i BIRMINGHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY
//* Aerial View of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI)'U. S. Steel Ensley Works (active 1886-early 1980s) and the Ensley Commercial and Residential Districts in Opossum Valley, Flanked by the Southern Edge of the Pratt Coal Seam (left) ,View Looking East Across Commercial and Residential Districts to the Chert (Flint) Ridge and the Birmingham City Center, Jefferson County, AL-52-14 (the Historic American Engineering Record - Library of Congress catalogue number), Jet Lowe, 1994. In the 1880s, wealthy planter and entrepreneur Enoch Ensley began industrial facilities and a town in this wide valley. By the 1940s, TCI plants — extending West from Ensley to Fairfield and on to Bessemer — produced three million tons of ingots, blooms, billets and finished hot-rolled steel products including structural shapes, plates, rail, reinforcing bars, nails and wire. TCI was a fully integrated mill, locally mining its coal, ores and fluxing stones and locally producing its coke, iron and steel. In the 1950s,TCI employed as many as 28,000 persons. Flanking the industrial facilities, a regional business and shopping center served the plants, outlying mining areas and residential districts. The Ramsay- McCormick Building (1929), the only major office building built before the 1960s outside of the city center, looms above the business district. Today, U.S. Steel continues its Birmingham operations at Fairfield, just to the west of Ensley. Front Cover Illustrations: Aerial View, Hardie-Tynes Manufacturing Co. On the Skyline of the Birmingham City Center, Jefferson County, AL-13-16,JetLowe,1994. By 1900, Birmingham had become the leading cen ter of Southern iron and steel production. Today, a stone's throw from the city center, the Hardie- Tynes firm, established in 1895 and still family owned, operates in its early-20th-century buildings and produces large, machined products for hydro electric dams, naval vessels and spacecraft.
Mixer Ruins, Tennessee Coal and Iron Company (TCI) - U. S. Steel Open Hearth Steel Mill (active 18994980), Ensley-Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-52-A-2, Jet Lowe, 1993. Technological obsolescence and other factors led to the closing of U.S. Steel's Ensley mills. Pictured are mixer ruins and exhaust stacks remaining at this site.
Head Frame, Pyne Mine (active 1918-1970), Bessemer, Jefferson County, Drawing by Adam Campagna, 1993. Intensely mined from the Civil War to the 1960s, Red Mountain's ore mines ceased production in 1970. While most mining facilities were abandoned or scrapped, this hoist serves as centerpiece for a variety of light industries now using the former Woodward Iron Co. site. Back Cover Illustration: Iron Pour, Desulphurizing Area, U. S. Pipe and Foundry Company, Bessemer, Jefferson County, AL-32-A-9, Jet Lowe, 1993. At its Bessemer plant, U. S. Pipe manufactures iron and pipe as it has since 1888, but now makes "duc tile" iron from scrap and alloys, not from the tradi tional blast furnace pig iron. Since the early 1900s, Birmingham has led the world in technological innovation and manufacture of foundry iron and pipe. The bright flash in this photograph results from chemical treatment of molten iron being prepared to make pipe.
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PREFACE
Industria l development began with the identification and mapping of the minerals underlying the five-county area that became known as the Birmingham District. Civil War demand for armament bolstered early industry. Soon after the war, entrepreneurs forged Birmingham from fortunate geology, new rail and water links and innovative technology, especially in foundry iron and pipe manufacture.
Following the explosive pig iron boom of the late-19th century, Birmingham emerged as the nation's leading foundry iron producer and the industrial capital of the South. Industry dominated the local economy until the 1960s. In 1930, one-half of all workers were employed in mining and manufacturing. Since World War II, indus trial employment has diminished here as elsewhere in the United States. Obsolete plants, foreign competition, changing markets and mandatory pollution control closed many facilities. Automation also contributed to the reduc tion of manufacturing jobs.
However, investment in new technologies and facilities as well as new uses of historic industrial sites have con tributed to Birmingham's continuing position as the South's premier industrial center. Birmingham remains the world center of ductile iron pipe production and a regional center of steel, coal, coke, foundry castings and transportation. While the Birmingham District — Jefferson, Shelby, Tuscaloosa, Walker and Bibb counties — is now diversified and mainly service-oriented, mining and manufacturing remain vital components of the economic base. High-skill manufacturing and mining employ 20 per cent of the Birmingham District work force. !•.•?* ' From 1992 to 1997, the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a division of the National Park Service, working with the Birmingham Historical Society, con ducted a multi-year survey of Birmingham's industrial resources creating a permanent record of significant indus trial, technological and architectural sites. This record, now part of the HAER Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., forms the data bank for this publication. Together with written histories and pho tographs, historians and architects produced measured and interpretive drawings as components of documentation. Field investigations as well as historic records contributed to this documentation. HAER also made more than 1,300 photographs at 185 sites and conducted full recording pro jects (histories, drawings and photographs) at 13 sites. HAER had recorded the Sloss Furnaces in 1976 prior to this effort. HAER's sister organization, the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), recorded nine sites not included in this publication. Aerial photographs were made from 1992 to 1994. The Society is pleased to show case this record of the Birmingham Industrial District.
Aerial View of Stockham Valves and Fittings, Inc. 's Main Plant on the Birmingham Cityscape with Red Mountain and the Sloss Furnaces (top left), AL-49-27, Jet Lowe, 1994. Conducting foundry operations from this site since 1918, the Stockham company has made pipe, valves and fittings for waste and water transmission and other industrial applica tions for almost 80 years.
TANNEHILL FURNA Tuscaloosa County, Alabama c
CHIMNEY (RECONSTRUCTION)
CHARGING BRIDG
Section Through No. 2 Blast Furnace 0 12 3 4 5
METERS \'4B
Of the three furnaces standing at Tannehill, the No. 2 furnace retains the highest degree of integrity. This stack was constructed of dry-laid sandstone blocks, without the support of iron binder rods which were typical in furnaces of this type. Although the front facade of the outer stack was severely damaged around 1925, it was rebuilt in 1986 and has been restored to its previous appearance. In an effort to stabilize the structure, the corbeled stone arches have beam fitted with angle-iron lintels.
The interior of the furnace has remained virtually untouched since it was put out of service in 1865, and recent excavations have revealed a well- preserved hearth area, including tuyere stones and a partially deteriorated tirnpstone. The damstone, complete with clay plug in the cinder notch, remains in situ. Although the bosh has collapsed, the inwall of the stack is intact, resting on cast iron mantle plates in the stone structure. Unlike the other two SCALE I/2 = I -0 furnaces on this site, the No. 2 furnace is lined with refractory sandstone instead of firebrick. All remaining interior surfaces, including the bottom surface of the tirnpstone, display a vitreous glaze caused by the action of hot gasses in the furnace. 0 u U S CM CES When Captain Sutherland arrived at Tannehill, he found the ironworks had recently been shutdown in apparent anticipation of his attack. Before the day was Si . 1865 done, his men put all three furnaces out of commission, blown up the overhead charging bridges, torn up the tramway to the Goethite Mines [brown ore mines] and set fire to the foundry and cast houses. — Jim Bennett, describing the Federal attack of 1865, Old Tannehill — A History of the Pioneer Ironworks in Roupes Valley 1829-1865, 1986.
Furnaces No. 1, 2 and 3 (left to right, blown in 1859, 1862, 1863) with Reconstructed E (RECONSTRUCTION) Sheds and Charging Bridges, Roupes Creek, Tannehill Historical State Park (established — 3 1969), Tuscaloosa County, AL-122-7, Jet Lowe, 1993. D —' Rescued from backwoods oblivion, the Tannehill Furnaces have been L^*PWW- reconstructed and complemented by a museum and associated structures $'" #^ of the late-19th century. The three stone furnaces form the centerpiece im0' of a 1,500-acre state park that attracts 400,000 visitors, annually. In the 1830s, Daniel Hillman began a forge, here, to sell iron products to farmers. Cotton planter and stock breeder Ninian Tannehill purchased this facility. Construction of Furnace No. 1 and a tramway to nearby brown ore mines upgraded operations in 1859. Three years later, the Confederate government built the "Double Furnaces" to provide pig iron for armament production at the Selma arsenal. A steam-powered engine blew a hot air s*. blast into the new furnaces, increasing the daily output at the site. During the final years of the Civil War, an estimated 600 slaves worked at _*9 Tannehill cutting and hauling wood, mining ore and feeding the furnaces. Eg 3 Built against a hillside, as iron furnaces had been constructed for centuries, b.fc o workers manually fed ore and charcoal into the top of the furnaces. They obtained charcoal to fire the furnaces and melt the ore by timbering *lilN^ adjacent forests and charring the wood in circular pits. Daily production STONE OUTER WALL averaged 20 tons. Ox teams hauled the iron 18 miles to the railhead at Montevallo for shipment to the Selma arsenal. MORTAR & RUBBLE FILL
STONE FURNA CE LINING
BOSH (Conjectural Location)
CAST IRON MANTLE PLA TE
CAST IRON LINTEL
DEBRIS
TUYERE
SALAMANDER
UPRIGHT
TIMPS TONE (Partially In tact) No. 1 Furnace Hearth (operated 18594865, 1976), AL-122-12, Jet Lowe, 1993. From this hearth, molten iron poured forth to make kettles and agricul CINDER NOTCH tural implements, shot and shell and souvenir ingots. On the final Federal DAMSTONE raid through Alabama, Major General J. H. Wilson's troops devastated I- is the state's armament industries and this furnace. Three companies of the o i - Eighth Iowa Cavalry under Capt. William A. Sutherland put it out of business on March 31, 1865. For the next 100 years, Tannehill remained Isometric Detail isolated and abandoned until concerned local citizens began its transfor mation as a state historical park. Furnace No. 1 was refired during No. 2 Furnace Hearth America's Bicentennial celebration in 1976. The last charge of 1865 iron still remains in the No. 2 Furnace hearth as recorded in the HAER drawing (left). 44 BILLY GOULD" COAL MINE AND COKE OVENS
SHELBY COUNTY, ALABAMA
During the American Civil War the Bridge Abutment Confederate government, pressured by the strategic needs of war, facilitated the development of the Cahaba coal field. This site contained one of several area mines begun at that time, having first gone into production in 1863. Originally operated by a partnership of Charles and Fred Woodson and William Gould, the mine was destroyed by Federal troops in 1865. The site was returned to production in 18S6 by the Cahaba Coal Company, the largest operator of coal mines in the area during the Reconstruction era.
, Significant features of this site include the remnant of a battery of twelve coke Ovens, which are among the oldest remaining coke ovens in Alabama.
This recording project Is part of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a long range program to document the engineering, industrial, and transportation heritage of the United States. The HAER program is administered by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic Ameri can Engineering Record Division (HA8S/HAER) of the National Park Service, U.S Department of the Interior. The Birmingham District Recording Project was cosponsored during the summer of 1992by HAER under the general direction of Dr. ' Robert J. Kapsch,. Chief of HABS/HAER and by the Birmingham Historical Society, Marjorie L White. Director. The HAER team was guided by the Birmingham District Advisory Committee, including KenPenhale.
The field work, measured drawings, historical reports and photographs were prepared under the direction of Eric DeLony, Chief of HAER and Project Leader; Robbyn Jackson, HAER Architect and Project Manager; Jack R. Bergstresser, Sr., Project Historian; and Craig Strong, Project Architect. The Roving Survey Team consisted of Kyle M. D'Agostino, Architect and Supervisor; Robert Martin and Catherine Kudlik, Architects; and J. Lewis Shannon, Jr.. Historian. Large format photography was produced by David Diesing. Architectural consulting by Richard K- Anderson, Jr. f*» •'•"*"'.' •
SECTION AA
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J "'-• I PLAN PLAN PARTIAL PLAN Foundation Remnant Steam Engine Foundation ® LJlJXJTjn_JTJl_jl_Jl_JlLrTJl_JlJ i1—®
MATERIALS: All features dry-set rough cut stone Threaded steel Not To Scale DETAILS rods embedded within Steam O S 10 20 Engine Foundation. I I L _ i ==Jr<2) SCALE: 1/8'- I'-O" FEET = i i 0 5 K 1 1 SCALE: (:16 METERS Coke Oven Retaining Wall DELiNt.TED.Y Robert Martin, Kyle M- D'Agostino and Catherine Kudlik, Summer 1992 Supervised By Craig Strong
RMINGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING BILLY GOULD COAL MINE a COKE OVENS SHEET HISTORIC AMERICAN PROJECT CONFLUENCE OF THE CAHABA RIVER AND BUCK CREEK ENGINEERING RECORD HELENA SHELBY COUNTY ALABAMA AL-16
IF REPRODUCED, PLEASE CREDIT HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. NAME OF DELINEATOR. DATE OF THE DRAWING uring the 1830s and 1840s, forges and furnaces at Tannehill, Brierfield and Shelby served . -•'•-, • mm Alabama's agricultural economy by producing iron for kettles, plows and other cast-iron goods. Shelby Ironworks established the state's first rolling mill in 1858 and manufactured iron plate. During the Civil War, the Confederate government put men and money into armament pro duction. The state's ironmaking expanded. Coal and ore mines opened. During 1864 and 1865, Alabama furnaces produced more iron than all other Southern states combined. Skilled slaves provided the labor.
Above: Base, Furnace No. 2 Ruins, Brierfield Ironworks, now part of Tannehill Historical State Park, Brierfield, Bibb County, AL-30-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. Hidden in Alabama's backwoods, the Confederacy's industrial infrastructure developed a unique rural character when it operated and, since then, the remains have formed spectacular ruins. After the Civil War, General Josiah Gorgas, former ordnance chief for the Confederacy, and his partners rebuilt the ironworks at Brierfield. Silent since the 1880s, these ruins now intrigue visitors and industrial historians. Brierfield's brick-walled blast furnace, built during Reconstruction, produced the first, large-scale runs of coke-produced pig iron in the state. The remaining brick furnace base marks the technolog ical transition between antebellum, charcoal-fired stone furnaces and modern, steel-jacketed, coke- fired furnaces.
Left: Coke Oven Ruins, Billy Gould Coal Mine, near Helena, Shelby County, AL-16-1, David Deising, 1992. Possibly the oldest remaining coke ovens in the United States, the Gould Ovens operated during the Civil War and may have provided coke for the 1870s Oxmoor experiments that proved Birmingham raw materials suitable for large-scale ironmaking. While most of Alabama's antebel lum iron was made with charcoal as the fuel, Confederate ironmasters experimented with coke- fired furnaces to increase furnace yields. Coke is made by slowly heating coal in the absence of air. What is left is almost pure carbon which burns white-hot in a blast furnace's forced-air draft.
ORE MINING
Rollowin g the Civil War, the close proximity of coal, ore and limestone attracted ironmakers and investors. In 1871, Southern entrepreneurs established Birmingham as the center of a mineral-rich district, one of the few places in the world where large quantities of these min erals lie in close proximity.
We halt here, and well we may, not only for the sake of the charming panorama of nature spread out before our vision, the aspect of peace and thrift as far as the eye can reach, but the majesty of the famous mountain looming up, the giant of the mighty future of a nation, the treasury from which endless streams of wealth were destined to flow, the shrine from which a war-ruined people were to draw new faith and help and strength, the Monarch whose edicts were to go forth over all the kind and over all the commerce of the seas! The liberal mother of a thousand furnaces and forges; the bank of a splendid city; for my readers, we stand in the presence of one of the great wonders of the world: THE RED MOUNTAIN. — Mary Gordon Duffee, The Weekly Iron Age, December 17, 1885.
Aerial View of the Red Mountain Ridge, Elevation 960 feet, Looking West at Vulcan Park atU. S. Highway 31 -20th Street (bottom left) along the Mineral Railroad Bed to Green Springs (top center) with Shades Valley and the Communities of Homewood and Oxmoor (left) and Birmingham's Southside Residential District and Jones Valley (right), Jefferson County, AL-29-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. Situated at the end of the Appalachian Mountain chain, Birmingham's distinctive topography is created by a series of parallel valleys and ridges aligned along northeast-south west axes. Red Mountain gained its name from outcrops of red iron ore once highly visible along its crest. Today, the colossal iron Vulcan atop his observatory column and park; television studios and transmitting towers; The Club, a din ing and meeting facility; and office towers line up along the mountain's ridge. The abandoned roadbed of the mineral railroad runs just beneath the ridge paralleling the valley in which Birmingham is located. VULCAN STATUE and PACU
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65; ^ LOCATION //VZJfX to PLANT MATERIALS Botanical Name Commor\ Name Key BIRMIN6HAM Carya sp. Hickory species Celtis sp. Hackberry Cornus florida Dogwood Juniperis sj. Juniper Liqutdambar styraciflua Liriodendro tuiipfei Melia azeda, Pinus palusl Populus del Prunus sp. Quercus sp. Rhododendron sp. Ulmus sp.
VULCAN STATUE AND PARK UTM Ref: 16.519010.3705620 (Statue pedestal) Based on Rand M°NalLv Road Atlas (19901 p. 5.
