Birmingham Photos of the Day (81): Alabama Boys Industrial School

As the Encyclopedia of Alabama notes, "The Alabama Boys Industrial School was founded in Birmingham in 1899 by social reformer Elizabeth Johnston. It was one of several private group homes established to house juvenile offenders in the state. It remained in operation until 1974, when it was taken over by the Alabama Department of Youth Services." The Department continues to operate the facility as its Vacca campus. You can see an early photograph of the campus buildings at the end of this post. The BhamWiki site has a different photograph from 1910. 

The school opened on the former George Roebuck plantation at Roebuck Spring. Johnston led a committee of the Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs that successfully lobbied the state legislature to fund a facility to remove young boys from the convict lease system and provide remedial education. About a decade after opening a new building replaced the school's original log cabin. 

Johnston lived on campus as head of the school until her death in 1934. The state provided a stipend for each boy; by early 1918 residents numbered almost 400. The students grew their own produce and operated a diary, and issued a regular publication on the school's printing press. The local Rotary Club provided instruments and uniforms for the brass band which became well known [see below]. 

Elizabeth Johnston 

She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981; she and actress Tallulah Bankhead were the only inductees that year. For more information, see her entry linked below. 

Source: Alabama Women's Hall of Fame

Dormitory at the school sometime before 1929

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History

In August 2017 I posted an item about a 1924 visit John Philip Sousa made to Birmingham and included the following paragraphs related to the Industrial School: 

On February 18, 1924, this photograph was taken in front of the Cathedral Church of the Advent at the corner of 6th Avenue North and 20th Street North in Birmingham. Front and center is John Philip Sousa; to his left is Eugene C. Jordan, leader of the band standing around them. Could the woman be Sousa's wife Jane? She lived until 1944.  

The young boys surrounding them are members of the band of the Alabama Boys Industrial School, a reformatory chartered in February 1899 and located in the Roebuck area of Birmingham. The facility still exists; in 1975 it became the Vacca Campus of the Alabama Department of Youth Services. Who is the young girl dressed in a similar uniform?

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History

Two photos from the infirmary sometime before 1929

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History

The campus and buildings of the school

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama