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Preservation Brings History to Life during PRESERVATION WEEK 1992 is the year of Industrial Strength Preservation

Birmingham citizens will join "Preservation Week is a time for the City Center on Tuesday, May 12. thousands of individuals around the us to bring history to life when we join The day begins with a parade up 20th country to celebrate National Historic together to celebrate the unique her­ Street (11:40 a.m.), continues with a Preservation Week, May 10-16, 1992. itage and culture of our hometowns," banner unfurling ceremony on the The twentieth annual celebration, says Jack Walter, president of the steps of City Hall (noon), and con­ whose theme is "Preservation Brings National Trust for Historic cludes with music and exhibits of stu­ History to Life!" is being cosponsored Preservation. dent-made historic industrial sites, here by Birmingham Historical Society As part of the week-long celebra­ buildings and landmarks in Linn Park and the National Trust for Historic tion, citizens in communities nation­ (12:30-1:30 p.m.) Preservation. wide will be calling attention to signif­ This year Birmingham Historical icant historical sites. Here in Society salutes historic industrial sites Birmingham, the Preservation Week in the Birmingham District, the five observation will celebrate our local county area (Bibb, Jefferson, Shelby, brand of "INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH Tuscaloosa, Walker Counties) which PRESERVATION." Join us for BAN­ the Society is currently studying to NER DAY FOR BIRMINGHAM in plan future preservation efforts.

rhe cast-iron Vulcan towers over a city and a district that owes its existence to the ironmaking process which, according to legend, this Roman god taught to mortal men.

Pig iron, a principal product of the Birmingham District, made from Birmingham iron ores, coals and limestone, poured forth from Sloss Furnaces (below), now a National Historic Landmark and Museum of the City of Birmingham.

Red Mountain's red iron ore fueled many a furnace in the Birmingham District. Today the Red Mountain Cut. a National Natural Landmark, showcases red iron ore and 170 million years of geological history. Early Ironmaking in the Birmingham District

King House (1823), MontevaUo, residence of planter- Jemison House (1860), Tuscaloosa, town house with a Owen House (1838), McCalla, planter-industrialist industrialist Edmund King who built the District's coal-fired gas system built by planter-industrialist Thomas Owen ran a forge near today's Tannehill earliest ironworks in 1820. Robert Jemison. State Park during the Civil War.

Gorgas House (1829), Tuscaloosa, last residence of Tannehill'$ "Double Furnaces" (1863) poured forth The charcoal-fired Irondaie Furnace Ruins (1863), Gen. Josiah Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance for the pig iron used to manufacture Confederate cannon Mountain Brook, also once shipped iron down the Confederacy which developed extensive ironworks in balls and ship plate at the Selma arsenal. MontevaUo Road to the Selma arsenal. the Birmingham District.'

Location of good coking coal at the Pratt Mines fueled the Birmingham District boom of the 1880s. Pratt coal was coked at these Pratt Coke Ovens (c.1879), now surviving in a grove of magnolia, coke and coal tail­ These ashlar ovens (c. 1876), located on a spectacular The Shelby Ironworks, the district's largest manufac­ ings, and carried by rail to furnaces, such as Sloss, in site overlooking the Cahaba River near Helena, also turer of iron and plate during antebellum times, also the Birmingham city center. provided coke for pig iron production. cast this iron fence in the Columbiana Cemetery.

The Sloss Company also mined red ores from the Sloss Mine (left), one of many along Red Mountain's Mineral Railroad near Bessemer. These mines consti­ tuted the nation's second largest group of under­ ground ore mines.

This hoist at Woodward Iron Company's Pyne Mine (below left) near Bessemer, once hauled iron ore from the deepest vertical shaft mine in the United States.

By the 1920s, Birmingham plants recovered valuable coke byproducts at sites such as the Thomas Coke- works (below right) currently being considered for preservation by its owner. Wade Sand and Gravel Co.

Crushing operations at Ruffner Mines prepared Red Mountain iron ores for use in the Sloss Furnaces. Industrial companies built plants and communities for In the 1910s, U. S. Steel's local affiliate, TCI, built These "four-room square tops" built in 1902 for their workers. At Thomas, Pennsylvania ironmasters worker housing in Fairfield adjacent to its major workers at the Muscoda mines became the most com­ built this Pennsylvania style worker housing for fur­ plants. mon form of worker housing in the district. nace foremen.

Birmingham District Historic Sites, Open to the Public

The 1856 Shelby County Courthouse at Columbiana is home to the Shelby County Historical Society's genealogical collections and museum.

University of Alabama's Smith Hall (1910) (left), Tuscaloosa, houses collections of the Geological Survey of Alabama, established in 1847, whose explorations and reports still chart the state's mineral resources.

Alabama Power Company's 1925 tower (right) showcases the district's mineral resources - with all structural steel, brick, limestone, cast ironpipe, cement, lime andpine lumber used in the building's construction originat­ ing within 60 miles of Birmingham. ^K^mmmA '\ •:;•"• ^B^^^BiliA-_->. ... , ,«.'.. Bessemer's Southern Railway Station (1914) now f houses the Hall of History Museum in the city's recently designated National Register Historic District.

.- The old Wilton Depot reopens this spring as the new Mining memorabilia, artifacts and machines galore Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera. Volun­ fill Dora's Alabama Mining Museum in Walker teers are building a shop, yard and 12 miles of track County, heart of the District's still active coalfields. for future excursion rides.

In 1900 Scottish immigrant miner William Cook designed and built this family homeplace in Nauvoo.

Lock Wall No. 3 at University Park, Tuscaloosa, now a fishing pier, was one of 19 original locks construct­ ed from the 1880s to 1915 to open the 455 mile Cotton gin magnate Robert Munger, pictured on the white steed, made his home at Arlington Historic House and Warrior River to industrial uses and make the Warrior Gardens in the early 20th century. the "longest channelized waterway in the world. The Carry Homestead in Oakman forms the center­ Norfolk Southern's Steam Shop at Norris Yards in This M. & O. Railroad Trestle Bridge spanning the piece of "Old York," a Walker County coal mining Irondale restores steam locomotives for excursion Warrior River between Northport and Tuscaloosa was boomtown boisterous again during quarterly festivals. rides across the South. said to be the longest wooden trestle bridge in the world at its completion in 1899.

Historic Sites Renovated to New Uses

Iron magnate Rick Woodward's Red Mountain Residence (1919) now serves as residence to the President of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Continental Gin's 1925 plant, today's Hill Building on Birmingham Southside, once the nation's largest producer of cotton gins, serves warehouse and educational uses.

Tuscaloosa's L. & N. Station serves refreshments amid reminders of railroading days.

The City of Tarrant's Municipal Services are housed in the former National Cast Iron Pipe-CLOW Co. USX's proposed redevelopment of the Ensley Works site includes plans to preserve the power Corporate Headquarters (1912). house and stacks of the former industrial works.

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