In 1903 the Birmingham Commercial Jub commissioned On • Vulcan statue %lor the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Deposition as a promh wit symbol of Birmingham's spirit tnd industry. > a six-month pvr'wd, It was led by Okiseppi Moretti, cast /ofBirminghan pig iron, and -Jd in St. Louisj a remarkable feat for the world's[largest cast uvnt oUosus. After tf Birmingham and its industrial district. and Associates, Inc. under an agree The pedestal, walls, steps and ment with the Historic American pools were constructed of locally Engineering Record (HAER), MABS/ quarried sandstone and won ore. HAER Division, National Park Ser The park incorporated the drift vice, as part of a bong-range pro of Lone Pine Mine NQ3 anda por gram to document industrial, tech- tion of the Birmingham Mineral noiogioaland transportation sites Railroad bed. This site plan significant to United States'his shows the monument, park, and tory. This drawing was based on surroundings c.1939. Landscaping research performed by Matthew appears to have been limited Kierstead (HAER'historian) Marjori* originally to a terraced lawn and L. White and Brenda Howeu, (Birming Srm Red Mountain Formation: fine Alabama; strata named in qu the retention of aeleoted pre ham Historical Society;Joel Eliason SITE SECTIONS grained sandstone...including tions based on "Red Mounts existing trees. (Nimrod Longs'Associates),-and on nematitk, beds and beds of ProfUe" in Birmingham Wat site work by Richard K. Anderson, Jr. Mtfp Tuscumbia Limestone and Fort ferruginous sandstone. Works Co. Plan of Red Mour The Vulcan Statue and Park Record (industrial archeology consultant), Payne Chert undifferentiated Tunnel and Montgomery High ing Project was sponsored by the Lewis Shannon, and Craig N. Strong Dcfm Chattanooga Shale and Frog Oc Chickamauga Limestone July, 1934. Vulcan monument Cify of Birmingham, the Birmingham (HAER Architect). Jet Cowe made Mountain Sandstone undif Mtfp/Dcfm/Srm/Oc stratigraphy based on original Warren. Kn. Historical Society, and'Nimrodlong the format HAER photographs. ferentiated based on 1988 6eolooic Map of and Davis elevation, 1936. PROMOTING BIRMINGHAM 1 < %0 u U t g 19(»4. 193U lit ihithis drawing of Vulcan Park is both documentary and inter h pretive. It captures in one image the statue of Vulcan and its symbolic placement in a prominent park setting over the iron ore vein that supplied Birmingham's early industry. Boosters who created Vulcan to represent Birmingham's essential metal indus trial might at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair championed his 0*00 installation atop Red Mountain in this 1930s park. In this highly visible location on the ridge overlooking the city, Vulcan promptly became a major visitor destination. — Philip A. Morris, Vulcan & His Times, 1995. lOS 0>£ 2R £• °° Aerial View, Vulcan Statue Atop His 1970s Observatory Tower, Vulcan Park, Overlooking Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-29-14, Jet Lowe, March, 1993. A series of photogrammetric aerial views was taken as part of HAER documentation for use in executing measured draw MS ings of the statue. Cracks in Vulcan caused by the expansion of concrete poured inside the statue to help anchor it to the pedestal present challenges for future conservation efforts. >o IS 3) 50'railroad bridge Spanning 5) "Bk a- 20th Street (dashed) erectedin t not field checked; projection North Entrance, Vulcan Park, View Looking Southeast from the Mineral 45 U Railroad Bed, AL-29-8, Jet Lowe, 1993. The native stone of the 1930s-era park fits superbly with the natural landscaping. This staircase leads both to the portal of Lone Pine Mine No. 3, actively mined in 1907 (left center), and to the visitor center, built during the 1969-71 moderniza ota- tion of the park (top left). This modernization created new Too feed their furnaces, Birmingham District firms built the nation's third-largest concentration of red ore mines. Beginning during the Civil War, the earliest mines at Helen Bess and Eureka opened to supply the furnaces then located at sites in today's Mountain Brook and Oxmoor areas. During the 1880s and 1890s, ironmakers discovered that Red Mountain ore, when "sweetened" with brown ore, produced superb foundry iron. With special processing, it could also produce good steel. Along Red Mountain, these firms opened more than 100 red ore mines. From Vulcan Park to Bessemer, mines entered the ore seams along the mountain's northern face following the seams under the Shades Valley floor. The abandoned roadbed of the L. & N. Birmingham Mineral Railroad extends from Irondale at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center to Bessemer running along the northern flank of Red Mountain just below Vulcan Park. Part of a 156-mile loop that circled the city by 1889, the railroad linked mines to furnaces and indus trial plants in Jones Valley below. Sections near Vulcan and Ruffner provide hiking trails with dramatic mining ruins and city views. by the City of Birmingham, the Birmingham Historical Society, and Nif, trod long and Associates, Tncunderan , _ HistorL; American Engineering Record (HAER}HABS/HA£R Division, 7) Possible Boiler House site (**U Natioml Park Service, as part of a pipe casing and firebrick re long-ra nge program to document mains noted here in 4993) industi ial, technological and trans portatlon sites significant to 8) Pump House (concrete block SOURCES- "MapcfCentrallron&CoKe United States'history. Wis drawn structure not associated with Come anyjs Red Ore Mine atValley View. iyaf bayed en research perfbrme* mine) Ala.i wT.Burke. 6-10*3", &urtesyef by J. Lewis Shannon, jrfmAER 9) Seabed mine drift; zYz"diam. dare Iceandrlpoert Blair, BVacKDia- historian); Marjorie L. white and bronze medallion reads "Ala mond CoalCp.; underground work- Brenda Howell(Birmingham Histori [bama][Abandoned Mine Lands pear "The Club* derived from cal Sot J6ty): Joel tudson (Nimvd i borings conducted by around long ar d'Associates^a'ncion site r r^vv r4E*t vw(F r^ *< Engii tearing \& Testing Service, Inc.; - c work b\' Richard K Anderson, Jr. Drift may have been opened Blrm >ngham, Alabama for warren, (indust rlal archeology consultant), c.1904/ "-•-^A Davis, "------"""• to . Lowis «5 Hannrtn annirAin hLStrono 10) Typical surface subsidence pit w of Rot (HAER, Architect) with permission caused by collapsed drift rvin* no. (sttcc from "The Club" to enter the site. anscf".The Club"based on 11) Stippled areas show under- „ isfbrpaparking facilities by Lewis Shannon wrote the HAER , ground workings mapped by June , Knight i Hi'^f'/V'Jlf'Jt/ XtHWr^- 1**+ tr*i**> tytjtof~fa, I 10/ 1923. RED MOUNTAIN Aerial View of the Woodward House (built 1919-1925, given to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1969), Residence of the LAB President, Altamont Road (bottom right) atop Red Mountain, Looking Southwest to Shades Valley, the BirmingJiam Country Club (top left) and Shades Mountain, Jefferson County, AL-29-1 Jet Lowe, 1993. The shift from industrial extraction to urban development began in 1906 when a local firm, Jemison & Company, hired noted landscape architects to lay out residential areas along Red Mountain's slopes. By the late 1920s, these sub divisions — originally known as Mountain Terrace, Forest Park, Valley View, Altamont Parkway, Redmont Park, Country Club Estates and Mountain Brook Estates — extended along the slopes and crest of the mountain (bottom left to center right) through Shades Valley to the northern slope of Shades Mountain. Major ore deposits along the ridge were removed in advance of residential development. Atop Red Mountain's crest, the barons of iron, steel and coal built great mansions. Just below the crest, the Altamont Parkway, a mile-long scenic drive built in the 1910s, affords the general public magnificent views of the industrial city below. The 36-acre Woodward Estate, built by Allen Harvey "Rick" and Annie Jemison Woodward, includes a 22-room Italian Revival-style stucco residence, guest house, servants' buildings, gardens, terraces and drives. World War I delayed construction when red ores located beneath the residence were mined for wartime use. Woodward ran Woodward Iron Company, a major local foundry iron producer, and supported the construction of a ballpark, Rickwood Field. Built in 1910, Rickwood is the world's oldest baseball grandstand. Buildings have helped shape the appearance and character of Birmingham. But man's response to the powerful topography of the region, to the wealth of trees and plants that thrive in its climate, and to the lure of a Garden City aesthetic have profoundly influenced Birmingham's developing form. Where a structure impresses with height or mass at the scale of a city block, a development plan prepared by a landscape architect can shape an entire ridge top or valley. This design [George Miller's design for the Altamont Parkway and residential lots], above all others, affects people's physical impression of the city because it sited residences of the barons of iron and steel and industry along the crest of Red Mountain directly overlooking the city center. — Philip A. Morris, Marjorie L. White, DESIGNS ON BIRMINGHAM, 1989. RED MOUNTAIN MINING OPERATIONS Jefferson County, Alabama Mop Not To Scale The development of the Birmingham Industrial District was Just as the geology of the district provided for the growth This recording project was undertaken by the Historic based on the proximity of iron ore, coal, and limestone, all of industry, the composition of the mineral resources American Buildings Survey /Historic American Engineering of the raw materials necessary to produce iron and steel. shaped and controlled the industry that evolved. High in Record (HABS/HAER) of the National Park Service, This geological rarity produced an industrial model that was phosphorus, the ore in the district was well-Suited for iron Department of the Interior as part of a long-range program vertically integrated; that is, individual corporations owned castings, but presented metallurgical problems to to document historically, significant architecture, all the means of production, from the mining of raw economical conversion to steel. Mining methods were engineering and industrial works in the United States. The materials to the marketing of finished products. On this determined b y the nature of the seams. Part of the Clinton roving HAER Team recording project was cosponsored basis, the Birmingham District became an industrial center Formation, the Red Mountain seams are stratigraphically- during the Summer of 1993 by HAER under the direction of national stature, providing merchant pig iron, foundry boundsedimentary deposits, containing numerous folds and of Dr. Robert J. Kapsch, Chief of HABS/HAER, and by the products, and steel to world markets. faults. Cropping out at the surface near the crest of Red Birmingham Historic Society, Marjorie Whits, Director. The Mountain, the seams slope down to the southeast. This Birmingham District HAER Advisory Committee served this The genesis of this industry was in the availability of iron outcropping became the focus of Birmingham ore mining recording project. Assistance was provided by Jack ore in the Red Mountain Formation. In the early stages of for most of the history of the industry. Bergstresser, the United Land Company, and the exploitation of this resource, the iron and coal industries Birmingham Public Library. developed independently. It was not until 1876, with the Beginning in the 1840's, when a local landowner first first successful reduction of Red Mountain ores in a blast shoveled ore into wagons from an outcropping, and ending The field work, measured drawings, historical reports, and furnace fired by locally-produced coke, that the two in 1970 with the closing of the last ore mine in the district, photographs were prepared under the direction of Eric N. industries were completely joined. This event marked the the industry of the area spanned the evolution of modern DeLony, Chief of HAER, and Craig Strong, HAER Architect; beginning of large scale, systematic development of the mining technology. Consequently, the mining practices Paul Do/insky, Chief of HABS, and Joseph Balachowski, resources of the district. Iron ore mining became a employed reflected a progression toward larger scale, more HABS Architect; and Catherine Lavoie, HABS Historian. prominent feature of the industrial landscape of the area, highly mechanized operations. Each development in mining The recording team consisted of John White, Architect and and would remain so for nearly one hundred years. By the operations provided access to larger quantities of ore, with overall Project Supervisor, Eirik Heintz, individual Team middle of the twentieth century, the Birmingham District greater rates of productivity. Ultimately, however, these Supervisor; Architectural Technicians Adam Campagna and had become the third largest producer of hematite iron ore advances were insufficient to overcome the flaws in the ore Csilla Dekany HCOMOS), and archeologist Martin Peebles. in the United States; and before the industry closed, area seams, and the ore mining industry of the area succumbed The historical reports were produced by J. Lewis Shannon, mines had produced over 600 million long tons of ore. to higher grade, imported ores. Jr. Formal photography was produced by Jet Lowe. I HelntI a Martin P««bl«» I995 Supervised by Craig Strong HISTORIC AMERICAN I6HAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT RED MOUNTAIN IRON ORE MINING ENGINEERING RECORD BHMIN8HAM VICINITY JEFFERSOh COUNTY AL- Z3 Aerial View of TCI-LJ. S. Steel Ishkooda Red Ore Mining Camp (mines active 1862-1955), Looking East to the BirmingJiam Skyline, Jefferson County, ALA 19-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. In the early 1900s, the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company (TCI, later a division of U. S. Steel) built the Ishkooda ore mining camp with its rows of identical houses set on ample lots, and conveniently located adjacent to deposits of minerals being extracted. Typical of major mining and manufacturing companies of the times, TCI supplied jobs, houses, churches, schools and a commissary for miners and their fami lies. In 1952, TCI sold the camp houses to residents. Once mining activity ceased, Ishkooda became a suburban neighborhood. For the mining industry, construction of company camps was an absolute necessity, given the mines' temporary character, isolation and the need for a steady labor force. B)> the late 1880s, ore mining camps dotted the slopes of Red Mountain from Reader's Gap South of Bessemer to Ruffner Mountain northeast of today's Eastwood Mall. All major furnace companies — TCI, Sloss, Woodward, Republic Steel — and several smaller contracting firms had operations and camps on Red Mountain. — Marjorie L. White, The Birmingham District - An Industrial History and Guide, 1981. SLOSS ORE MINE No. 2 Jefferson County, Alabama c. 1951 Boiler House Ho[st House \ \ \ \ '*. '/? ""» 7" "/. Spur i i -,t-3~- I I i \ i RaiLCaiMmd Conveyor '^^^Pfde^Primajy^Crusher Mine Car Haul „ - J '-T' ^—--r • •"•• • Foundation —-•-"/ ^^k*Mine ^ Portal Hoist House No. 2 *b -'' ,i*' :;:/;... Manway NORTH Site P/aw o/ Sfoss Afo. 2 Map based on survey by Panamerican Consultants, Inc., historical maps and visual inspection of the site. The dotted lines indicate possible location of previously existing features. See HAER field notebooks for an annotated list of sources. 0 5 10 20 30 FEET 1/16" = Elevation of Mine Portal METERS I 192 \L* For seventy years the Sloss mines provided red hematite iron ore for the blast furnaces of the Sloss-Sheffie/d Steel and Iron Co. Developed as slope mines on the northwest side of Red Mountain, these mines overlooked the city of Bessemer, AL. Sloss No. 1, begun in 1889, was the most productive mine along Red Mountain by 1900. It was joined in 1890 by Sloss No.2, which operated until 1959. Bordered by the mines of the Woodward Iron Co. and the T.C.I, division of U.S. Steel, the Sloss mines were within a continuous series of ore mines which stretched roughly eight miles from Graces Gap to Readers Gap. This series of mines was capable of extracting over eight mi/lion gross tons of ore per year, and comprised the most productive section of the Red Mountain ore mining industry. The surface plant at Sloss No 2 was typical of the slope mines along Red Mountain. Ore cars were hoisted from underground headings up the main slope and onto a tipple, where they were weighed and dumped into a crusher • which discharged the ore into rail cars Theperiod of operation of SlossNo.2 spanned a variety of technologies, which sometimes overlapped. Although the mine equipment, including main hoist and ore crusher, was converted from steam to electric power in 1920, mules were used underground to tram Hoist House Section ore cars to the main slope as late as 1941 The dotted lines indicate possible location of previously existing features. See HAER field notebooks for an annotated list of sources. METERS tiZ <-.*».» Csillo Dekanv 1993 Supervised by Craig Strong iRMINGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT SLOSS RED ORE MINE No. 2, c.1951 CAST Of KITH STREET lEISEHEfl JEFFER3QH COWTY w PYNE MINE • HEADFRAME Jefferson County, Alabama c.1942 OFFICE BOILER HOUSE TOOL SHED BULL WHEELS MAIN HOIST HOUSE FOUNDATIONS WHEEL FOUNDA TIONS (Wheels and Hardware Have Been Removed! As the easily accessible ore deposits along Red Mountain were depleted, iron companies were forced to mine ore ever farther underground. Longer haulages, complicated by irregularities in the ore seam, drastically increased production costs. The solution was the sinking of vertical shafts, intercepting the ore seam "down dip", beyond the developed mine workings. Pyne mine, operated by the Woodward Iron Co., represents this final stage of iron ore mining in the Birmingham District. This shaft mine was located in Shades Valley, 2 miles southeast of the ore outcrop. In 1918 the Woodward Co. began work on the Pyne shaft to help meet wartime demands for iron production. But as the 1,300 foot, concrete-lined shaft was completed, the need for ore dropped off, and the mine lay idle until it was again needed in 1942. At that time a new surface plant was built, incorporating a large head frame and two mine hoists; one for ore skips and one for double-decked cages transporting men and materials. As operations at Pyne expanded, productivity of the mine held a narrow margin of economy over richer imported ores. Innovative mining practices, a high degree of mechanization, and the creative use of nearby worked-out mines made Pyne one of the most productive iron ore mines in the United States. Production MINE SHAFT OPENING there continued after all other ore mines in the (Flooded) district had been forced to close. But water problems plagued the mine, and the encounter of a major thrust fault in 1970 terminated mining operations, thus ending the ore mining Pyne Mine Headframe industry in the Birmingham District -•.Adam Cqmpoang 1993 Supervised by Craig Strong BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT HISTORIC AMERICAN PYNE RED ORE MINE, HEADFRAME, 1942 NGINEEMING RECORD HISHUMV 160 SOUTHEAST OF BESSEMEfl JEFFER90N COUNTY AL-28-A RUFFNER No. 2 MINING OPERATIONS Jefferson County, Alabama c. 1950 n -. 7.1 Mine Portal - ore cars were brought up 'the mam slope, which follows the ore /seam underground. 2 Hoist- 1929 Hardie Tynes hoist hauls 'Hoist House McCully No. 8 y up "trips" of mine cars, which were Gyratory Crusher 2 switched to the side track and Foundation ~- allowed to coast to scales and tipple. 3. Scale - measured and recorded weight of ore cars as they passed. 4 Tipple - rotary car dumper, emptied "'. two cars at a time Ore was directed to conveyor belt to crusher. For rock cars, a flap gate would close off the ••/•••// ore chute, directing the rock to a .separate conveyor ,"' •">• I /;•• 5. Crusher - McCully No. 8 gyratory rbreaker, capable of crushing between / 100 and 180 tons of ore per hour, 1 reduced the size of the lumps of ore. •:,.i // // 16. Ore Conveyor - carried crushed ore to ••','''\ Mine Porta! h"' 7 Heavy Media Benification Plant - •:r-4 m concentrated marginal ores, increasing] • the iron content before transport to // company blast furnaces. d^ Man way \\ / / Crusher Elevation - h HI/ 0 I 2 ^4 5 :;i ; • ••'ii //* FEET 3/B"= I'-O" / : ll // ::•• in" METERS I •• 32 . .,"• • i .i.i. • i *..!•'••:. •• " i II • •:. Rock I.I, II II Conveyor Bin Crusher ^ .Scale Foundation r-'ll "Ore /5^"""^J- ^Tipple II Bin j j I '. i V IIII Motor House ••, J i Hi //// /// oOi. ,', nil ' Power Shaft ., //// Opening ?