Mulga Community, Off AL 269 at I-20-59, Birmingham

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,37-BIRM.V,13-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Off AL 8 miles northwest of Ensley and Mulga, Birmingham Vicinity, Jefferson County, Alabama. Date of Construction: Construction: By at the time of the Woodward acquisition, the Birmingham Coal and Iron Company had erected most of the camp housing still remaining in the community, including the unusual brick commissary.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER ALA,37-BIRM.V,13-. 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.

Description

To the west of City of Mulga lies the former Birmingham Coal and Iron (later the Woodward Iron) Company mining community of Mulga, now known as Mulga Mine. Square-top houses for whites dating to the early remain along 5th and 6th Avenues. Many have been substantially remodeled. Slope Avenue leads past the commissary, doctors' offices and foremen's houses along the old Woodward railway to the black camp and eventually to the mine. Many camp houses square tops and cottages remain in the black camp. At the mine site, a concrete portal with tracks, the Woodward bathhouse and office building remained in In mine buildings visible from the entrance road include a substantial surface plant with metal structures and conveyors.

Mulaa Commercial District Mulga Road between First and Fourth Avenues Midway between mining camps at Bayview and Mulga, the City of Mulga grew up as a private housing alternative for black and white miners. Adjacent to the tracks of the Woodward (now Birmingham Southern) Railway owned by U.S.X., its standard grid is laid into steeply sloping hills. A commercial district of frame structures extends along the Mulga Road, parallel to the railroad tracks. The community of several hundred people was incorporated in Minor High School in nearby Minor served as the county school for this area. ^ MULGA COMMUNITY HAER No. AL-74 (Page 2) Village Falls United Methodist Church 303 Mulga Loop Road Minor High School Mulga Loop Road John L. Lewis Hall-United Mine Workers of America. District 20.

Local5986 Mulga Loop Road Mulga Town Hall and Volunteer Fire Department Mulga Loop Road Milton H. Fies Lodge No. 722 F. & A.M. Mulga Loop Road Mulga Black Camp (c. Azalea Road, Camellia and Rose Lane, Oak, Pine, Hickory, Elm and Short Streets Mulga White Camp (c. 500 Mulga Loop Road and Sixth Avenue Woodward Office Building, Bathhouse. Mining Headquarters & Structures At Mulga mine site, accessible from Oak Boulevard, Black Camp, Mulga Birmingham Coal and Iron Companv-Woodward Commissary (c. Slope Road Birmingham Coal and Iron Companv-Woodward Doctor's Residence and Office fc. Slope Road, across from commissary

Historical Overview

The Birmingham Coal and Iron Company, a locally owned mining and furnace company formed from the Tutwiler Coal, Coke and Iron Company by Morris Adler and his brother Edgar Adler, opened the Mulga mine about Louis Bryant, a Kentucky geologist with European training, conducted a study of area coal fields for the Adlers and determined that the thickest part of the Pratt seam was at Mulga. By Mulga mine employed 230 persons and provided coal to area railroads and the company's Vanderbilt furnaces at East Birmingham. In the Woodward Iron Company acquired the Mulga mine through purchase of Birmingham Coal and Iron. During the and the mine produced tons, a sizeable MULGA COMMUNITY HAER No, AL-74 (Page 3) tonnage for the period, and employed persons.

The mine remained a substantial and steady producer through the and was actively mined in the Mulga Mine Company, a Mead Corporation subsidiary, employed 529 at its operation there in In this company no longer in exists and Mulga mine is not operating. Sources Consulted White, Marjorie, The Birmingham District, pp. Site Visit,