I stumbled across this photograph as I wandered around the Alabama Mosaic web site. As the site notes, "Alabama Mosaic is a repository of digital materials on Alabama's history, culture, places, and people. Its purpose is to make unique historical treasures from Alabama's archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories electronically accessible to Alabama residents and to students, researchers, and the general public in other states and countries." I've certainly found a lot of goodies there over the years.
The bit of research I did on the Joiner Furniture Company produced very little information. According to the source of the photo, the Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections, it was taken in 1930 and shows the store at 1716 2nd Avenue North. According to BhamWiki, the six story structure is now known as the Jefferson Home Furniture building and was constructed in 1915. The J.E. Cain Furniture company operated there in the 1920's followed by Joiner. Duke Brothers Furniture took over in 1945 and then Jefferson Home, which remodeled it in the 1960s. More recent efforts to convert the building to lofts or self-storage were unsuccessful.
Below the photograph is a portion of the "Furniture" section of the 1945 Birmingham Yellow Pages. Ironically, Joiner's entry follows Jefferson's, its eventual replacement in the building.
At the lower left in the picture can be seen the marquee of Joiner's neighbor, the Jefferson Theatre. Opened in 1900 as a vaudeville house, the theater closed in the Great Depression and was demolished for a parking lot in 1946.
I can't make out the sign in the lower right of the photo.
One final note: look at all those cool cars!
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