///// :<;'/ // Bevel Gear "--' -i ,-' Bins- i Crusher Detail _£ 3 4 5 *W If FEET 3/4" * |'- 0" 100 150 CENTIMETERS I 16 Heavy Media Plant 5 Crusher Site Plan of Ruffner No. 2 Map based on survey by Panamerican Consultants, Inc., historical maps and visual METERS 1,300 inspection of the site. The dotted lines indicate possible location of previously existing features. See HAER field notebooks for an annotated list of sources. Site Section Not To Scale lortin Peebles 1993 Supervised by Craig Strong HISTORIC AMERICAN JIGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT RUFFNER RED ORE MINE N. DF I 20 AT THE OPORTO-II AOfllD EXIT ENGINEERING RECORD AL- 27 BIRMINGHAM JEFFERSON COUNTY Above: Aerial View, Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. Abandoned Limestone Quarries and Railroad Right of Way, now Ruffner Mountain Nature Center (established 1978), on Red Mountain, Birmingham, Jefferson County, Looking Southeast to Norfolk Southern's Norris Yards at Irondale, AL-27-5, Jet Lowe, 1993. Former mining reserves at Ruffner that provided ore and limestone to the Sloss City Furnaces serve, today, as a 538-acre nature preserve. Just minutes from the Birmingham city center, visitors can follow wooded trails punctuated with industrial ruins. Last timbered in the 1950s, Ruffner's protected forest supports maturing stands of oak, hickory and pine and abundant wildlife. **r?'ff-w*^," Right: McCully No. 8 Gyratory Crusher Ruins, Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. Ruffner Red Ore Mine No. 2 (active 1880s-1950s), Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-27-2, Jet Lowe, 1993. Typical above-ground mining operations included hoists, tipples, crushers and conveyors to process the ore for transport to nearby ironmaking plants. Crushers broke the ore into sizes required for ironmaking. Today, imported ores as well as scrap iron and steel are used for iron and steelmaking. RAILROADS aurin g the late-19th and early-20th centuries, railroad construction spurred the Birmingham District's growing iron and steel industry. By 1900, 11 trunk railroads and 8 short lines served Birmingham linking mines to mills and the District to markets across the nation. Railroads moved everything from iron ore to massive machinery. Established at the crossing of two major lines, Birmingham grew as the center for transportation of goods and people. Today, Birmingham is served by four interstate railroads (CSX, Norfolk Southern, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Kansas City Southern-KSC) and three local industrial lines (the Birmingham Southern, Fairfield Southern and Jefferson Warrior railroads). I'd rather be out in the woods on the back of a fox-trot ting mule with a good seam of coal at my feet than be president of the United States! Ah, there's nothing like taking a wild piece of land, all rock and woods, ground not fit to feed a goat on — and turning it into a settlement of men and women; making payrolls; bringing the railroads in; starting things to going Nothing like boring a hillside through and turning over a mountain! That's what money's for! I like to use money as I use a horse to ride! — Birmingham industrial developer, Henry DeBardeleben in Ethel Armes,The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama, 1910. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company came to Birmingham's rescue during the city's darkest days, and without its solid support none of the coal and iron achievements could have come to fruition. R. M. Rawls, editor of the Athens Courier, saluted the L. & N.'s cooperative spirit when he bestowed the title 'Old Reliable' upon the railroad in an 1884 editorial. The name stuck and would forever identify the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. The L. & N. continued to nurture Birmingham District coal and iron industries and saw its profits spiral upward as the mines prospered. — Wayne Cline, Alabama Railroads, 1997. Aerial View of the CSX (Louisville and Nashville) Railroad Boyles Yard (established 1904, new yard built 1957 - 1959), Looking Northeast, AL-81-A-4, Jet Lowe, 1994. Trunk railroads still maintain active shops and yards at Boyles, East Thomas, Irondale and Tuscaloosa. The Birmingham Southern, Jefferson Warrior and other local industrial lines operate additional facilities. At the Boyles classification yard, train cars arriving from varying locales are sorted to make up trains for various destinations in the city and elsewhere. Inset: Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF, formerly Frisco) Railroad, East Thomas Yard (opened 1908), Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-67-4, Jet Lowe, 1993. In this time-lapsed photograph, a coal train enters the East Thomas yard where freight is arranged and piggyback containers are transferred to and from trucks. Birmingham is the Eastern terminus for the BNSF. From East Thomas, goods can be shipped virtually coast to coast without off-loading. To Decator rrfjlf^ "'••fyr.ypj. Original Builders 1. Alabama & Chattanooga 1. GREAT NORTHERN 2. South & North Alabama 2 UNION PACIFIC 3 ATCHISON, TOREK A 3. Kansas City, Fort Scott, & SANTA FE & Memphis 4. SOUTHERN PACIFIC 4. Illinois Central 5. ILLINOIS CENTRAL 5. Central of Georgia 6. LOUISVILLE 6. Atlanta, Birmingham, 4 NASHVILLE 7 NEW YORK CENTRAL & A tlantic 3. PENNSYLVANIA 7. Mobile & Ohio Q BAL TIMORE & OHIO 6. Georgia Pacific to. SOUTHERN 9. Seaboard Air Line 11. ATLANTIC COAST 10. Alabama & Tennessee LINE ALABAMA Rivers Transcontinental Railroads Birmingham's beginnings date to 1871, when the Alabama, & Chattanooga Railroad (later the Alabama. Great Southern) and the South S. North Alabama Railroad (later the Louisville A Nashville Railroad) intersected in Jones Valley. The mountains created an engineering challenge for these first two trunk railroads. Their mineral resources provided a continued incentive for other railroads to follow. The railroads' presence, which required the construction of numerous bridges, trestles, and tunnels, is a testimony to the value of the Birmingham District's mineral and industrial wealth. This recording project is part of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a long range program to document the engineering, industrial and transportation heritage of the United States. The HAER program is administered by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Division (HABS/HAER) of the National Park Service, US. Department of the Interior. The Birmingham District Recording Project was cosponsored during the summer of 1192 by HAER under the general direction of Dr. Robert J. Kapsch, Chief of HABS/HAER and by the Birmingham Historical Society, Marjorie L White, Director. The HAER • team was guided by the Birmingham District Advisory Committee, including Elliott M. General Inform Hughes III, Robert Yuill, Robert Crowder, and William Boone. This map is based on c provided by U. S. Geol The field work, measured drawings, historical reports and photo See HAER historical i graphs were prepared under the direction of Eric DeLony, Chief sources. of HAER and Project Leader- Robbyn Jackson, HAER Architect and Project Manager; Jack R. Bergstresser, Sr., Project Historian; and Craig Strong. Project Architect. The recording team consist edof Mark M Brown, Supervisor; and Scott C. Brown, Historian. Nichole Duren served as team Architect. Formal photography was done by David Diesing. Additional consultation was provided Birmingham District 191C by Richard K. Anderson, Jr. Right: Big End of Main and Eccentric Rods with Eccentric Crank, Norfolk Southern Steam Locomotive No. 611 (1950), Steam Restoration Program (1981- 1995), Norfolk Southern Norris Yards, Irondale, Jefferson County, AL-38-9, Jet Lowe, 1993. Drive shafts powered the wheels of the giant steam locomotives that served as the workhorses of rail transport. Built by the Norfolk and Western Railway (now Norfolk Southern) Roanoke Shop, the streamlined 611 can pull a 15-car passenger train at 110 mph across level terrain. The 611 is so well designed, several men can pull it with a single rope. 8 ngham i Station •3 S 5 fe *Z>i •&. \CT\ ''sham & AtianW .-•' \& J & c CO a LOCKS & DAMS 1 ince 1915, the Warrior River also provided ) access to markets for coal and other heavy '2f/£/7 I commodities. U. S. Congressman and Senator Irawinqs and historical records John Hollis Bankhead, Sr., from Jasper, ogicaf Survey, 1964and USX. •eport for an annotated list of secured federal funds to finance the initial 17 locks and dams. Construction began in 1888 and continued until 1915. £ i Today, the 455-mile channelized waterway ) serves as a year-round transportation route, linking District industries to the world through the port of Mobile and to mid- America through nearly 16,000 miles of inland waterways, part of the Warrior- Tombigbee system. Now a series of locks and lakes, the Wareior Right: Aerial View of Holt Lake River also serves to generate electric power. (bottom) and Lock and Dam (built Just to the right, but not pictured in the pho 1966-68 to replace an earlier lock), Warrior River, Near Tuscaloosa, tograph, is Alabama Power Company's Holt Tuscaloosa County, AL-22-3, Jet Hydroelectric Generating Plant, opened in Lowe, 1994. 1966. Electricity cannot be stored. To produce it simultaneously with demand, lakes store vast amounts of water in their reservoirs above the dams. The 3,200-acre Holt Lake (pic tured) extends 19 miles north from the Holt Dam to the Bankhead Lock and Dam. General Informs.tion This map is based on drawings and historical records provided by Birmingham Southern Railroad Company and USX. See HAER historical report for an annotated list of sources. J Bayview r\ YW^V-;V%£ p Docena —*Sayreton <£ AerialView, TCI-U. S. Steel High-Line Railroad (Active 1920s-1960s), Looking Southeast Over the Historic Sheet Mill (now Polymer Coil Coaters) and the Flint Ridge Yard, AL-86-3, Jet Lowe, 1993. \ C\ \ <5, \ Diversification and expansion of the Fairfield works in the early 1920s included construction of the 4.2-mile High-Line railroad from the ore mines on Red Mountain to the blast furnaces at Fairfield, eliminating all grade crossings. The standard trip from the ore preparation plant at Wenonah to Fairfield was 25 minutes. A 1995 Birmingham Regional Planning Commission study projects the High-Line as a future pedestrian rail-trail. Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum Historic Rolling Stock including a Saddle-Tank Switch Engine (built in 1910), a Woodward Iron Company Engine No. 38 and Tender (1924, acquired by Woodward in the 1930s) and a Pullman Sleeper Car, 1800 Block, Powell Avenue, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-41-2, Jet Lowe, 1993. Several local railroads were specifically built to carry raw materials and freight. In 1882, Woodward Iron Company completed the earliest local railroad, thereby integrating its mining and blast furnace operations. These steam engines shuttled ore and coal and other materials from mine Birmingham 1 to mill and about the plants. u u IS: t Montgomery 1 w f > o < o tc -J < I- o E e i- co . a w s < X Mineral Deposits in Northern Alabama (9 z z Coal Red Iron Ore &fown iron Ore BC a ID Common Carriers Birmingham Belt Birmingham Mineral Railroads have been central to the transport of freight and the Birmingham Southern inexpensive assembly of raw materials for Birmingham's iron and Graces Gap steel industry. Two of the earliest shortlines — small common Warrior River Terminal carriers — in the region were those of the Shelby Iron Works (not shown), built in 1865, and the Pratt Coal Company, built in Private Carriers 1878. The latter has grown to become the Birmingham Southern Railroad — the region's largest shortline common carrier. -i-i- Mary Lee T.C.I. Common carriers, such as the Birmingham Southern or the —— Republic Iron & Steel Louisville and Nashville (L & N) Railroad's Birmingham Mineral Railroad, provided their services to other companies Private 1-, oor Woodward Iron Company railroads, such as S/oss-Sheffie/d Iron and Steel Company's Mary Lee Railroad, transported freight solely for their owners. Cf> s Trunk Lines (Selected) The Birmingham Mineral Railroad was the result of an active 1 " Louisville & Nashville policy of the L & N to sell mineral lands and extend rail CO —« Alabama Great Southern connections to industrial enterprises in order to generate freight traffic on its fines. The resulting Birmingham Mineral Railroad O 1.5 4.5 Ml. ultimately formed an approximately fifty mile loop linking both try Red Mountain ore and the Warrior coal mines to manufacturing facilities around Jones Valley and its center at Birmingham. 0 0.5 1 4 KM The close proximity of the raw materials required for the manufacture of pig iron is a distinctive feature of the Birmingham Mineral District. This proximity made full integration of operations possible for firms like the Woodward Iron Company t; and the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (T.C.I.). district • 1930 Private railroads reached the peak of their development in the Birmingham District with the construction of T.C.I, 's elevated, or high Line, railroad in 1 ^24. t-Vrin'S USGS 7.5 min. Carbon Hill, AL quadrangle —{— USGS 7.5 min. Nauvoo, AL quadrangle Scale: J"=500'-0" (1:6000) 5,000 Feet 10,000 ± ± ± 1,000 1.0 Mile 2.000 Meters 3,000 2.0 Miles —I Thii map shows the William Cook House (1917), Black Creek Coal Company and Dtepwater Black Creek Coal Company mines and tht surrounding geography and geology. The base map in the 1930s are designated by their last names. No . establishing topography, roads, buildings and strip mines is derived from the USGS 7.5 minute Carton Hill, Alabama quadrangle (1967 edition, photortt/ised in 1983) and the USGS the location of mining activity at the Black Creek Co, 7.5 minute Nauvoo, Alabama quadrangle (1949 edition, photorevised in 1981). The underground workings of the Black Creek Coal Company Mine are based on a ca. 1915 drawing titled "The Alabama Coal Operator's Map of 1907" shews "Nauvoo No.l Mine, Black Creek Coal Company, Nauvoo, Alabama, Section 20, Township 12 South, Range 9 West, Scale 1"=200\ A.H. Witt, Eng'r." The underground workings of the superintendent fir the Nos. 1 & 2 Mines until his de. Deepwater Black Creek Mines are based on a ca.1955 drawing titled"Map of Mines No's. 7,8 & 9 of Deepwater Black Creek Coal Co. in Sections 22,23,26 & 27 Twp. 12 So., R.9 W. Hill map, hence its right of way to Mine No. 1 is urn. Navuoo (Walker Co.) Alabama. USGS Datum 1903, Scale: 1 in. = 100 Ft." Coal outcroppings in the immediate area of the Deepwater mine are also derived from this map. Other two portals around which structures were probably lot outcropptngs are derived from a 29x enlargement of" Map of the Warrior Coal Basin with Columnar Sections of Formation, so far as it carries Workable Coals" by Henry McCalley, Assistant State Geologist, 1898; the placement accuracy of outcrops on this map may be no better than +/- 75 feet. Outcrops were not field checked. The identities of individual mine surface structures This map, along with measured drawings, a historici at the Deepwater mines are derived from a l4"x22" sketch map "Deepwater Black Creek Coal Company Around 1930" by Howard Adkins, Jasper, Alabama, 1994. Residents of some houses by the Birmingham Historical Society under the direc (tfp IN MIGRATION a*y 1902, Alabama mines produced 10 million tons of » 5 steam, gas, blacksmith and coking coal and furnace and I « • j foundry coke. The pig iron industry consumed 42 percent of this total. Growing southern manufacturing interests such as cotton, oil, rice and rolling mills, cotton compressors, foundries and sugar refineries made up another part of the market for the large and increasing output. — Marjorie L. White, The Birmingham District: An Industrial History and Guide, 1981. Blacks and whites from poverty-stricken rural areas provided the majority of the labor that built the Birmingham District. The 1910 census also lists immi grants to Birmingham from 28 different countries. Such a large foreign population was unusual in the South. Henry McCalley, reporting to the Alabama Geological Survey in 1886, stated that among miners to be seen at the Pratt Mines were "Americans (principally natives), Germans, Irish, Welsh, English, Swedes, French, Scots, Austrians, Swiss, Bavarians and Africans (principally natives)." In the late-19th century, mining firms recruited laborers from Eastern Europe. I ID o t O ! § •••jo o -3 s 9 < . 3 , Corrrpany Urtdergrpu _ Exterior Overview of Setting Showing Front Lawn and Front (East) and Side (South) Elevation, William Cook House (1917), Nauvoo, Walker LACK C County, AL-912-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. COAL COMPANY A Scottish immigrant coal miner's successful ventures allowed Np.7,8 &..9 (1926-193^ ( him to build a comfortable home for his family. One of few remaining mine superintendent houses, the Cook House retains its architectural integrity and setting on substantial acreage adjacent to an abandoned mine. Several Alabama coal firms - Black Creek Coal Company, Monro-Warrior Coal Company, Deepwater Coal and Iron Company - operat ed this mine from 1896 to 1927 and during World War II. Built from Queen Anne-style patterns by local craftsmen with J^£ «B local materials, the residence remains in Cook-family owner .\S ,\ 1—L_i i ^. , '. ship. Filled with furnishings and memorabilia, the homeplace 457 458 opens to the public for special events. Married at Loanhead Church, Ayrshire, Scotland, onMay 13, 15, 000 20,000 1887, William and Jeanie Cook sailed aboard the S. S. 4,000 3.0 Miles 5.000 6.000 Anchoria on July 7 of that year. They came to the United 1 States seeking economic opportunity and quality of life for their family and succeeded beyond their dreams through working dili information in the Adkins map was field checked. The Deepwater mines opened in 1926. but no records have been found which pinpoint il Co. (later Deepwater Black Creek and Brooksuk Pratt) Mine No.2 (active 1896-1928 and from World War 11 mto the 1950s) gently. In the United States, they traveled to Pennsylvania, this mine to the west of the Southern Railway (now Norfolk Southern). William Cook (1862-1923) served as mine foreman and Tennessee, Abbamaand Oklahoma, workingin the coalfields. ith. The railroad branch to the Black Creek Coal Company mine extant on the Nauvoo quadrangle map does not continue onto the Carbon letermined. No contemporary maps of surface structures at Nauvoo No. 1 Mine were discovered, however, the Witt map appears to indicate Returning to Alabama in 1900, they found their life's work ated. in Nauvoo and built the home that bears William's name. il report and large format photographs of the William Cook House, were produced for the Birmingham Industrial Heritage District Project lion ofMarjorie L. White with the assistance of Jean Dillon, owner of the Cook House and grand-daughter of William Cook. — Jean K. Dillon, William and Jeanie Cook's Granddaughter, August 13, 1997. BROOKSIDE COAL MINE AND BEEHIVE COKE OVENS JEFFERSON COUNTY, ALABAMA V •-{This recording project Is part of the Historic Abandoned rail beds "^ American Engineering Record (HAER), a long range program to document the engineering, industrial, and transportation •j -Upper Batteiy^- ^heritage of the United States. The HAER nr H program is administered by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic Ameri can Engineering Record Division (HABS/HAER) of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The Birmingham District Recording Project as ' cosponsored during the summer of 1992 by HAER under the general direction of Dr. Robert J. Kapsch, Chief of HABS/HAER and by rte Birmingham Historical Society, Marjorie L. White, Director. The HAER team was guided by the Birmingham District Advisory Committee. The United Land Corporation and Annie L Patchen provided additional assistance. The field work, measured drawings, historical reports and photographs were Foundation Remnants prepared under the direction of Eric DeLony, (SC£ DETAIL BELO w\. Chief of HAER and Project Leader/ Robbyn Jackson, HAER Architect and Project Manager Jack R Bergstresser, Sr, Project SITE PLAN First opened in 1886, Historian; and Craig Strong, Project Brookside is an exampleof the captive Architect. The Roving Survey Team II 1 1 1 1 1 mining operations owned by the iron and consisted of Kyle M. D'Agostino, Architect SCALE: r-SO'-O" ff£T steel companies in the Birmingham District. and Supervisor; Robert Martin and Catherine 0 J 10 20 30 *> SO This site provided coke for the blast Kudlik, Architects; and J. Lewis Shannon, III 1 1 1 1 NORTH SCALE: I.S00 METERS furnaces of Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Jr., Historian. Large format photography Co., as well as coal for steam power. was produced by David Diesing. MAPS BASED ON USGS 7.5 MINUTE SERIES, BROOKSIPE QUADRANCLE 1)5$, Coking operations were carried out on site Architectural consulting by Richard K. HISTORICAL MAPS AND VISUAL INSPECTION Or THE SITE. THE CONTOUR in one hundred beehive coke ovens. Anderson, Jr. INTERVAL IS APPROXIMA TELY W. SEE HA ER HISTORICAL REPORT FOR AH ANNOTATED LIST OF ORIGINAL MAPS AND FIELD NOTES USED. A significant feature of this site is the Incoming coal from Cardiff R foundation of a Robinson-Ramsay coal