Birmingham Photo of the Day (60): Hormel Meat Packing Plant

Wander around Alabama Mosaic, and you never know what you may find. Case in point is the photograph below, taken by Oscar V. Hunt [1881-1962] during his long, illustrious career in Birmingham. 

Whenever I find old photos of buildings, I like to see if the place still exists and if so what it's current use is. This photograph is pretty interesting just for the neat cars, which I guess would indicate sometime in the 1930's. The place on 14th Street North was a Hormel meat packing plant then; note the missing "m" in the sign. I wonder if the building was constructed for the plant or adapted for it.

As you'll see in the more recent photograph below and the Google Earth extract, the building still exists. A United Methodist ministry for the homeless, Church of the Reconciler, currently operates there. The building looks very nice, but has really not changed much over the decades.

Four photographs taken inside the Hormel plant in Montgomery in the 1950's are available here. You can learn more about Hormel here; the company has operated for more than 125 years. A photo of founder George A. Hormel is also below, along with a link to more about him.

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

The building is now used by the Church of the Reconciler.

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Google Earth view of the building today.

George A. Hormel [1860-1946]

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