Railroad Reservation, Bounded by Thirty-eighth Street on the east, Sixteenth Street on the west, First Avenue on the north, & First Avenue on the south, Birmingham

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,37-BIRM,40-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Bounded by Street on the east and Street on the west and extending from First Avenue on the North to First Avenue on the south, Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama. Please note change of address is more inclusive than address of HAER No. AL-57 documentation previously transmitted to the Library of Congress. Date of Construction Engineer: William Barker

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,37-BIRM,40-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

This report is based upon written documentation donated by the Birmingham Historical Society, reformatted to HABS/HAER guidelines. Significance The beginning of city planning in Birmingham, the Railroad Reservation symbolized the centrality of the railroad to the District, forming the main artery of transportation into the early city and its surrounding manufacturing centers. Description: Significant buildings in the Railroad Reservation include the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, the Alabama Power Company-Powell Avenue Power Station Street and Powell Avenue), the Seaboard Railroad Freight Office & Depot/Alagasco Building Street), the Transportation Building St.

at First Avenue); the Morris Avenue portions of the Morris Avenue and First Avenue Historic District, numerous concrete and steel viaducts and underpasses including the Rainbow Viaduct at Street) and the Art Deco styled 2 0th and Street Underpasses and the L. & N. Station which replaced the original Union Station of the S ince the ra ilroads have demolished structures associated with rail use creating large areas of vacant land within the reservation. RAILROAD RESERVATION HAER No. AL-57 (Page 2)

Historical Overview

The major and most clearly articulated feature of the Elyton Land Company's plan for the City of Birmingham is the "Reservation for Railroad and Mechanical Uses." As documented in surveyor William Barker's records and the land company's Minute Books, the intent was to use this central portion of the city grid to bring in and service railroad and industrial uses. By the late iron- producing furnaces and rolling mills, railroad stations (both passenger and freight) and shops and yards filled the designated area. The company had succeeded in launching the South's largest industrial center. Elyton Land Company officers withheld some of the original "Railroad Reservation" lots along Morris Avenue for warehouse developments, many of which the directors built and operated.

These form today's Morris Avenue and First Avenue National Register Historic District. After the turn of the century, as railroad shops and yards grew in size and usage, they relocated to the north, east and west of the city. Areas of former rail use were redeveloped with the warehouses along First Avenue North now in the Downtown Birmingham Theater and Retail District. The current series of overpasses and viaducts were built from through the early 193 0s. Sources Consulted Birmingham Historical Society-Auburn University Urban Design Studio, Railroad Reservation Project Files, Elyton Land Company, Minute Books. and Birmingham Public Library Department of Archives and History.