and Brazil mines ASH£ washer. This design was based on the English-built Robinson coal washer, and was the first inverted-cone type coal washer used widely in the United States. The ov materials flow was reconstructed from records of typical coal washers of the same & ^ type and period. Washed coal 4 O transported to coke ovens e? c« °o 3«+ a^ N 376 d=» 3 e ^ 386 °B^ Culvert 58« r .ST*' 1*> rO S> a 37 V FOUNDATION •& REMNANTS NNA 10 : &•&•- o SCALE:mnr: I"-10-0" &: I I ' I I- NORTH SCALE: 1:110 METERS J92- I DELINEATED BY Catherine Kudlik, Kytt M. D'Agostino and Robert Martin, Summer 1992 Supervised By Craig Strong BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING BROOKSIDE COAL MINE SHEET HISTORIC AMERICAN PROJECT BROOKSIDE-MOUNT OLIVE ROAD, 800 FEET NORTH OF FIVE MILE CREEK BRIDGE ENGINEERING RECORD I -I BROOKSIDE JEFFERSON COUNTY ALABAMA AL-IT IF REPRODUCED. PLEASE CREDIT * SERVICE. NAME OF DELINEATOR. DATE OF THE DRAWING • COAL, COKE & BY-PRODUCTS C'onstructio n of coke-fired blast furnaces during the 1880s triggered the first major coal boom. Furnace builders mined known reserves in the Warrior Coal Field. This field outcropped along the northern edge of Jones Valley, the valley in which major indus trial plants and communities were being developed. The Pratt seam yielded a large, early supply of coal. Here, mines were opened from the 1870s through the 1920s. (Coal makes coke, the fuel to fire the furnaces in which iron and steel are made.) Locally mined coal also fueled railroad locomotives until the widespread use of diesel engines in the 1950s. Top left: Coke Oven Ruins, Tennessee Coal and Iron Company (TCI)-U. S. Steel Pratt Mines (1879- 1920s), Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-80-A-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. These coke ovens mark Pratt City's prominence as an early mining center. Here, in the 1870s, the discovery of the first major reserves of good coking coal inaugurated large-scale industrialization. These beehive ovens, the second-largest battery of ovens in America in 1900 and among the 10,000 ovens operating in the Birmingham District in the 1910s, pro duced coke and clouds of yellow-grey gases that seriously polluted the environment and wasted valuable by-products. Left: Foundations, Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. Coal Washing Plant (1886-1917), Brookside, Jefferson County, AL-17-C-2, David Deising, 1992. The Brookside mine served as an important component of the Sloss company's vertically integrated ironmaking system. As was typical of District mines, blast furnace companies owned and operated them. During the era before by-product coke ovens, workers coked coal here and shipped the coke to the Sloss City Furnaces. Brookside's early use of mechanized mining and coal washing equipment shows that this mine was technologically advanced and well capitalized. A lengthy battery of [coke] ovens stood for years along the lines of certain rail roads, and it was not an unusual thing to hear some visitor, arriving at night, exclaim that Birmingham might be a heavenly place in which to live, but it looked like h— from a railroad train. - John R. Hornady, The Book of Birmingham, 1921. Below. Aerial View, Central Iron and Coal Co.-McWane, Inc., Empire Coke and By-Products Plant with Gravity-Fed Stock Trestle (right center), Coke Ovens (center), By-Products Recovery Plant (left), Holt, Tuscaloosa County, Looking South, AL-21-8,JetLowe, 1994. The Empire Coke plant, still operating and employing its original 1903 and 1913 Semet Solvay ovens and other equipment, may be the oldest operating by-prod ucts cokeworks in the United States. Built to provide coke to the nation's first fully integrated pipemaking operation with a coke plant, blast furnaces and foundry located on the same site, the Central Iron and Coal Co. grew to become the largest soil pipe plant in the United States. The full plant operated until the 1980s. McWane acquired the coke plant in 1962. Here, the skills and tasks of pre-mechanized coke and by-products opera tions continue virtually intact. Very little ever appears to happen at a coke plant, unless an oven is being 'pushed,' since this is, in essence, a 24-hour/7day-a-week cooking process. In the photo graph at the left, an oven has just been quenched (on the left side of the photograph, steam is visible). This coke plant has two coke batteries with a total of 60 ovens. Each year, three ovens are rebuilt so, in effect, we repair all the ovens within a 20-year period. This is one reason we anticipate many more years of economic coke production. — Philip McWane, President, McWane, Inc., 1997. REPUBLIC STEEL CORI THOMAS BY-PRODUCT CO* THOMA! ALAB. The Republic Steel Corporation's Thomas By-product Coke Works was located at the rear of the company's blast furnace plant at Thomas, a company-built town that was later incorporated into the city of Birmingham, Alabama. The company town and original blast furnace plant were built in 1888 by Samuel Thomas, son of David Thomasj who first introduced anthracite blast furnaces into the United States. Based on the plan for Hohendauqua, Pennsylvania, the community at Thomas featured brick houses, schools, churches and other facilities. Most of the community is still in existence. The Thomas family, which owned one of the most successful foundry pig iron companies in Pennsylvania, built the Pioneer furnaces between the years 1888 and 1810. Each furnace was 75 feet high and 17 feet wide at the bosh. Hot blast was provided by eight Siemens-Cowper-Cochrane fire brick stoves. Operating as -the Pioneer Mining and Manufacturing Company, the company specialized in foundry pig iron sold under the brand name "Pioneer." Like other major blast furnace companies in the Birmingham District, the Pioneer Mining and Manufacturing Company took advantage of the close proximity of raw materials in the Birmingham District. The furnaces were built atop extensive seams of limestone and dolomite. These excellent fluxing agents could be easily quarried and loaded directly into the furnaces at minimum cost The deposits are so extensive that they are still being mined by the Wade Sand and Gravel Company which operates one of the largest and deepest quam'es in the eastern United States. Aerial view looking North toward the Thomas Blast Furnaces, By-Product Coke Works, and Cot To make coke from coal mined a few miles from the Based on Alabama Air National Guard photograph courtesy of SNa.de Sand and Gravel furnaces, the company built a battery of 910 bee hive coke ovens at the rear of the furnace plant. The bee-hive ovens provided coke until 1925 when they were replaced by the by- product coke works. The Pioneer furnaces were purchased by the Republic Iron and Steel Company in October, 1899 and eventually came to be called the Thomas furnaces. Republic modernized the plant in 1902 by adding a third furnace that was 90 feet by 18 1/2 feet and enlarging the old furnaces to the same dimensions. The combined annual capacity of the plant was 2 70. OOO tons of foundry and mill pig iron. Thomas Republic updated the plant on a regular basis. To By-Product Coke •" provide basic pig iron to their steel mill at Gadsden, they installed one of the District's first Uehling pig \ Works casting machines sometime before 1906. They also installed the District's first Dwight-Uoyd sintering ,/-s plant, on a site adjacent to the blast furnace stock bins, in 1936. O 1000 2000 3000 0 FEET''''' ' • • METEfc Designed by the Koppers Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the coke works were built in 1925 Based on a map from Designs on Birmingham, 1981 Based on U.S.6.S. 1178, Birmingh and modernized in 1952. The original plant featured Drawing courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society. UTM Coordinates: Center 16.512 a battery of 57 Koppers-Becker by-product ovens which were replaced in 1952 by a battery of 65 Koppers ovens. Birmingham District Area Map ORATION mil IE WORKS l REPUBLIC STEEL AMA The coke ovens produced valuable by-products which included gas, tar, ammonium sulphate, naphthalene and light oil. The most important was the coke oven gas, which was cleaned and returned to the coke ovens to heat the coking chambers Surplus gas was sold for domestic and industrial use or used to fire steam boilers at the blast furnace power plant. The light oil could be distilled into benzol, toluol, and xylol, although in later years the practice was abandoned. The types of by products produced was dictated by market demand, which changed during the plant's lifetime. The plant layout and equipment were based on designs developed by German-bom Heinrich Koppers. Koppers built his first American plant at the Joliet Works of the United States Steel Corporation North Quarry, View Looking West to the Power House, AL-34- in 1907. The H. Koppers Company soon moved to A-2 (above), Feeders and Conveyors, Reduction Plant No. 8 Pittsburgh where, in 1921, Joseph Becker increased (below), Wade Sand and Gravel Co., Inc. (established 1932), the capacity of the Koppers oven by adding a new Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-34-B-1. Jet Lowe, 1993. heating system featuring crossover flues which enhanced the horizontal flues of the Koppers oven. Opened in 1879, the Thomas quarries have been By offering the choice of the two ovens and a wide continuously operated by the Pioneer Mining and range of by-product plant design combinations Ots Manufacturing, Republic Steel and Wade Sand and oSt Koppers soon came to dominate the coke industry. Gravel companies. The extraction and crushing of lime By 1959 it had built over 70 per cent of the 15,993 uS° stone for iron- and steelmaking began in 1886. Today's by-product coke operations in the United States Qto quarry is the largest operation in Alabama, annually sell Sis ing more than 2 million tons of limestone. Limestone is After the Thomas plant closed in 1982}storage tanks used in the manufacture of chemical lime and concrete. and other ancillary equipment (such as various Current projections estimate limestone reserves at the pumping engines and piping) were removed, but the CO important elements of the site have survived, < site could support continued operations for at least 100 providing a typical example of a Koppers by-product o years. Dolomite is mined from the limestone quarry and coke works. I shipped for processing and use at U. S. Steel's Fairfield Works and area foundries. Quarry rock is also crushed, screened and graded for use in making asphalt and other This recording project is part of the Historic Ameri can Engineering Record (HAER), a long range pro road construction materials. nmunity. c. 1933 gram to document the engineering, industrial and Co., Inc. transportation heritage of the United States. The HAER program is administered by the Historic ^ American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Division (HABS/HAER) of the c o National Park Service, U.S. Department of the ^ i n o, m a s •fc Interior. The Birmingham District Recording Project Co was cosponsored during the summer of 1992 by HAER under the general direction of Dr. Robert J. Kapsch, Chief of HABS/HAER and by the Birmingham Historical Society, Marjorie L White, Director. The HAER team was guided by the Birmingham District Advisory Committee, including Tim Tankersley. The Wade Sand & dravel Company, Inc. provided additional assistance. §• CO The field work, measured drawings, historical re Cr ports and photographs were prepared under the cr direction of Eric DeLony, Chief of HAER and Project •*— Leader; Robbyn Jackson, HAER Architect and is E Project Manager; Jack R. Bergstresser, Sr, Project E 500 1000 Historian; and Craig Strong, Project Architect. The 3 i i i i i. i 3 • recording team consisted of Craig Strong, <0 IS c Supervisor; Steven Byington, Eirik Heintz, Joseph o mm North Quadrangle Bruno, and Elena Carlini (ICOMOS), Architects; and '.920.3709430 Jack R. Bergstresser, Sr., Historian. Large format photography was done by David Diesing. Architectural consultation was provided by Richard K. Anderson, Jr. I CO THOMAS COKE OVENS 1952 By-Product Plant Track 7) Hopper Coke Plant Scale 1/16"= 1'-0" Coke Production Stages Coal from a variety of sources (principally of individual coking chambers. Round bins dis volume water nozzles that spray water on the from Republic's Sayreton mine) is received in charge coal into loading doors. hot coke to arrest the burning process rail cars and loaded onto conveyors. s-./ The coke pusher machine is equipped with a &. The coke wharf receives the coke and routes Coal is transferred from one conveyor belt to long ram which pushes the coke out of the it onto underground conveyors that carry the General Information another in this building. The second conveyor coking chambers and into a quenching car coke up to the coke loading facility. This drawing is a reconstruction based on drawnqs takes coal to the top of the coal hopper. and histories.! records provided by The Ws.de Sand The coke guide channels the discharged coke 9 This building contains screens which size the and Gravel Company, the Archives of the Birming The coal hopper contains bins, that store coal into the quenching car. The quenching car coke and send it either directly to the blast ham Public Library And the W S Hoole Special until needed Chutes at the bottom of the bins carries the red hot coke to the quenching furnace stock bins or into railroad cars. Collections Library of the. University of Alabama discharge coal into the /any car. tower. See the HAER historical report for an annotated list 10. Coking oven gas is drawn off in gooseneck of sources. The. larry car travels on rails across the tops The quenching tower is equipped with high pipes and sent to the by-product plant Main Battery, Koppers-Becker Coke Ovens, Republic Steel Corporation Thomas Cokeworl Light Oil Condensers, Thomas Coke By-Products Plant, Looking West, BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-14-126, David Deising, 1992. Here, light oil was distilled into benzene, toluene and xylene used for explosives, dyes, inks, fuels and protective coatings. IRONMAKING ihhee ability to cheaply assemble iron ore, coke and limestone gave Birmingham ironmakers a competitive edge. During the late-19th century, investors built blast furnaces at a rate surpassed only by Pittsburgh, then the nation's leading iron and steel producer. Engineers designed Birmingham furnaces to suit area minerals. By 1900, 25 furnaces operated in Jefferson County. am As has been seen, there were dozens of real estate concerns in action, and now dozens more sprang up. Each tried to out boom the other.... "Little Birminghams" started out of the mineral region everywhere like mushrooms. A brand-new sensation was bom every day. More blast furnaces, iron works, coal and iron mines than could ever see the light of day in 50 years were projected. The intelligence of even the most conservative business men became utterly sunk in sensation. — Ethel Armes, describing Birmingham's late-1880s boom, The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama, 1910. Aerial View of the Pioneer Mining and Manufacturing Co.- Republic Steel Corporation Thomas Blast Furnace Site, Power House, By products Cokeworks (center) and Community (center right), now Wade Sand and Gravel Co. Quarries (center left to bottom right) and Crushing and Screening Plant (center), Looking Northwest to Pratt City, BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-34-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. Constructed by leading Pennsylvania ironmasters, the Thomas furnaces were technological pacesetters. The site was well chosen. Here, within switching distance of the fur naces, were seams of coal and iron ore 150 yards apart — closer than at any point in Birmingham — as well as an abundant supply of limestone and dolomite and an ade quate supply of water from Village Creek (the tree-lined ribbon cutting across the photograph, top left to bottom right). Republic Steel acquired the site in 1899 and contin ued making iron here until 1971. The cokeworks, closed in 1982, remain intact. Today, the Thomas community and the cokeworks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In many of the industrial buildings, artists cast and weld large sculptures in bronze and other metals. The quarrying of limestone and dolomite continues. THOMAS WORKER HOUSING THOMAS, ALABAMA With the development of the Iron industry in the Birmingham Oistrlot came the arrival of numerous northern iron interests. Among these was David Thomas, who had distinguished himself in the development of several Pennsylvania industrial communities, including Catasaucjua, Hokendauqua. and Alburtis. Along with his sons, Samuel and Edward, Thomas Community 1 and associate Robert Sayre, Thomas formed the Pioneer Mining and Manufacturing Company In 1861. In 1881 the Pioneer Company This Drawing is a reconstruction based on original purchased the Hawkins plantation near the new town of Birmingham. the Birmingham Public Library. See the HAER his This land was to become the site of the Pioneer blast furnaces and coke annotated list of the original drawings used. ovens, as well as the industrial community of Thomas. The initial construction of housing at Thomas, supervised by Community Buildings Superintendent Frank B. Keiser, consisted of two-story homes for the skilled workers at the new furnaces. These substantial houses, both of frame and brick construction, were completed in 1888, the same year that the first Pioneer blast furnace was blown in. Although common in the industrial North, this type of house was novel in the context of Southern industrial housing. As the size and labor needs of the Pioneer facility grew, the community of Thomas was expanded. By the time the second furnace was put in blast in 1890, housing for the labor force was being completed in Thomas. These structures took the more traditional form of the shotgun house, both in two and three room variants, with either clapboard or shiplap siding. In 1899 the Pioneer Company was purchased by the Republic Iron and Steel Company, and another period of growth followed. A new, larger blast furnace was completed by 1102, and the existing furnaces were enlarged. To coincide with this growth. Republic expanded the housing at Thomas with the addition of pyramidal roof cottages. These frame four-room structures were typical southern mill housing. Built as duplex houses, they afforded the company the additional flexibility of renting to larger families as a single family dwelling or splitting them between workers who had less need for space. This expansion of the Thomas community was completed circa 1900. Since their construct/on, ail of the historic houses in Thomas have been modified to some extent. None originally contained indoor plumbing, but ail have subsequently been modified to accommodate this convenience, usually by either a shed addition or, in the case of the two story houses, extending the back gable and enclosing a porch. About half of the brick gable-front houses received a two-story addition between 1911 and 1928, with a screened porch below and a sleeping porch above, as a concession to the Alabama climate. Many of the houses have been re sided with tarpaper. asbestos, aluminum, or vinyl siding, and alt have been re-roofed, although many retain the sheet metal roofing common O 150 300 450 v to the 1120's. III l =1 This recording project is part of the Historic American Engineering SCALE: r=ISO'-0" FEET ^^^tmr Record (HAER), a long range program to document the engineering, 0 SO industrial and transportation heritage of the United States. The HAER i i i i i ' i Republic Steel SCALE: 1:1800 METERS program is administered by the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Division (HABS/HAER) of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The Birmingham District Recording Project was cosponsored during the V /I summer of 1912 by HAER under the general direction of Dr. Robert J. * ^r-^Birmingham District J^v. , L Kapsch, thief of HABS/HAER and by the Birmingham Historical Society, Marjorie L. White, Director. The HAER team was guided by the I jTff>r-> Birmingham *0^t Birmingham District Advisory Committee. Additional assistance was sT \jSssir provided by Julia Anderson, Montriel Pitts, Donald and Pat Lee, and s \cfCr 6 \ b Raymond and Doris Hamilton. H9C • The frame shotgun and pyra midal roof cottage, derived ip \ "^ Jg? - . .' >•" r • from Southern styles, housed laborers, helpers and their ^^H3H ktr . families. In the early decades of the 20th century, these accommodations were consid in ered comfortable and substan K tially better than those in the 11 • poverty-stricken Southern FTS . _T' countryside of this era. in ^it^Ti s&L ... ,::T. m " ifr^V'i i a^^8 "ij£jr... \ Left: Shotgun House, 355 Third HffiUfl Street, BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-15-B-1, David Deising, 1992. Above: Pyramidal Roof - Square Top House, 303 Third Street, BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-15-C-2, DavidDeising, 1992. Each street had those big park places in the center surrounded by little posts with wire around them. Inside there they had crepe myrtle bushes, callalillies growing, 921 a street light at every corner. Oh, it was drawings lo cated in a wonderful place to go out and play and torlcal report tor an catch the lightning bugs at night, you know. Well, that was on First and Second Streets. Then on Third Street Republic Iron and was where some of the houses in the Steel Company Commissary middle had Italian workers and then the Thomas Station Church black folks started from then on down. It Telephone Station was nine streets down to the plant. Doctor's Office Tennis Court Commissary — Elsie Ponder Crawford, "Colored Church" Birmingham Historical Society Mule Lot Catholic Church Thomas Oral History Project, Interviewed by George McDaniel and Betsy Blair Hunter, 1987. Foreman House, 219 Second Street (built 1890), Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-114-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. Industrial firms built three house styles for employees at Thomas. Two-story brick and frame residences, derived from Pennsylvania styles, housed foremen along First and Second Streets. Corrugated Metatf^mmMl i viQfcs. yp MM raw THIRD SIRE^T % ii. THUD STREEJ Site Plan Asbestos Shingie- FT SUe Plan Coocrete Block-—. :i'i - • -• Third Street Elevation 4~ Floor Plan <3ft9 ADDITION Side Elevation Side Elevation Side Elevation Gable Front House 0 5 .0 Shotgun House Pyramidal Cottage 0-5 10 __ 214 Second Street Thomas, Alabama SCA;E. 3/1^1.07^ 355 Third Street Thomas, Alabama SCALE: 3/1 -C" FEET 303 Third Street Thomas, Alabama SCALE: 3/!8"= 7-0" "EFT 2 3 4 b 0 12 3 4 [ ASO V£ DRA WIHtiS WERE PRODUCED FROM FIELU- MEA SUREMENFS. ' ' ' ' ABOVE DRAW-NCiS MERE PRODUCED FROM FSF.'D MFAStlfiEMFNTS. ' ! I SB'' HAER FIELD NOTES FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SCALE- I 64 METERS SCALE: !:61 METERS SEE HAER F1F!D NOTES FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SCALE. i.