a natural gathering space for catered receptions, to a maxiumum of 200 people. Call 205-202-4146 for details and fees.1963: The year everything changed
The year that advanced the nation's march toward racial equality also gave us the ZIPcode, the Cold War, and the Lava Lamp....
On exhibit at the History Center now and traveling to other city locales this summer: "1963: The year everything changed." Come follow the daily events large and small that were the backdrop of the civil rights movement 50 years ago. Tthe Pop-Tart, touch-tone phones and ZIPcodes were the signature products of the new streamlined age. It was the year that a Russian woman traveled into space and Gordon Cooper slept on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. It was also the year of police dogs, fire hoses and “I have a Dream.” It was the year that "John John" Kennedy saluted his father’s passing casket.
This panel exhibit with accompanying slide show and touch screen "extras" about the historic year is at the History Center now. It will return in September after traveling to several libraries and other locations, to be announced.
The latest from 1731 Blog Avenue
On location in Birmingham, before "talkies"
Birmingham has been the backdrop for dozens of feature films, from Rickwood Field in the 2012 film, "42," to the tipple of a Brookside mine in the 1925 silent flick, "Coming Through," based on a novel by prominent city news editor and novelist Jack Bethea. Although a New York Times reviewer found the mining equipment the only high point in the drama, Birmingham's role in silent films is linked to some of the era's brightest stars. Click here to read this guest column by A. J. Wright: Things of the Past
Watch here for a changing sampling of photos and objects from the history center collections
Ridgely, Tutwiler and... M?
Artifacts sometimes come to us only partially identified. In this case we have two doorknobs from elegant Birmingham residential buildings with intertwined histories. The 1913 Ridgely Apartments, built by Robert Jemison and Edward Tutwiler on Park Avenue, were remodeled in 1985 to house the new Tutwiler Hotel. The original Hotel Tutwiler, built by the same developers in 1914 on 20th Street North and Fifth Avenue, was imploded in 1974 to make way for a bank. Click image for a larger view.
Where did the M doorknob come from? Was it from the Morris Hotel on First Avenue North and 19th Street (leveled for a parking lot in 1957), or from the 1914 Molton Hotel, across the street from the first Tutwiler (and demolished in 1979 for an office building?) There were others beginning with M, such as the Mabson and the Metropolitan, which seem less likely. Anyone with information, let the History Center know: bjhm@bham.rr.com.
Artifacts sometimes come to us only partially identified. In this case we have two doorknobs from elegant Birmingham residential buildings with intertwined histories. The 1913 Ridgely Apartments, built by Robert Jemison and Edward Tutwiler on Park Avenue, were remodeled in 1985 to house the new Tutwiler Hotel. The original Hotel Tutwiler, built by the same developers in 1914 on 20th Street North and Fifth Avenue, was imploded in 1974 to make way for a bank. Click image for a larger view.Where did the M doorknob come from? Was it from the Morris Hotel on First Avenue North and 19th Street (leveled for a parking lot in 1957), or from the 1914 Molton Hotel, across the street from the first Tutwiler (and demolished in 1979 for an office building?) There were others beginning with M, such as the Mabson and the Metropolitan, which seem less likely. Anyone with information, let the History Center know: bjhm@bham.rr.com.
On exhibit
More information than meets the eye on objects displayed at the History Center
1919 Moto-Meter
Original logo artwork, Preston Motors Corp.
This 1919 gauge is one of millions sold both as standard equipment or aftermarket by Moto-Meter Inc. of New York in the early part of the 1900s. The device proved so popular that Moto-Meter gladly produced gauges branded with various automaker logos, including Preston Motors, manufacturer of the Birmingham-made Premocar. The gauge on display is exhibited with original artwork for the Preston Motors' imprint, shown here, and photos of the Premocar, with Moto-Meter, during its short but high-profile life in the Roaring Twenties.
(Preston Motors manufactured two models in Birmingham, the Super Six and the Special.
The car's heyday peaked in 1921 when President Warren G. Harding toured the city in a specially made Premocar with ivory kid leather upholstery. The presidential vehicle perhaps tested one of Premocar's more extravagent claims: "Both cars have a wheelspan of 117 inches and both conform to the same general design which embodies all that the dictates of good taste demand, without being freakish.")
As for Moto-Meters, the devices gave way in the 1930s to decorative "hood ornaments" as advances in engine technology – and the advent of coolant – made the hood-mounted gauges obsolete.
Who we are, What we do
The Birmingham History Center, so renamed in 2010, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with just over 3,000 square feet of exhibit space in Young & Vann's renovated gallery, 1731 First Avenue North in Birmingham. Exhibits are open to the public Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at a low admission price ($4-adults/$3-seniors/$2-students).
The organization today is governed by a 22-member board of directors and headed by Executive Director Jerry Desmond, an author, historian, and former educator who came to Birmingham in 2009 from Georgia, where he directed the Rome Area History Museum.
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