-$-i METERS Aerial View, Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, Looking West Along the Historic Railroad Reservation Toward the Birmingham City Center Showing Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company's City Furnaces No. 1 & No. 2, Cast Sheds, Stoves and Stacks, BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-3-137, Jet Lowe, 1993. An engineer laid out Birmingham's city plan, reserving the central space (1,000 feet on both sides of the track) for rail roads and industries. By the turn of the century, railroad stations, shops, yards, the Sloss and Alice Furnaces, the Birmingham Rolling Mills and other industries were located in the Railroad Reservation. Employing more than 4,000 persons in 1900, they formed the heartbeat of the city. SLOSS FURNACES a ihe. here ain't none of you fellows ever been down to Birmingham, Alabama, has you?" When they replied "No," he said, "Then you don't know what an industrial town is. Why, there in Birmingham, the smoke of industry is so thick that you can't recognize your best friend on the street." — A Birmingham booster, quoted upon visiting Birmingham, England. John R. Hornady, The Book of Birmingham, 1921. In 1881 and 1882, North Alabama planter and investor James Withers Sloss built the furnaces which became known as the "city furnaces." Extensively rebuilt and modernized in late 1920s, the cureent steel-jacketed fur naces (left) employed an estimated 500 workers and pro duced 400 tons of pig iron daily. Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company and U. S. Pipe operated these fur naces, maintaining their position as a leading foundry iron producer until 1970. B)> the time of World War I, Sloss-Sheffield had become the world's largest manufacturer of foundry pig iron. Woodward [Iron Company], which had a lower volume, made even higher profits. Above: View Looking West Down the Length of No. 2 Cast Shed, Showing Overhead Traveling Crane (late — Dr. W. David Lewis, The Birmingham 1920s), Sloss City Furnaces (abandoned at the time of the photograph), BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL- District: A Description, Brief History 3-44, Jack Boucher, 1977. and Assessment, 1993. This shed provided covered space to cast pig iron on its sand floor. Sloss cast molten iron, produced in its furnaces, in sand beds from the late 1880s through 1935. By 1930, few U. S. For 90 years, the Sloss City Furnaces made pig iron by companies used this traditional method of "floor" casting iron in sand molds. For each pour melting iron ore in its furnaces fired with coke and vast of molten iron - Sloss averaged six pours daily - workers created new channels for the quantities of heated air. (By weight, air is the largest molten iron, directed the flow of iron, broke off the cooled pigs and loaded them into rail component of making cast iron.) The molten ore, which cars for transport to foundry customers. The existing furnace and cast shed design, built in ranged in purity from about 33 to 60 percent iron, sepa the late 1920s, allowed Sloss to cast more pig under a single roof than any other U. S. pro rated from the impurities and the heavy iron sank to the ducer. This labor-intensive expansion soon proved cost ineffective. In 1931, Sloss installed bottom of the furnace. The lighter waste material, com an automatic pig-casting machine, reducing the work force 90 percent. However, because bined with molten limestone, formed slag which floated some foundries preferred sand-cast pig, Sloss produced it for a few more years. African above the iron. Slag was tapped every two hours while American workers made up the vast majority of furnace laborers and often worked in the liquid iron was tapped every four hours into the sand difficult and dangerous situations. Bode Morin, Curator, Sloss Furnaces National Historic beds of each furnace's cast shed. Prior to the exclusive Landmark. use of the pig casting machine, molten iron flowed down hand-formed sand channels, or "sows," into several smaller channels to cool. The resulting shape resembled piglets suckling a sow; hence, the product name, "pig" iron. Local foundries like Stockham, U. S. Pipe and Hardie-Tynes were major Sloss customers, purchasing pig iron to remelt in their cupolas for processing into fin ished products. Birmingham foundrymen cast the statue of Vulcan from Sloss No. 2 Pig Iron. Bode Morin. mm That wasn't no plaything, you had to be on your "p's and q's" when you're working around a blastfurnace ... When you go in the gate everything's dangerous - overhead, underhead, dangerous work - and wasn't no easy job, not for the black man. — Clarence Dean, Sloss Worker, 1937-1967, Like It Ain't Never Passed, 1985. View Looking West at the Furnace Complex with the Norfolk Southern Railroad Tracks in the Foreground, Sloss City Furnaces, BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-3-20, Jack Boucher, 1977. s'oo. n after Sloss Furnaces ceased operation in 1970, the Jim Walter The Sloss Furnaces, the nucleus of an integrated ironmaking system which includes Corporation, parent corporation of U. S. Pipe, gave the furnaces to the City extensive surviving remnants of coal and iron ore mines, quarries and coke ovens, are of Birmingham. Recorded by the Historic American Engineering Record in the most visible symbol of the Birmingham District's role as the nation's leading foundry 1976, the furnaces barely escaped dismantling. In 1977, city voters approved iron producer from the late-19th century until the 1960s. The blastfurnaces, stoves, a bond issue to begin their transformation into an interpretive site and location boilers and other structures represent the highest expression of American merchant pig for special events. Sloss opened as a City of Birmingham museum in 1983. iron furnace practice and design of the 1920s. Other features such as vertical blowing Today, this National Historic Landmark teaches history and ironmaking. Iron engines and sand casting beds chart technological evolution at the turn of the century. workers pour iron, blacksmiths shape metal, and the furnaces and cast sheds fill — Dr. Jack Bergstresser, The Birmingham District: with tours and festivals. A Survey of Cultural Resources, 1993. i ^FV -^1 1 n SECTION/ ELEVATION KEY Birmingham was conceived as an urban iron plan tation with a low-paid, servile black labor force. — Dr. W. David Lewis, Sloss Furnaces and the Rise of the Birmingham District: An Industrial Epic, 1994- You hear a heap of folks say, 'Yeah, if I could bring the good old days back.' Well, I don't want to bring nary a good old day back. Them days gone. Let them stay gone. — Clarence Dean, Sloss ironworker, 1937-1967, Like It Ain't Never Passed, 1985 SECTION T H L 0 \) 6 H CAST IN 6 SHE C I I V A T I 0 M OF F V f. N A t t #1 LOOK N 6 *uw^v- 5 IV It I ci i i III r nr SCALE IN HIT tw i Side View, Allis-Chalmers Blowing Engine No. 6, SJiowing Flywheel, Main-Rod and Top of •*.'.•••:-- ;^#& dr Cylinder (one of eight remaining engines built 1902), Sloss City Furnaces, BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-3-78, Jack Boucher, 1977. These steam engines, the last standing vertical blowing engines in the world, supported Sloss's designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1981. When No. 2 Furnace, Cast Shed and Hot Blast Stoves, Sloss City Furnaces, AL-3-28, CO the engines operated - which was most of the time, day and night - the noise w s Jack Boucher, 1977. drowned out all speech. Because the engine house was enclosed, the massive < * steam-powered machinery elevated temperatures to 120° F, even in the winter. B.M. a i Ii i CO* a g _l s: CO I CO CO 3 . CO Base, Rust Co. Boilers SJiowing Furnace Gas Main and Boiler Take-Off, Sloss City Furnaces, as BirmingJiam, Jefferson County, AL-3-62, Jack Boucher, 1977. 3 ! Just about every mechanical system at Sloss ran on steam — blowing engines, E2 s turbo blowers, skip hoists, water pumps and the early steam shovels to move materials and slag. Steam turbines also created electricity used on site. These IEE| boilers made the steam. Sloss captured the flammable gases from the top of the furnaces, augmented them with pulverized coal and burned this mixture in the boilers' fire boxes. Within the fire box, heat surrounded enclosed water tubes and boiled the water inside the tubes. The resulting steam was piped to all areas of the site. Unfortunately for Sloss workers, the odorless and colorless gases ?2 = produced by the boilers and furnaces often leaked into the air. Workers ! 1 = exposed to gases suffered headaches. Too long an exposure could lead to fainting or even death. B.M. BIRMINGHAM INDUSTRIAL I NORTH 1:24000 FOUNDRY IRON )ISTRICT C.1950 53 B'y 1900, 29-year-old Birmingham had become the nation's leading producer of foundry iron and pipe. District foundries produced hundreds of cotton gins, engines, pot bellied stoves, skillets, equipment for the mining, ironmak ing, sugar, cotton and lumber industries and pipe for waste and water transmission. In the 1920s, Birmingham became the center for centrifugal casting and other innovative pipemaking processes. An estimated 55 percent of iron pipe produced in the United States, today, is made in Birmingham. Producers include American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO), U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company and McWane Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company. B)> emphasizing steel, historians have neglected the fact that cast iron, the alloy into which most southern pig iron was converted, was just as important to industrial progress as steel. It was not only superior to steel in some of its properties, such as resistance to corrosion, compressive strength, and its ability to dampen sound, but was also much more economical for varying industrial needs. The list of products made by foundries included stoves and radiators; fire hydrants; enamel-coated kitchen and bathroom fix tures; flywheels, casings, and other engine parts that did not have to withstand abrasion; automobile engine blocks and piston rings; and above all, soil pipe and pressure pipe, in the manufacture of which Alabama became preeminent. Ultimately, it was said that in the American foundry trade, there were two basic categories: Alabama and the United States. Mineral Deposits — Dr. W David Lewis, "Statement on the Significance of the Birmingham District," July 20, 1992, The Coal Birmingham District: A Description, Brief History and Assessment, 1993. Red Iron Ore Brown Iron Ore Republic Steel Corporation's Thomas WorKs was one of four major iron and steel companies in the Birmingham District. The District's prominence as a major producer of foundry iron, cast-iron pipe and steel was due to the presence of all the raw *)vens & By-Product materials needed to make pig-iron within remarkably Plants close proximity. An unprecedented surge of demand for pig-iron in America in the 1870s and 1880s lured iron makers oen Hearth Furnace and entrepreneurs who hoped to exploit this fortunate combination of iron ore, coal and fluxing stone. During the nex't two decades they built more blast furnaces here than in any other region in the United States except Pittsburgh. To feed their new Blast Furnace Co furnaces, they opened record numbers of coal mines, ore mines and fluxing stone quarries Major 5 railroad trunk lines and mineral short lines sprang up to tie together the growing industrial complex. o Foundry Cheap pig iron attracted the nation's largest concentration of cast-iron pipe mills and two major •9 Western End, Pipe Yard, American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO), Birmingham, steel mills. It soon became clear that the raw Jefferson County, AL-35-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. material reserves of the district could not support all the furnaces built during the building boom. Only From its inception in 1905, ACIPCO established a tradition for innova to Iron Ore Mine companies controlling optimally located furnaces tive pipemaking and labor practices. During World War I, ACIPCO and mines could survive. Led by Woodward Iron, the experimented with the direct delivery of molten pig iron from Republic (Slope) first company to achieve full vertical integration, four companies pushed the remaining competitors Steel Corporation's Thomas furnaces (located directly to the left in the out of business. The Thomas Works was one of the photograph above) to its pipemaking foundry. In the early 1920s, when survivors. the Birmingham District led the industry in adoption of centrifugal cast Iron Ore Mine ing techniques, ACIPCO developed the Moore method of centrifugal (Shaft) The map of selected sites in the heart of the district casting in sand-lined molds. Guided by John J. Eagan, principal stockholder shows the close proximity of mines, furnaces and and first president, ACIPCO inaugurated a now-celebrated program of foundries. Most of the iron ore used at Thomas 3 corporate benefits in the 1920s. Eagan brought workers into corporate Coal Mine came from the Spaulding Mine, while coal was management, created one of America's first profit-sharing arrangements provided by the Sayreton Mine. Total distance from and a permanent trust of all the company's stock. As early as 1948, ACIPCO the mines to the furnaces was only 12 miles. produced experimental casts of ductile pipe and fittings. Today, the i 2,000-acre North Birmingham plant, the largest individual iron pipe casting plant in the world, employs nearly 3,000 persons. HARDIE -TYNES MANUFACTURING COMPANY BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA Hardie-Tynes c. 1912 Adapted from an advertising engraving, c. 1112, Courtesy Hardie-Tynes Manufacturing Company. From its origins in the early 1870s, the Birmingham Despite its continuity, the company's site operations have District's high phosphorous iron ore, abundant bituminous changed over time. The foundry no longer operates, coal beds, and ample limestone deposits made it the natural closing in 19&Z and undergoing conversion to a fabrication center for cast iron production. The District, which shop in m?&. Hardie-Tynes no longer casts iron for its included Jefferson, Shelby, Bibb, Walker, and Tuscaloosa products, but now cuts, rolls and welds steel into desired counties, grew into one of America's most highly shapes. As in the past, however, products are finished in developed foundry industries. One of the city's earliest the machine shop, assembled in the erecting shop, and foundries and machine shops - the Birmingham Iron Works - shipped by rail to buyers. •was -founded in 1883 by John T. Hardie, and made both pipe and industrial machinery. Despite adaptation in the general site arrangments, the foundry and its associated buildings remain largely intact In 1815, William Hardie and William D. Tynes founded the Though inactive for more than thirty years, the foundry Handie- Tynes Foundry and Machine Company. Located in ovens, cupolas, charging platform and cranes all remain, as North Birmingham at the corner of 1st Avenue and 26th does the pattern shop with its' pattern storage area and Street, on the site of the Birmingham Iron Works, Hardie- blacksmith shop. Still active operations include the air Tynes was conveniently close to Sloss furnaces, one of its compression system which dates to the m'id-iqZ0s. principal source of pig-iron. When the site was damaged by fire in January 1901, the company moved and Hardie-Tynes thus provides an important site for the constructed a ne w, larger foundry and machine shop at its interpretation of early foundry and machine shop production present site in what was then known as East Birmingham. Birmingham District of large scale, specialized industrial machinery. Another major fire in 1a24 led to the reconstruction and This illustration is based on a map from Designs on Birmingham, enlargement of the machine shop. 1137, Courtesy Birmingham Historical Society. This recording project is part of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), a long range program to Hardie-Tynes was a. small foundry, making specialized document the engineering, industrial, and transportation industrial machinery to order. Unlike production foundries heritage of the United States The HAER program is that turned out large quantities of identical products, administered by the Historic American Buildings Hardie-Tynes employed skilled engineers, foundrymtn and Survey/Historic American Engineering Record Division machinists to design and produce complex, limited (HABS/HAER) of the National Park Service, US. production items. Early products such as Corliss and slide- Department of the Interior. The Birmingham District valve steam engines Were sold to companies throughout Recording Project was cosponsored during the summer of the United States; whereas, mine-hoisting engines and 1992 by HA ER under the general direction of Dr. Robert J. other mining equipment were produced for the local mining Kapsch, Chief of HABS/HAER and by the Birmingham industry. Historical Society, Marjorie I White, Director. The HAER team was guided by the Birmingham District Advisory During World War I, Hardie-Tynes began producing naval Committee, including Gordon L Flynn, President of Hardie- and marine equipment. In addition to steam engines for Tynes Manufacturing Company. Robert C. Stobert, Jr., Victory ships, during the 1930s and 1940s the company John Crane, A. James Powell, and Emile Dahlen provided regularly supplied air and gas compressors to the U. S Navy additional assistance. for submarines. Since then, Hardie-Tynes has supplied the Navy with turbine-driven, forced-draft blowers for boilers The field work, measured drawings, historical reports and and boiler feed pumps, plus torpedo propulsion equipment photographs were prepared under the direction of Eric N. and missile components DeLony, Chief of HAER and Project Leader. Robbyn L. Jackson, HAER Architect and Project Manager; Jack R. Since the 1920s, Hardie-Tynes has been an Important Bergstresser, Sr., Project Historian, and Craig Strong, manufacturer of hydro-electric and dam equipment, Project Architect The recording team consisted of Evelyn supplying machinery for the Boulder (Hoover) and Grand Green, Supervisor, Laura Letton and Zvonimir Franic Coulee dams, and the Tennessee Valley Authority dam Hardie-Tynes Vicinity 1992 (ICOMOSi, Architects; and Tanya English (ICOMOS), building program of the early 1940s The company still This site plan is based on maps and aerial photographs Historian. Large format photography was produced by produces art array of such products, from needle valves to referenced in the HAER history report. David Diesing. Documentary consultation was provided by vast paradox gates. UTM Coordinates: Center 16 51864 3709630 NORTH Richard K. Anderson, Jr. — Laura Letton. Summer 1992 Supervised by Craig Strong BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT HARDIE-TYNES MANUFACTURING COMPANY BOO 2STH STREET NORTH m BIRMINGHAM JEFFERSON COUNTY SITE DEVELOPMENT 1901-1992 1901-1923 29th Street North When a fire destroyed the original Hardie-Tynes plant in Original Buildings 1901, the company moved and built a new, larger foundry, From 1901 with plenty of room for expansion. It made good use of electricity generated by the steam-driven power plant for Buildings Added lights, belt-driven machinery and, most importantly, Buildings Both Added overhead cranes In the foundry and machine shop. and Demolished Trackage was linked from outside to both the machine shop and yard, and also internally from foundry to machine shop. Reservoir, 1901 Thus easy movement of the heavy products — Corliss Pattern Storage, engines, slide valve engines and mine hoists — was ca. 1908 with ensured. Extension, 1915 3 Stables, ca. 1908 As business expanded, especially for Corliss engines, the 4 Tool Room, ca 1911 plant grew — for example in 1912 the foundry crane was 5. Bath House, ca 1911 extended out to the west (to match that to the east) and in 6. Foundry 1916 both extensions were covered, increasing foundry Extension, 1916 area markedly. Tricks were altered to suit nonetheless, 7. Core Ovens, 1916 The location of storage buildings on the site was 8. Garage, 1916-1919 increa-sinqly problematic. 9. Shop Extension, 1917 Wartime production created extra demands, and cupola 10. Tram Tracks efficiency was increased by replacing the former inclined with Cupola. charging ramp with an elevator and tracks. A new blowing Elevator & Cupola engine house pro vidgd more air for both anew large cupola Blower House, 1918 built by Hardie -Tynes and a smaller original cupola. 11 Extension & Assembly space was also increased in the machine shop. Oarage, 1919 The next major alteration was the demolition of the 1919 12 Power Plant, 1919 & storage shed to make room for outside tracks to facilitate Extensions to a big locomotive repair order in 1922, these were later Smith Shop, 1923 used for outside assembly. 1924-1962 A fire in the machine shop in 1924 led to a new shop. Old Original Buildings machinery was re-used where possible: one of the layout From 1901 tables has a welded repair where the overhead crane fell on Buildings Added it during the fire. A few pre-1124 machine tools still survive in the machine shop, such as the huge Ni/es boring Buildings Both Added mill and Putman lathe. The company took the opportunity and Demolished to increase Its crane capacity, replacing the old 10-ton crane with two new overhead cranes which could carry 15 Buildings Demolished and 25 tons, respectively. New Machine Not surprisingly, the new shop was more fire resistant, I Shop, 1924 instead of timber as before, it now had rolled steel <» Water Tower, joists, and some of the larger joists were riveted. A water a tower was erected to feed the sprinkler system that still c ca. 1924 operates throughout the plant. Hardie-Tynes also increased £ Air Com pressor, 1926 its compressed air capacity in 1926 by building a. new Pattern house equipped with one of its own compressors. Storage, ca 1930 Erecting As the Depression deepened in the 1930s, few changes Shop, 1933 occurred in the plant although products changed noticeably Extension, 1941 — away from steam engines and toward air and gas Office compressors, dam equipment, and naval supplies. They Extension, 1941 also made a few cotton compress machines in the 1950s. & 1963-1992 The major post-World War IL change at the plant has Original Buildings been from casting to fabrication. Many of Hardie-Tynes' • From 1901 products — dam equipment, naval compressors, turbine- driven forced draft blowers, boiler feed pumps and more I...... i Buildings Added recently, missile components — required stronger alloy steels, not iron. The foundry was out of date; it was only j Buildings Demolished suitable for casting iron, and there was difficulty recruiting good foundrymen. Foundry Closed 1962, Conversion to By 1969, Hardie-Tynes had closed its foundry The Fabrication, 1976 foundry population, nationwide, began a decline due to Ofpce increased competition from foreign foundries and new Extension, ca 1964 materials such as plastic and steel. Also At this time, there Sand Blast was a transition from traditional casting to fabrication. This Shed, ca 1964 was marked by a decline in the number of foundry Fabrication, 1172 4. cupolas, such as those used at Hardie-Tynes Today, less Painting & Storage Shed 5. than 15%of ihe foundries still in operation use cupolas These maps are based on draw For over a decade Hardie-Tynes fed its machine shop with ings and historical records pro metal fabricated by outside suppliers. After a tentative vided by Hardie-Tynes Manufac start, the old foundry was converted to a fabrication shop turing Company. See the HAER in 1976. This enabled steels to be cut and welded to the historical report for an annotated desired shapes on site, both saving money and giving list of sources. Hardie-Tynes quality control. The cupola elevator was pulled down, and the foundry's sand floor concreted over. o so 100 iso SCALE: 1'~S0'-0" FEET OS 10 20 30 40 SO NORTH SCALE: 1:600 METERS ... Zvonimir Franic, Summer 1912 Supervised by Craig Strong HISTORIC AMERICAN BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT HARDIE - TYNES MANUFACTURING COMPANY ENGINEERING RECORD 800 2Bth STREET NORTH AL-13 JEFFERSON COUNTY SITE OPERATIONS c.1925 Mine Hoists Birmingham's iron industry was remarkable for the close Mine Hoist Site Flow proximity of its mines, furnaces and foundries. With raw materials close to hand, transported cheaply into the city A. In the office an engineer supervised drawings of all P. The hoist components were cast in sand in the on short mineral railway lines, Birmingham developed a the hoist parts. Hardie-Tynes' products were foundry — the largest, most complicated casting highly integrated iron industry, as illustrated by Hardie- specially adapted for customers, and Montevallo's being the hoist's drum. Overhead cranes moved Tynes' mine hoists. These machines, made in Birmingham hoist was based on a hoist made earlier that year. castings, cores and flasks. Cupola raw materials from pig-iron cast in Birmingham, operated at local mines were elevated from the yard. The castings were which supplied Birmingham's blast furnaces with their raw B. The drawings were the basis of the wooden patterns cleaned by sand blasting. materials — coal, limestone and iron ore. and core box, made in the pattern shop, used to create the molds for the castings. Patterns might be E. The smith shop forged steel for the hoist's shaft. Mine Hoist Production re-used, hence the large amount of pattern storage. F. The yard locomotive, with its steam powered crane, Mine hoists were a regular source of orders for Hardie- C. Materials were brought onto site via the standard carried castings from foundry to machine shop. Tynes until the 1950s. The Montevallo Company was one gauge railway. Account records for June 1925 of six Alabama companies to order hoists in 1925, which show Woodward Iron Co. and Sloss, Sheffield Steel Castings and steel forgings were precis/on finished, ranged in power from 60hp to 1500hp. Theirs, an and Iron Co. as the main suppliers of pig iron. Coal, assembled and tested to match the engineer's electrically driven 800hp hoist, first worked at Aldrich mine cokeand sand were bought largely through agents, drawings in the machine shop. Some assembly may and was then transferred in 1939 to Sloss's Ruffner mine. and lumber also came from a variety of sources. have occurred on the transfer table and tracks At both locations the hoist's foundations can be seen. The largest single check that month went to (installed for locomotive repairs). Again, overhead Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad Company -which cranes were the main method of moving hoist parts. As with all of Hardie-Tynes' 1920s products, the majority probably supplied Hardie-Tynes' steel. of the hoist's many parts were cast on site, with precision H. The hoist, most probably, was partially assembled finishing and assembly taking place in the machine shop. and left the plant as the. raw material had come in -by train Zvcnimir Franii, Summer 1992 Supervised by Craig Strong BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT HARDIE -TYNES MANUFACTURING COMPANY 800 28th STREET NORTH JEFFERSON COUNTr w Above: Fabrication Shop, Hardie-Tynes Manufacturing Company, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-13-G-4, David Deising, 1992. In 1895, Hardie-Tynes organized to serve the District's industrial and agricultural interests, developing a line of products used in the mines, cotton ginning and other manufactories. Today, the company produces large specialty machine work for hydroelectric dams, naval vessels and spacecraft, but no longer operates a foundry. In the for mer foundry building (above), workers fabricate large pieces and overhaul steam turbines. In the adjoining machine shop, they use surface lathes, boring machines and cutters to finish surfaces and cut edges to the required specifications. Right: Belt-Drives, Carpenter Shop, Hardie-Tynes Manufacturing Company, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-13-H-13, DavidDeising, 1992. Hardie-Tynes's carpenter shop contains an extensive collection of wooden patterns and several pieces of belt-driven equipment used in days when the company created its patterns to mold iron pieces in its foundry. Hardie-Tynes has donated other patterns to Sloss Furnaces for interpretive use. The company retains a substantial collection of drawings, photographs and correspondence. FOUNDRIES S'outher. n Ductile Casting Corporation's Bessemer foundry began in 1935 as the Jones Foundry, a five-man, family-owned firm. A jobbing foundry, Jones cast pieces under con tract, hand carrying molten iron to molds laid out on the foundry floor to cast each piece. By the mid-1950s, the firm pioneered the production of "ductile" iron through the use of ferrous scrap, a process first commercially used in 1948. Softer than traditional grey foundry iron, ductile iron can withstand high tensile force and vibration. In the 1970s, a new owner, Morris Hackney, installed electric induction furnaces to reduce emissions and, by good fortune, identified an ideal process for making ductile iron. Continued automa tion of the casting processes helped Jones (Southern Ductile since 1981) survive chang ing markets that closed many competitors. Southern Ductile and its parent company, Citation, both Birmingham-based, now operate foundries in many states and cast parts for automobiles, agricultural and industrial applications. Bode Morin, Historian, HAER Documentation Project, 1995. Above: Worker Pouring Iron from Bull Ladle, Southern Ductile Casting Below: Southern Ductile's casting process incorporates a series of linear production paths that Corporation, Bessemer, Jefferson County, AL-125-D-3, Jet Lowe, 1995. track raw materials from storage bins to the melting area and then to the molding lines. Molds are produced in sand and poured with iron on continuous conveyors that recycle the This worker transfers molten iron from the bull ladle (a vessel sand and automatically deliver solidified castings to workers who break off excess iron and used to store batches of iron tapped from the cupola) to smaller transport the castings to grinding and storage areas. Bode Marin ladles that hang from a suspended track system. As each small overhead ladle fills, another worker handling this smaller ladle will maneuver it along the track to the mold conveyor and begin filling molds with molten iron. B.M. CASTING PROCESS 1995 Iron Melting Iron Pouring 12. Purchased scrap iron and steel and recycled Molten iron, poured from furnaces into bull ladles foundry scrap lifts are stored in a covered area attached to overhead rails, is delivered to pouring Melt materials, transported by electric magnet are areas near the BMM pouring conveyor and Hunter weighted and dumped into the preheater Tru-flos. Prehe&ter cleans and heats scrap prior to melting Bull ladle contents are emptied into smaller Charge buckets deposit preheated scrap into pouring ladles end magnesium is added. electric furnaces. Pounng ladles, also attached to overhead rails, fill Electric furnaces reduce scrap to molten iron. completed molds on Hunter Tru-flo conveyors and (See sheet 4 for details) BMM. (See sheet 5 for details.) 0 Shakeout Hunter Tru-flos push cooled molds onto a vibrating dump conveyor running below all three units Sand and castings are separated, sand returns to be reconditioned, and castings travel to common degating areas. BMM molds are shaken out of flasks, sand returns to be reconditioned, and castings travel to common degating areas. (See sheet 8 for details.) Degating 23. Workers use sledge hatfimers and pneumatic separators to remove excess iron from castings. Sand (See sheet 8 for details.) 1. Sand, reconditioned with water and fresh sand, is fed into hoppers above the BMM and Hunter molding machines (See sheet 8 for details.) Cores 2. Cores, prepared in a separate building, are ~1 delivered to molding stations by fork lifts 3. Workers insert cores into the drag. (See sheet 9 for details ) Hunter Mold Making 4 Hunter Matchplate Mo/ding Machines prepare and. with me addition of cores, assemble whole molds. Completed molds exit the machine and are placed on a Tru-flo conveyor. Molds are filled with molten iron from mobile ladles attached to overhead rails and cool as they travel around the conveyor. (See sheet 6 for details.) British Mo/ding Machine (BMM) Finishing The British Molding Machine (BMM) prepares Separated castings travel in bins to shot blast separate cope and drag mold halves machines that clean surfaces before going to Associated rollover and grinding areas where workers grind remaining mold halves in preparath surface protrusions. Closer and transfer unit (See sheet 2 for details) and places them onto th Molds are filled with mo Genera/ Information ladles attached to overh This drawing is a reconstruction based on original Castings cool as they travel around the drawings and histoncal records provided by Southern conveyor Ductile and sheets 2.4,5, $. 7.8 and 9 of this set. See (See sheet 7 for details.) 'HASH field notebooks for an annotated list of resources. n- BRITISH MOLDING MACHINE LINE jjjj BMM Implementation Southern Ductile traditionally manufactured castings in Closer and Transfer Unit three mold siies. In 1981, it replaced its largest cope and drag molding machines with a single automated Piacms invertm! cope onto Crag and lifts assembled model PBQ. made by the British Molding Machine moid onto pouring Company (BMM). Prior to its installation, both cope end conveyor. drag mold halves were made on separate machines hoisted to the pouring conveyor, where workers inserted cores and assembled the halves. The entire process generally required at least four workers to complete a single mold. The PBQ, modeled after an English Rollover Unit machine, and its associated rollover and to wering units, produced 96 complete molds per hour (averaging 33 inverts cope such that seconds each) and required only one worker to operate moid cavity again faces and one to insert cores After {he molds were downward in preparation for final mold assembly. assembled and poured, they traveled along a cooling Cope & Drag Detail conveyor, arriving at the shake out approximately one J / "N, hour after being made. '"%/Core Placement Area Is* Sand cons, when requind, manually placed in Sand Mullor «3z u PBQ P 3 Machine hi Detail PBQ Molding Machine Operation PBQ operations begin by rolling an empty flask from the shakeout conveyor into place on the PBQ mold tray. Simultaneously, the pattern shuttle that holds both cope and drag patterns slides the appropriate pattern under the mold tray, which the draw cylinder then lowers over the pattern. Molding sand, delivered by a belt conveyor, is conditioned in a muller atop the PBQ and fed by duct into the dump hopper. The dump hopper then portions out an amount of sand, different for the cope and drag, by opening pneumatically operated shutters. As it falls toward the flask, the sand passes through a set of externally powered aerators that spin a series of pins through the falling sand, permitting air to mix with the sand to increase its compatibility. After the flask is filled, the squeeze head slides into place over it. The mam cylinder then lifts the sand-filled flask and pattern, forcing them against the squeeze head", compacting the sand. After the mold has been rammed, the main cylinder is withdrawn, lowering until the mold h rests on the draw cylinder and the pattern is returned to General Information the pattern shuttle. The draw cylinder then lifts the This drawing is a reconstruction based sand-filled flask to the PBQ exit conveyor and the next on original drawings and historical IP flask is roiled into place on the mold tray,pushing the records provided by Southern Ductile. completed one out onto the conveyor leading to the first See HAER field notebooks for an rollover unit. annotated list of resources. Above: The automated British Molding Machine allows Southern Ductile to make large molds while decreasing the manpower required per mold. B.M. Left: Worker Inspecting Molds, Hunter Molding Machine, Southern Ductile Castings Corporation, Bessemer, Jefferson County, AL-125-D-1 I, Jet Lowe, 1995. The Hunter Molding Machine automatically produces molds by compressing moist sand against a pattern, withdrawing the pattern and discharging the completed mold. This worker checks a completed mold before it is pushed onto the conveyor (illustration opposite page). Once on the conveyor, another worker fills the cavity with iron from an overhead ladle. B.M. Birmingham's foundries have survived rapidly changing international competition by investing in new technolo gies and becoming less integrated. In the Birmingham area, a pool of skilled employees, accumulated technical knowledge and a concentration of foundry suppliers also contributed. Competition from plastics and other new materials is also intense. However, the well-known mechanical properties of iron, cast for over 2,000 years, make it a well-understood and comfortable medium. — Douglas A. Stockham, 1997. PIPEMAKING l\rind then they nursed it, rehearsed it — And gave out the news — That the Southland gave birth to the blues! If you're a Blues Music fan or over 40, you have heard it but under its 'new' name - 'The St. Louis Blues.' The words and music were written early in this century after W. C. Handy was employed at this Bessemer, Alabama, plant for $1.3 51 day! ... He became famous and went on to compose, 'The Pipeshop Blues,' harking back to his job in the swelter, smell, smoke and sounds of the foundry in Bessemer. It was sometime later when the more commercially acceptable name, 'St. Louis Blues,' was chosen. Not at all coincidentally, the foundry's address is 2023 St. Louis Avenue (the company's founders were from St. Louis). — Clippings and Information Supplied by U. S. Pipe Employees, Danny Cunningham and Robert W. Jennings, 17. S. Piper, 1996. Aerial View, United States Pipe and Foundry Company (U. S. Pipe) Bessemer Plant, Looking Across the Pipe Yard (bottom) and Plant to the Interstate 20/59 Bessemer Interchange, Bessemer, Jefferson County, AL-32-1, Jet Lowe, 1994. U. S. Pipe's Bessemer Pipe Plant began operations in 1888 as the Howard-Harrison Iron Company, producing cast-iron pipe in four circular floor pits. The early 12-foot pipe ranged in diameter from 4 to 48 inches. In 1899, Howard-Harrison merged with 13 other United States pipeworks to become U. S. Pipe, then the world's largest pipe manufac turing firm. Today, the Bessemer plant produces ductile iron pipe in 18-foot lengths with diameters from 12 to 64 inches and equivalent metric sizes and a variety of metal coatings. The 169-acre plant with over 560,000 square feet of buildings employs 600 people. U. S. Pipe also operates its North Birmingham plant, opened in 1900 as the Dimmick Pipe Company. MATERIALS HANDLING MELTING FACILITIES DeLAVAUD CASTL MATERIALS HANDLING MELTING FACILITIES /. 8-ton Magnet Crane / / Cupola Exhaust Stack 2 Metafile Weigh Hopper 12. Water Trough 3 Skip Bucket in Loading Position 13. Detached Windbox 4 Non-Metallic Conveyor 14. Hot Blast Tuyere 5. Coke Bin 15. Afterburner 6 Ferro-Silicon Bin 16. Cupola Baghouse 7 Limestone Bin 17. Hot Metal Trough a. Non-Metallic Weigh Hopper IS. Duck's Nest 9. Skip Hoist Motor 19. 20-ton Desulfurizing Ladle 10 Skip Bucket in Charging Position 20. Turntable 21. Access Road for Slag Loader <""> ...j U, METAL YARD ; ;-vv..; • v.i vmwmm. MELTING FAC. Above: This drawing shows the proximity of materials handling, melting and pipemaking facilities. Scrap iron, coke and flux (primarily dolomite) are charged in layers into the cupo la — a straight stack vessel operated with cold blasts of air — where they are reduced to gray iron and slag. Iron is tapped from the cupola into 20-ton ladles (see illustration on the back cover). Transferred to 10-ton ladles, this gray iron is rendered "ductile" by the addition of magnesium before being trans ferred, once again, into 2.5-ton ladles and charged into the centrifugal casting machines. R.O. Left: DeLavaud Pipe Casting, U. S. Pipe, Bessemer, Jefferson County, AL-32-B-24, Jet Lowe, 1996. Here, a worker operates the deLavaud casting machine. To the right of the pipe is a basket of cores which form the ball end of the pipe. The two recently spun pipes await transport to the annealing oven where they will be treated before shipment to customers world wide. R.O. NG SHED s'inc, e its founding in the 1880s, U. S. Pipe and Foundry Company's Bessemer plant has specialized in bell and spigot pipe used primarily for municipal water systems. The plant also produced flange pipe to cany natural gas, pipe fittings and miscellaneous foundry castings. During these years, pipemaking technology evolved. Following late-19th century practice, Howard-Harrison installed four circular sand pits. Between 1912 and 1917, modernization included two mechanized Giles turntables transforming this operation into a near continuous casting process. In 1921, U. S. Pipe obtained exclusive rights to manufacture, market and license deLavaud centrifugally cast pipe. Thirteen years later, the company installed deLavaud cast ing machines, replacing two of the pits at its Bessemer plant. Unlike most other company plants in other cities, the Bessemer facility continued to produce pipe by both the sand pit and deLavaud processes until the late 1950s. At this time, deLavaud machines replaced the remaining sand casting pits. A large pipe casting machine was started up in 1976. Dr. Richard O'Connor, Historian, 17. S. Pipe HAER Recording Project and HAER Historian, National Park Service, Washington, D. C. DeLA VALID -CASTING MACHINE LADLE DUMP DRIVE The deLavaud casting machine is a cylindrical <1 " steel maid, mounted on rollers in a water jacket, turned at high speed by an electric motor. The water jacket, in turn, is mounted on 2.5T0N LADLES a track, allowing the entire assembly to move forward and backward on an inclined fixed bed ud Basement- TRANSFER LADLE SHIFTER CAR £ s o (J g 9> GENERAL INFORMATION This drawing is a reconstruction based on original drawings and historical records provided by U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company; and HAER field notes and photographs. See HAER field notebooks for an annotated list of resources. v CONTROL CONSOLE U. S. PIPE & FOUNDRY CO. SCALE* 3/8'- I'-O" DELAVAUD CASTING MACHINE TO LARGE DIAME1 CORE MAKING FACI The. large diameter machine resembles the small diameter in its basic pipe forming operations: The core is brought from coremaking room and is waiting for conveyor. Hot metal car is moved in with slurry line in down position. The mold spins and slurry is deposited along length of mold. CORE CONVl Two people set the core on the end of the mold. Molten iron is poured into the ladle in the hot metal cor in preparation for pouring. Hot metal car is brought bock into mold with the lance in the up position. Ladle is tilted and iron poured into rapidly rotating mold. Hot metal car is then slowly withdrawn from the machine, forming Che pipe as /':' exits Hot metal car is completely withdrawn. Puller car moves in and puller hoe extracts pipe out of mold and onto drawbridge. Floor grating GENFRAI INFORMATION lifts to support pipe as it is This drawing is based on information provided withdrawn. on sheet 15 of 16; refer to that sheet for further details. Portions of this drawing have been simplified for clarity. SCALE i 3/IS"" f- 0" LARGE DIAMETER CASTING PROCESS DELINEATED BY Eric S. Elmer. 1996 HISTORIC AMERICAN JIRMNGHAM DISTRICT RECORDING PROJECT UNITED STATES PIPE AND FOUNDRY COMPANY-1899 2023 ST LOUIS AVENUE ENGINEERING RECORD JEFFERSON COUNTY AL-32 uctl; PLEASE CREDIT NEATOR DATE OF T HOT METAL CAR m a. Large diameter pipe machines differ ui from retractive, small diameter in$ machines. The mold is stationary, a while the ladle, trough and slurry lance ui move in and out along tracks. Pipe is grabbed by a hoe and extracted from stationary mold by moving puller car. The Bessemer plant is the only U. S. Pipe facility producing pipe 42" to 64" diameter. USED CORE BIN GENERAL INFORMATION This drawing is a reconstruction eased on original drawings and historical records provided by U. S. Pipe and Foundry Company; and HAER fieldnotes and photographs. See HAER field notebooks for an annotated fist of resources. PULLER CAR DRIVE MECHANISM U. S. PIPE & FOUNDRY CO SCALE i 3/8"- I' - 0" LARGE DIAMETER CASTING MACHINE CASTING MACHINES L•arg e cast-iron pipe, ranging from 48" to 72" in diameter, is a pri mary conduit for drinking water, sewage disposal and water used in hydroelectric generation. To make this pipe, U. S. Pipe uses a differ ent process from that of the smaller diameter castings. The large- diameter machine rotates in a stationary carriage and receives iron from a moving hot metal car. On its first pass through the mold, a lance attaches to the hot metal car and deposits a coating that miti gates the chilling effects of the water-cooled mold on the iron. A transport ladle then deposits the required amount of iron into the ladle on the hot metal car. The car returns to the rotating mold, pour ing the iron as it withdraws. R.O. Left: Cleaning a 64-Inch Pipe, Large Pipe Casting Machine (1976), U. S. Pipe, Bessemer, Jefferson County, AL-32-B-11, Jet Lowe, 1993. A worker breaks loose remaining core fragments from a large-diameter pipe recently extracted from the molding machine. The puller hoe and car used to extract the pipe from the molding machine can be seen at the right. The molding machine is partially visible at the left end of the pipe. R.O. Aerial View, McWane Cast Iron Pipe Co. Pipe Yard (foreground) and Plant (center to right), Tenth Avenue North (center left to top center) and Vanderbilt Road (center, running left to right), Looking West to the Goslin- Birmingham and Hardie-Tynes Foundries (top left, just below U.S. 280) and the City Skyline with Interstate 20/59 (top center to right), Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-70-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. James R. McWane, a trained minister and experienced foundry and pipe man from Virginia, began this pipeworks in 1922. In 1904, McWane's earlier foundry, the Birmingham Steel and Iron Company, gathered together the city's best foundrymen to cast the 15 immense molds that joined to form Birmingham's Vulcan statue. McWane operated as a static foundry until the 1940s when they installed deLavaud pipemaking machines. Still family owned and operated, McWane is one of the nation's largest pipe producers and parent corporation to other pipeworks and foundries nation wide. (Note the tractor trailers waiting to be loaded in the inven tory yard. One hundred truck lines serve Birmingham.) In addition to the pipeworks, other large, historic foundries operat ing in Birmingham today include Citation-Southern Ductile-Jones, Denver-Thomas, Inc., Goslin-Birmingham Division (Green Bay Packaging), Hardie-Tynes Manufacturing Company, Lawler Foundry Corporation and Stockham Valves and Fittings, Inc. The District's foundry industry also manufactures decorative products. Birmingham leads the world in the manufacture of wrought iron furniture, with Lawler and Meadowcraft, Inc., the major producers. STOCKHAM PIPE - F BIRMINGHAM, ALABAM William Stockham began his foundry career as an iron molder at the Illinois Malleable Iron Company after graduating from the University of Illinois in 1885. He advanced to general manager and then secretary of the Stockham^ &s company before leaving to purchase his own foundry in Chicago. A/though initially successful, the economic ^Valves & panic of 1893 forced its closure. Fittings Recognizing the mineral advantages of northern Alabamaj Stockham rented a car-barn in the northern section of Birmingham and with borrowed capital and five employees incorporated the Stockham Pipe and Fittings Company in 7 903. ' Established in 1811, Birmingham prospered on the basis of rich deposits of coal, limestone, and iron ore. hematite, the red ore that dominates the region produces very high grade foundry iron, and the Birmingham area soon became one of the country's primary iron founding districts. The Stockham firm expanded slowly through the early years. In 1 908 a fire destroyed the foundry and its pipe making equipment leading the company to discontinue pipe production and concentrate on iron fittings. In 1914 asecond fire destroyed several rooms and shops, prompting Stockham Pipe and Fittings to move five blocks away to the site they currently occupy. After the 1918 relocation, the company expanded and modernized to increase production and reduce costs. The firm opened warehouses in Chicago (19Z1) and Los Angeles (1923), added a line of malleable fittings in 1923, and in 1926 installed their first continuous molding unit in the grey iron foundry. Over the next two years the addition of a yard crane Birmingham Area 1994 Stockham Vicinifr eliminated hand unloading of raw materials, and This illustration is based on a map from the This site plan is based on maps ana continuous mechanical cleaning mills aided the removal Department of Interior's Geological Survey. graphs referenced in the HAER histt of sprues, gates, and runners. UTM coordinates: Center 1 &.5Z06L Labor shortages in an industry plagued with higher than average turnover rates led to a variety of company social policies. In the 1920s, Stockham offered an O 1000 3.000 4000 0 SOO 1000 attendance bonus to combat the desire to "ramble run r~ zz: 1 I I I -I- about." The firm also built company housing, SCALE »"- 1000-0" FEET s SCALE 1' = 3O0,-0' supported athletic teams, and provided free medical 0 SOO 1000 ZOOO 3000 o 100 200 300 1 I I 1 I I -X 11 in I ana dental benefits to its employees and their families, NORTH SCALE I: 12000 METERS NORTH SCALE 77*533 Bronze Globe Valve Grey Cast Iron Fitting Malleable Iron FOR STEAM, WA TER, OIL OP. CAS LINES FOR MOST PURPOSES WHERESHOCK.AND VARIETY Of PAT WHERE WORKING PRESSURES DO NOT VIBRATIONS ARE NOT A CONCERN, THEY SIZES MAKE IT PC EXCEED 150 POUNDS STEAM OR 3O0 PROVIDE THE LEAST EXPENSIVE MEANS REQUIREMENTS ( POUNDS COLD WA TER, OIL OR GAS. NON- Of INSTALLATIONS WHERE CAST IRON INSTALLATION SHOCK. FITTINGS ARE REQUIRED SUBJECT TO SI- QUICK TEMPERA: ID PLATE HAND WHEEL GLAND STEM PACKING NUT PACKING BONNET BODY C DISC 10 LOCK-NUT ''"•WWuii-v'i'i'' z s < o o u ITTI NGS * t A 14 U7 !i X^ a practice that continued through the early 1990s. Narrowly surviving the depression, the firm grew steadily by adding steel and brass foundries and the production of bronze valves. World War II temporarily 1 - interrupted iron valve production as Stockham redeployed resources to the forging of 75 mm she/Is, j earning three Army/Navy *£" production awards. In 1948, the foundry, which hadn't made pipe since 1908, changed its name from Stockham Pipe & Fittings, to Stockham Valves & Fittings. Over the next 45years the company continued to Combustion Zone, Cupola Exterior (1990), Grey Iron Foundry, Stockham Valves grow, purchasing other firms to increase product lines, and Fittings, Inc., Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-49-A-5, Jet Lowe, 1993. :•.••••'•••• > and stave off domestic competition. More recently, Stockham has faced competition in an increasingly Cupolas melt the raw materials that produce today's foundry iron. global market as valves and fittings produced in Tuyeres, or air nozzles, direct blasts of air into the hottest area of these countries with lower labor and operating costs have coke-fired vessels. Slag pours from the cupola trough (left). Molten rapidly approached U.S. quality and selection In iron is guided into a bull ladle (not pictured). Operating similarly to r response, the company has streamlined production by eliminating underused processes and machines and blast furnaces, burning coke produces temperatures high enough — redesigning products to reduce excess material. often greater than 2,900° F. — to melt the iron. Raw materials are r This recording project is part of the Historic loaded into the cupola top and move down the stack as the materials American Engineering Record (HAER), a long-range below melt. By looking through a view glass in the tuyere, the cupola program to document historically significant engineering tender can check to make certain the flow inside the cupola is unim and industrial works in the United States. The HAER < peded. Bode Marin, Historian, HAER Recording Project, Summer 1994. Q. %1 - program is administered by the Historic American O DO Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering U Record Division (HABS/HAER) of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The pit Stockham Valves & Fittings Recording Project was t« a sponsored during the summer of 1994 by HAER, under u-i the direction of Dr. Robert J. Kapsch, Chief of Si HABS/HAER, and Douglas Stockham of Stockham CO*"1 UJw LU Valves and Fittings. 0-ofc 1 aerial photo- The field work, measured drawings, historical < •>ry report. reports, and photographs were, prepared under the I ",0.3711200 direction of Eric N. DeLony, Chief of HAER and Richard o O'Connor and Craig Strong, Project Leaders. The o recording team consisted of architects Erin Christman, Team Supervisor, and Susan Begley, Kristin Peterson, Paul Song, and Qizhi Tu (US/ICOMOS). Historian Bode FEET Morin produced the historical report Formal 400 BOO aoo photography was done by Jet Lowe, HAER i : i METERS Photographer. c Fitting Iron Gate Valve o fc to FOR OIL, GAS AND GASOLINE, FOR TERNS AND RANGES OF Pneumatic Molding Machine Unit No. 1 (1926), Grey Iron Foundry, Stockham SSIBLE TO SA TISFY THE CHEMICAL LINES CARRYING CREOSOTE, 8 IF PRACTICALLY EVERY CAUSTIC SODA. ACID AND ALKALINE Valves and Fittings, Inc., Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-49-A-12, Jet WHERE LINES ARE SOLUTIONS WHICH WOULD CORRODE THE o Lowe, 1994. iOCK. VIBRATION AND BRASS PARTS OF A BRONZE MOUNTED rURE CHANGES. VALVE t«l Molding is the process of packing moist sand around a pattern. When the pattern is removed and the mold assembled, molten iron fills the impression it leaves in the sand, producing the casting. Prior to instal to lation of molding machines and conveyors, molders hand packed molds and laid them out in rows on the floor to be poured using hand-held ID PLATE $ crucibles filled with molten iron. The cast parts were then shaken free HAND WHEEL GLAND of the sand and cleaned. Here, using equipment installed in the 1920s, STEM molders release sand from an overhead hopper into a flask situated on PACKING NUT PACKING 6 the molding machine. After filling the flask, the molding machine BONNET S BODY compresses the sand over the other side, conditioning half of the mold. General Information This drawing is a reconstruction based on drawings and historical records provided by Stockham Valve and Fittings. See HAER historical report for an annotated list of resources. Grinding Area, Grey Iron Foundry, Stockham Valves and Fittings, Inc., Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-49-A-26, Jet Lowe, 1993. Molds are made of two sections that are held together by weights. Runners (channels cut into the mold) direct molten iron to the interior impression. This process produces a casting with excess iron attached to the casting. For smaller castings, workers use sledge hammers to break off excess iron and bench grinders to remove iron closer to the casting. Here, James Crumb uses a swing frame grinder to clean a 12" grey iron flange casting. B.M. Cafeteria / YMCA Engineering Dispensary tsssa Raw Materials Casting I Raw materials and foundry supplies arrived in the main The iron cupolas and yard by rail car. The yard crane unloaded pig and scrap materials to molten rht iron, scrap steel, coke, and limestone into yard storage attached to overhead . bins. When required by the foundry, the yard crane metal from the melting i Tapping Machine (1920s) andOperator, Stockham Valves andFittings, Inc., removed these materials from their storage areas and where it was poured into Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-49-C-3, Jet Lowe, 1993. transported them to the cupola charger. Brass, zinc, castings were shaken ou sands, fire brick, and other foundry supplies were After excess iron is removed from castings, they often require further fin to cleaning areas where unloaded by forklift, hand truck, or yard crane and Forklifts then delivered ; ishing. Fittings, used to join pieces of pipe, require standardized threads so delivered to the appropriate unit or department. the annealing ovens or t that the pipe can be easily connected. Stockham engineers often designed and built their own equipment for specific processes. This worker uses a Stockham-designed tapping machine to cut threads into fittings. B.M. • < 0 u y ill PERATIONS c.1947 u 5 < i o> sic Pickling and section Galvanizing Tapping Scale: 1" = 50'-0' Process S3 Fitting Production D Valve Production brass furnaces reduced raw Grey iron and annealed malleable iron fittings arrived at Grey iron and bronze valve bodies required extensive ital and slag. Mobile ladles the machining room in fairly rough condition. Here, machining prior to assembly. Contact surfaces, interior rails transported the liquified material remaining after cleaning was ground or sheared surfaces, and excess material were ground and polished zrea to the molding conveyors off. Depending on use, some fittings received an acid to ensure tight seals and smooth flow during use. sand molds. After cooling, the. bath and zinc coating in the galvanizing room prior to Multi-bit boring machines then drilled bolt holes in it and transported by conveyor delivery by forklift to the tapping area. There, machines flange sections. Depending on the type of valve and its excess material was removed, cut screw threads into each orifice. After testing, small intended use, some bodies were galvanized prior to the cleaned materials to either fittings were stored in wood barrels while larger ones machining or coated before final assembly, testing, •he machining rooms. rested on pallets prior to shipping. stocking, and shipping. UNDERGROUND MINING aurin g the late 1970s and early 1980s, under ground coal mining operations moved west from Jefferson to Tuscaloosa County where substantial coal deposits in the Blue Creek Seam of the Warrior Coal Field are now being mined. New technologies permit mining at depths between 1,300 and 2,400 feet in the deepest vertical shaft coal mines in North America. Jim Walter Resources, Drummond Company, Inc., and U. S. Steel's major underground mines are now Alabama's largest producers. Below: Production Hoist (left center), Raw Coal Pile (center), Clean Coal Pile (right center), Rail Loadout (top center), Coal Preparation Plant, Jim Walter Resources Blue Creek No. 7 Coal Mine (opened 1978), Brookwood, Tuscaloosa County, Jet Lowe, 1994. At Blue Creek No. 7, two longwall systems and four con tinuous miner sections extract up to 16 tons of coal per minute from the 72-inch-thick coal seam. Belts convey Above: Abandoned Conveyors and Preparation Facilities, Birmingham Coal and Iron the coal 1,750 feet up to washing and preparation facili Company-Woodward Iron Company-Mead-Drummond Company, Inc., Mulga Mine ties on the surface. Here, mined coal is washed, chemi (1907-1983), Mulga, Jefferson County, AL-73-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. cally and mechanically cleaned and stored for shipment. For 80 years, the Mulga Mine produced Pratt and Nickel Plate coal for rail The plant cleans 950 tons per hour. For each ton of raw road engines, blast furnaces, cokeworks and for export. Pictured are facilities coal going through the washer, 39 percent becomes "tail built in the 1970s, including a conveyor coming up from the mine portal to a ings" which are mostly waste. No. 7 Mine annually pro breaker, the coal preparation plant (far left) and a conveyor to the top of duces 2.4 million tons of metallurgical coal for utilities the clean coal stacker (right). These structures were demolished in 1997 and and for export through the port of Mobile to markets the site reclaimed. worldwide. Aerial View, U. S. Steel Mining Co. Concord Coal Preparation Plant With Conveyor Transporting Coal from the U. S. Steel's Oak Grove Mine (top left) to this Facility (opened 1948), Concord, Jefferson County, AL-51-2, Jet Lowe, 1994. The Concord Mine, the District's first fully mechanized coal mining operation, operated from 1948 through 1982. Today, the surface plant prepares coal mined at U. S. Steel's Oak Grove mine utilizing the longwall system of mining. The Oak Grove mine, opened in 1973, increased production throughout the 1990s and produced 2.9 million tons of coal in 1996 and employed 473 persons. Alabama Land and Mineral Corporation Area 6 Coal Mine (opened 1990), Abernant, Jefferson County, Jet Lowe, 1993. The dragline (center) is removing the overburden (dirt and rock on top of the coal) to expose the coal seam, the first of five seams to be mined in this pit. The min ing firm leased the land from U. S. Steel. Prior to beginning mining, U. S. Steel cut timber from the land. The bottom third of this photograph has been graded for replanting of grass and trees. After mining at the site is complete, state and federal laws require the land be returned to A. O. C. ("Approximate Original Contours"). Area 6 increased production throughout the 1990s, producing 600,000 tons in 1996. With cur rent technology, reserves of metallurgical coal at this site can be mined until 2010. nrmingham's business and industry are a continuing story; it's still going on. Coal, iron ore and limestone - those Overview, 8750 Pit, Drummond Company, Inc. (established 1935), Cedrum Mine (opened 1980), Townley, Walker County, AL-44-A-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. were the ingredients in the recipe for young Birmingham more than a century ago. Today, two out of three of those ingredi At its Cedrum Mine in Walker County, Drummond Company, Inc., a leading U. S. producer, cur ents - coal and limestone - are still important products of the rently strips three coal seams. Here, a dragline - with a boom as long as a football field and a bucket Birmingham District. Coal did not disappear with the demise capable of picking up 175 tons - strips overburden to access the coal seam 200 feet deep. In the pit below the dragline, front-end loaders scoop the coal into trucks for transport to nearby steam gener of the steam engine and the coal furnace in your basement. ating facilities. Land reclamation occurs concurrently with stripping. The pastures in the foreground The Birmingham District coal industry in the 1990s is pro and to the right of the dragline have been reseeded with grass, fertilized and limed. Cedrum annually ducing more coal than at any time in history. Look at those produced more than a million tons in the 1990s and employed 160 persons. Drummond employed electric lights and think of coal. More than two-thirds of the 2,600 persons in Alabama in 1996. electricity in Alabama is produced from coal. (More than 85 percent of the coal consumed in the United States is for power generation.) Coal is also an important export product for Alabama and the United States, a definite plus in the balance of trade. — Jim Strickland, "Comments at the Birmingham Opening of Birmingham Historical Society's MAKING IT in the Birmingham Industrial District Exhibition," October 5, 1995. Today, more than 85 percent of Alabama's coal is mined in Jefferson, Tuscaloosa and Walker Counties. With the bigger machinery, metallurgical markets at home and worldwide and improved transportation by barge along the Warrior River, truck and rail, several coal operators conduct mega-scale surface mining. During the 1970s, the Drummond Company pioneered the District's use of this new technology and the development of interna Z&2%* tional markets while complying with the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, the strin gent regulations that cover this industry. In 1996, surface mines, including Cedrum Mine, produced 27 percent of the District's production of 25.2 million tons. 8750 Pit, Drummond Company, Inc., Cedrum Mine, Townley, Walker County, AL-44-A-7, Jet Lowe, 1993. This image shows the 8750 Pit named for the $40 million dragline (right) used in the operation. The Bucyrus Erie Shovel (left) cleans a level bench on which the dragline can operate as it removes the overburden down to the levels of the coal seams. Aerial View, Sloss Industries Corporation, formerly Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company and U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company Coke and Chemical Division (opened 1920) Showing the Cokeworks (top center), By-Products and Chemical Plant Facilities (top center to left), Slag Wool Manufactory (left center), Materials Handling Facilities (bottom center) and Cars Loaded with Coal Awaiting Coking, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL-56-5, Jet Lowe, 1994. Sloss-Sheffield began manufacturing coke and coke by-products here in 1920. A short-line railroad serviced the plant and extended to nearby coal mines. Coke produced here fired the company furnaces in the city In the years following World War II as markets center and on an adjoining North Birmingham site. U. S. Pipe was a major customer of Sloss iron. Sloss for steam coal for railroads declined, Alabama added a chemical plant here in 1947 and, in 1958, U. S. Pipe constructed the No. 5 Blast Furnace. Today, Power Company (organized in 1906 to generate the materials handling facility for this furnace (largest structure in the photograph), the 1958 Boiler House power for the state's growing towns, cities and and the Slag Wool Manufactory remain. Sloss Industries now operates the world's largest slag wool facility industrial plants) became a major consumer of under one roof, processing slag from U. S. Steel Fairfield works and local foundries now that the No. 5 District coal. Steam-powered electric generating Furnace no longer operates. (Slag wool, a product spun from blast furnace slag, is used to produce ceiling plants consume 70 percent of Alabama's coal tile, blown insulation and stabilizers for asphalt paving and other applications to replace asbestos.) The production today. Bulk Handling Facility, designed to feed the No. 5 Furnace, now transloads aggregate from railroad to truck for transfer and storage. Coke-fired boilers produce steam to supply this complex as well as U. S. Pipe's North Birmingham pipeworks. Sloss Industries employs 450 persons. Drummond Company, Inc. (formerly Alabama By-Products Corporation-ABC), Coke Plant (opened 1920), Tarrant, Jefferson County, AL-19-3, Jet Lowe, 1993. A "quench," or cloud of steam, spirals upward as water cools the red-hot coke released or "pushed" from a coke oven. One of four active cokeworks in the District, this Tarrant plant supplies District and Midwest industries. The coke is used primarily by foundries serving the automotive and cast-iron pipe industries. Birmingham-area coke plants are operated by Drummond, Koppers (which purchased Woodward Iron Company's coke operations in 1969) and Sloss Industries-Jim Walters (which purchased U. S. Pipe's plant in 1969). Republic Steel's plant at Thomas remains in an excellent state of preser vation. U. S. Steel no longer cokes its own coal at its Fairfield works. Aerial Views, Alabama Power Company Gorgas (left) and Miller (below) Steam Plants (opened 1917 and 1991), Gorgas, Walker County and West Jefferson, Jefferson County, AL-138-1, AL-36-1, Jet Lowe, 1993. The Gorgas and Miller coal-fired steam plants are located along the Warrior River near major coal mines. In the Gorgas photograph (above), barges unload coal that conveyors feed to the plant. At Miller, the largest of Alabama Power Company's 22 generating plants, four units, each capable of generating enough electricity for 822,000 homes, burn low-sulphur coal to boil water and create steam. The steam is pumped to a turbine to generate electricity. Miller's immense towers cool the water emerging from the coal-fired boilers. Power is transmitted via wires into the "grid" whence it is distributed to residential and industrial users. STEELMAKING TODAY T JL he Birmingham District serves as a center for steel production, fabri- produce steel from ferrous scrap (old cars, refrigerators, etc.) in cation and processing. In 1996, U. S. Steel (Fairfield), Birmingham Steel electric furnaces. (As production levels now indicate, these mills Corporation (North Birmingham) and SMI Steel, Inc. (Woodlawn) pro- are no longer "mini.") New technologies and markets together duced 3.5 million tons of steel and blooms. When the Tuscaloosa Steel with major investments in rebuilding historic facilities ("brownfield" sites mill reaches full capacity, these plants will be capable of producing such as the 1909 Fairfield works, 1916 Connor Steel Company, now SMI, 4.3 million tons of steel, a production level equivalent to that of the Inc.; 1903 Central Foundry, now Tuscaloosa Steel and the early 1955 mini Fairfield plant in 1945. Gulf States Steel in Gadsden also produces steel. mill now, Birmingham Steel Corporation) as well as new plants or "green- When Trico Steel, LLC in Decatur produces at capacity, Alabama's basic field" sites (such as Trico Steel, LLC in Decatur, Alabama) have combined steel production will exceed all former levels. to keep Birmingham area steel competitive worldwide. Major area proces sors include Mercedes-Benz U. S. International Inc., Butler Manufactuing U. S. Steel's Fairfield works and Gulf States Steel are integrated mills, Company, Hanna Steel and O'Neal Steel. Major scrap dealers include making steel from scratch. The other plants, termed "mini mills," M. Kimerling & Sons, Inc. and Jefferson Iron & Metal. Q-Bop Steelmaking Furnace (blown in 1974- 1978),U. S. Steel Fairfield Works, Fairfield, Jefferson County, AL-37-B-12, Jet Lowe, 1993. During the 1970s and 1980s, U. S. Steel sig nificantly upgraded and expanded iron and steelmaking capability at its Fairfield works. Each of three Q-BOP (basic oxygen process) vessels fed with molten iron and scrap can produce 270 tons of steel per hour. The vessels' water-cooled doors open to per mit charges of scrap and molten iron. U. S. Steel installed these furnaces in the former open hearth facility, utilizing a technology to inject oxygen into the furnace base, not from above as is customary, and without requiring higher profile buildings. Farley Cutting Machine and Operator, O'Neal Steel (established 1922), Birmingham, Jefferson Crane Removing Coil of Cold Rolled Steel from Runout Table, Strip Mill, Steckler Machine, County, AL-71-A-3, Jet Lowe, 1993. Tuscaloosa Steel Co (established 1986), Holt, Tuscaloosa County, AL-82-A-8, Jet Lowe, 1993 Service centers form another significant manufacturing segment in the Birmingham Established by Tippins, Inc, O'Neal Steel, ACIPCO and British Steel, this mini mill District. Established in 1922 as a steel fabricator, O'Neal Steel opened one of the is located on the site of the former Central Iron and Coal Foundry at Holt. In this South's first steel service centers in 1937. The family-owned firm, which operates photograph, a heated slab has made several passes through the Steckler mill, reduc service centers across the nation, takes raw steel, pipe, tubing, structural steel, as ing its thickness until the required gauge is obtained. Tuscaloosa Steel, which well as stainless steel and aluminum, and processes them for assembly by fabricators recently began processing basic steel, is now rated at 800,000 tons annually. British and manufacturers. Since the 1950s, O'Neal has also warehoused steel prod Steel is completeing a plant in Mobile, Alabama to supply enriched iron to ucts. In this photograph, a piece of steel is cut to customer specifications. Tuscaloosa Steel, Trico and other customers. • Twin Slabs on Run-out Table, Continuous Slab Caster (1988), U. S. Steel Fairfield Works, Fairfield, Jefferson County, AL-37-5, Jet Lowe, 1993. Molten steel produced in the Q-BOP furnaces flows through this contin uous caster and exits as steel slab on the runout table. Another continu ous caster, installed in 1984, makes blooms for the pipe mill. Employing approximately 2,200 people, the Fairfield works retains its position as the South's largest and most diversified steel-making plant, producing 2.3 million tons of steel and blooms, annually. Basic products include flat- rolled steel and seamless pipe. The seamless pipe mill began operation in 1984- A dual-line, making galvanized (zinc coated) and galvalum (zinc and aluminum coated) steel, opened in 1997. Fairfield casts 300 tons of slab per hour and finishes steel products for less than two man-hours per ton. U. S. Steel employs 3,000 persons in the greater Birmingham area at its steelmaking, coal mining, real estate and other operations. mZ*W 'r ' "* m wLl-% i % "- - '.*« ! wjfsHf e - Mm i i, ysB-. ' Jr _ . r ' \ 1 Aerial View, U. S. Steel Fairfield Works (est. 1909), Looking Southwest Showing Blast Furnace No. 8 (the largest structure in the photograph, top center), Raw Materials and Unloading Area (center right), with a Conveyor to the Furnace (right to center), Coke Plant (left center, closed in 1982 and demolished since the photograph was made); Q-BOPS (the vertical projections and sheds, top left); Continuous Caster, left top to center) Conveyor; Harbison-Walker Refractories, Inc. Plant, est. 1909, (bottom left); Vulcan Materials Company Slag Plant (opened 1918) with Crushing and Screening Operations (bottom right), AL-37-l,DavidDeising, 1992. The huge Blast Furnace No. 8, installed in 1978, produces 6,000 tons of iron (the equiva lent of 50 Vulcan statues) daily. Charged with raw materials by a 1,000-foot long convey or, this furnace melts pelletized iron ore to produce molten iron, which is transferred by rail to adjacent steelmaking facilities. Furnace burden for one day's run includes 8,000 tons of iron ore (imported via barge and rail from Canada, Brazil, Venezuela and Minnesota), 3,000 tons of coke (imported from Japan and Australia) and 500 tons of limestone (quarried locally). Vulcan Materials Company, a Fortune 500 Birmingham firm, established in 1906 to process slag at the TCI (later U. S. Steel) Ensley plant, operates quarries nationwide and this plant where furnace slag is crushed for use as anti-skid highway paving materials. Harbison-Walker Refractories has been producing fire brick for relining furnaces and coke ovens here since shortly after the Fairfield works opened some 88 years ago. Alabama Land & Mineral Corp. Pratt Coke Ovens & Mines, 31 Area 6 Coal Mine, 66 Preface, 2 Alabama Power Co. Gorgas Steam Pyne Red Ore Mine,* cover, 19 Plant, 69 Railroads, 22-27Red Mountain Alabama Power Co. Miller Steam Mines, 8-21 Plant, 69 Republic Steel-Thomas Blast American Cast Iron Pipe Company- Furnaces and Coke By-products ACIPCO, 45 Plant,* 32-35 Billy Gould Coal Mine & Coke Rickwood Field, 15 Oven,* 6,7 Ruffner No. 2 Red Ore Mine,* Birmingham Industrial District 20-21 Map, 44, 45 Ruffner Mountain Nature Birmingham Mineral Railroad- Center, 21 L. &N.8, 9, 12,26-27 Santa Fe-Burlington Northern East Birmingham Southern Railroad, Thomas Yard, 35 26-27 Sloss Abandoned Quarries, 21 Birmingham Steel Corporation, 70 Sloss Brookside Coal Mine and Brierfield Furnace,* 7 Coke Ovens,* 30, 31 British Steel pic, 70 Sloss City Furnaces (now National Brookside Coal Mine & Coke Historic Landmark),* 21, 40-43 Ovens,* 30-31 Sloss Industries, Inc., North Central Iron & Coal Co., Holt, 31 Birmingham Coke and Company Housing, Thomas, 38, 39 Chemical Plants, 68 Connors Steel Company, 70 Sloss Red Ore Mine Cook House, Nauvoo, Walker No. 2,* 18 County,* 29 SMI Steel, Inc.,70 CSX Boyles Yard , 22, 23 Southern Ductile - Citation (for Denver-Thomas, Inc., 59 merly Jones) Foundry,* 50, 51 Drummond Co., Inc. Cedrum Coal Stockham Valves & Fittings, Inc. Mine, 67 Birmingham Plant,* 2, 60-63 Drummond Co., Inc. -ABC Tarrant Tannehill's Civil War Furnaces, 4, Coke Plant, 68 TCI-U.S. Steel High-Line Drummond Co., Inc.-Woodward Railroad, 26 Iron Co. Mulga Coal Mine, 64 Thomas Cokeworks, Furnaces Site, Empire Coke Plant, Holt, 31 Quarries and Worker Housing, Ensley Works Site (TCI-U. S. 32-39 Steel), inside front cover Tippins, Inc., 70 Goslin-Birmingham Division- Trico Steel, LLC, 70 Green Bay Packaging Trunk Railroads, 24, 25 Company, 59 Tuscaloosa Steel Co. Holt Mini Gulf States Steel Co., 70 Mill, 70 Hardie-Tynes Manufacturing Co.,* U. S. Steel Ensley Works Site, cover, 46-49 inside front cover Holt Lock, Dam & Lake, Warrior U. S. Steel Fairfield Iron and Steel River, 25 Production Facilities, 70-71, Industrial Railroads, 26-27 inside back cover Ishkooda Ore Mining U. S. Pipe & Foundry Co. Bessemer Community, 17 Pipe Plant,* 53-57, back cover Jefferson Iron & Metal.,70 U. S. Steel Mining Co. Concord Jim Walter Resources Blue Creek Coal Preparation Plant, 65 No. 7 Coal Mine, 64 Valley View Red Ore Mine,* 12,13 Kimerling, M. & Sons, Inc., 70 Vulcan Statue & Park,* 9-11 Lawler Foundry Corporation, 59 Vulcan Materials Co. Slag Plant, McWane Cast Iron Pipe 70-71 Co. Birmingham Plant, 58-59 Wade Sand & Gravel Quarries, McWane, Inc.-Empire Coke By Thomas, 33, 37 products Plant, Holt, 31 Woodward House, 14, 15 Meadowcraft, Inc., 59 Woodward Iron Company, Mercedes-Benz U. S. International 15, 18, 26 Inc., 70 O'Neal Steel Co. Birmingham Indicates a HAER documentation Service Center, 70 site for which HAER made photo Norfolk Southern No. 611, 24 graphs, drawings and histories. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BIRMINGHAM BOUND was made possible by many individuals and institutions: Philip A. Morris • Marjorie L. White, co-authors Scott Fuller, icon graphics, design Eric DeLony, Chief, Historic American Engineering Record Robert Kapsch, Chief, Historic American Engineering Record - Historic American Building Survey Jet Lowe, HAER Photographer Sue Benz, Monica Murphy, HAER, photographic assistance Bode Morin, Richard O'Connor, contributing writers Stewart Danshy, Joe Strickland, Lela Anne Brewer, Rhonda Dowling, William Gresham, Aaron Moyana, Hugh Rushing, Douglas Stockham, Jim Strickland, Jim White, copy editors Brenda Howell, Bill Jones, Lauren Bishop, Michelle Crunk, Marjorie Lee White, researchers HAER Documentation was funded with appropriations from the United States Congress in which Senator Richard Shelby, former Congressmen Ben Erdreich and Tom Bevill and Congressman Earl Hilliard took a lively interest. HAER Team Members not credited on individual drawings and photographs: Sloss Furnaces: David Schaaf, Kathline Anderson, Deborah Campbell, Patti Stammer, James Hunt, Gary Kulik Southern Ductile Foundry: Jill Teer, Christina Moon, Travis Trussel, Michael Watkins, Jayant Swamy, Bode Morin, Craig Strong, Jet Lowe U. S. Pipe & Foundry: Robert Dixon, Mark Slater, William Brooks, Jennifer Bums, Eric Elmer, Annoy Oretmen, Jet Lowe Special Appreciation to the Birmingham Industries That Hosted HAER Documentation: ACIPCO, Drummond, Inc., Hardie-Tynes, Jones-Southern Ductile-Citation Foundry, Lawler Foundry Corp., McWane Cast Iron Pipe 6k Foundry Co., O'Neal Steel, Norfolk Southern Norris Yards, Sloss Furnaces-City of Birmingham, Stockham Valves & Fittings, Inc., Tannehill State Historic Park, Tuscaloosa Steel Co., U. S. Pipe & Foundry Co., U. S. Steel Iron & Steel Division, Vulcan Statue 6k Park-City of Birmingham, Vulcan Materials Co., Wade Sand and Gravel- Thomas Cokeworks Assistance with Research and Photography for this Publication: Birmingham Public Library Department of Archives and Manuscripts: Don Veasey, Jim Baggett, Yolanda Valentine; Tutwiler Collection of Southern History: Yvonne Crumpler; Government Documents: Danny Dorrah, Becky Scarbrough David Atcheson, Vulcan Materials Co.; Art Beattie, Alabama Power Company; Jim Bennett, Secretary of State and Tannehill Historian; William H. Bottomley, Jr.; Wayne Burkes, Alabama Birmingham Historical Society is a private, non-profit corporation. The mission of the Society is to contribute Land and Mineral Co.; Maggie Clancey, Ruffner Mountain to the quality of life in Birmingham by preserving, learning from and celebrating its past while helping to shape its Nature Center; Wayne Cline; Bill Dean, U. S. Steel; Jean future. For information on membership or to purchase additional copies of BIRMINGHAM BOUND and other Dillon, Shirley Feagin, O'Neal Steel; Dennis Hall, Jim Walter Society publications, please contact the Society's offices at Duncan House located on the grounds of the Sloss Resources; Lisa Halsted, SMI, Inc., Steel; Alvin Hudson; Mike Furnaces National Historic Landmark, One Sloss Quarters, Birmingham, Alabama, 35222, 205-251-1880. Keel, U. S. Pipe; Lyle Key, CSX Transportation; Tommy BIRMINGHAM BOUND ISBN 0-943994-22-5 • Library of Congress 97-073091 Lawson; W David Lewis; Cindy Lovoy, ACIPCO; Charles Jones, Sloss Industries, Inc.; Philip McWane, McWane, Inc.; Tfie Mineral Wealth of Alabama and Birmingham. Illustrated Jane Montgomery, U. S. Pipe; Hugh Rushing; Jerry Scharf; (published by N. T. Green & Co., Birmingham, Alabama, 1886), Allen Schmidt, Frisco Railroad Museum; Steve Sobat, USX; a promotional booklet now in the Birmingham Public Library's Ceila Schwartz, Alabama Power Co.; Douglas A. Stockham; Southern History Collection inspired BIRMINGHAM BOUND'S Jim Strickland, Drummond Co., Inc.; Bill Temple, U. S. Pipe; design. Courtesy, Yvonne Crumpler. Bill Tharpe, Alabama Power Co.; Robin Wade, Jr., Wade Sand and Gravel Co. ISBN Members of the Birmingham Historical Society's Trustee 90000 Marketing Committee: Steve Yoder, Chairman; Tom Cosby, Stewart Danshy, Philip Morris, Henry Ray, Carolanne Roberts, Eladio Ruiz de Molina, Jim Strickland, Douglas Stockham 9l780943"994222