Birmingham Photo (87): Rush Hotel in 1931

According to its entry at the great BhamWiki site, this hotel was developed by D.M. Rush around 1919 and operated until about 1949. The 1945 Birmingham Yellow pages gives its address as 316 1/2 North 18th Street and the phone number was 7-09411. The small hotel occupied just the second floor of the building seen in the photo below, and was one of the few such accommodations available to blacks in the city.

In the 1930's the facility was owned by Tom Hayes. The place apparently provided hotel arrangements for visiting teams in town to play the Birmingham Black Barons, which played professional baseball in the Negro leagues from 1919 until 1960. In his book Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons, 1919-1962 [2019], Bill Plott has a couple of tidbits about the hotel. Manager of the Barons in 1938 was William "Dizzy" Dismukes, a Birmingham native who had also managed the team in 1924. Anyone who wanted to try out for the team that year could contact him at the Rush Hotel [p.117]. He also writes that in 1953 Dismukes had set up shop again at the hotel, this time to recruit for the New York Yankees [p.221]. Thus the hotel may have operated past 1949.

A man named Joe Rush was Black Barons owner in 1923 and 1924, and owner and president in 1925. The Birmingham Black History Project on Facebook has more information about the Rush family. 

Below I've also included a photo from Google Street View showing what the building looked like in 2019. 

Photo by W.B. Phillips in 1931 

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Here's the building via Google Street View February 2019. You can see the same arch over the doorway and the eight windows in the second story. 

Birmingham Photo of the Day (75): Electric Trolley Car

One thing I might be found doing during a pandemic--or any time, really--is wandering through the riches at Alabama Mosaic. On a recent visit I came across this photo of some trolley cars in Birmingham. 

In 1921 the Birmingham Electric Company was formed to generate electricity for the public and operate a streetcar system. The company replaced the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power Company that had closed in 1918. The BEC's company headquarters was the old Railway, Light and Power building constructed in 1915. Located at the corner of 1st Avenue North and 21st Street North, the building is now known as the Landmark Center. 

The trolley cars below were part of BEC's rolling stock and used sometime before 1951. Streetcar operations ended in Birmingham as in the rest of North America in the early 1950's. Toronto is the only city with a streetcar system essentially unchanged. The St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans is considered the world's oldest continuously operating line. 

The destination plate visible on the car in the photo below says "Woodward". Could that have been a location associated with the Woodward Iron Company in Bessemer? Or Woodward Park near Elmwood Cemetery? Or....?

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

This book published in 1976 is a history of the city's streetcars from the 1880's until the early 1950's. 

That Time Andy Warhol Came to Birmingham

Andy Warhol was one of the best known and most controversial artists of the 20th century. His influence on both the art world and popular culture has been extensive; we can thank him for the Velvet Underground if nothing else. 

In 1979 Warhol was commissioned to paint four portraits of city residents Charles Ireland and his wife Caroline. He worked from Polaroids taken some months earlier. In March of that year Warhol came to the Birmingham Museum of Art for the presentation of Charles Ireland's portrait seen below.

That event took place on March 9. The BMA's web site has this further note about the visit: 

The artist was treated to a barbecue lunch during his interview for The Birmingham News. Eating his sandwich, Warhol quietly remarked, “It’s very good…No, we can’t get good barbecue in New York.”

Some further comments are below.

Source: BhamWiki.com 

Ireland joined the family business, the Birmingham Slag Company, in 1939. By 1951 he was president and steered the firm's merger with a New Jersey company to form Vulcan Materials. Ireland was named chairman of the board and remained in that position until his retirement in 1983. He died in 1987 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. 

Warhol and the portrait at the BMA on 9 March 1979

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Warhol at the BMA 9 March 1979

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Warhol with Caroline and Charles Ireland 9 March 1979

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Birmingham Photo of the Day (52): Railroad Reservation

One of the big events in recent Birmingham history was the opening of Railroad Park in downtown in September 2010. The park was created from the Railroad Reservation, an expanse in the middle of the city's street grid that was 1000 feet wide and almost a mile in length. The reservation had been announced by the Elyton Land Company in January 1872 during Birmingham's early development. The train tracks are still active today, but the site is now also the scene of everything from concerts to yoga classes. This development has been important to Birmingham's ongoing transformation.

The undated photograph below was taken by O.V. Hunt, and shows the Railroad Reservation looking west across the Southern Railroad freight houses. In the near view is the 21st Street or "Rainbow" viaduct, opened in May 1919. The bridge is dedicated to members of the 167th Infantry Regiment, a part of the famed World War I "Rainbow" division. The large building in the distance was the Crane Company's plumbing supply house.  

The vehicles in the photo would seem to indicate the picture was taken before 1940. 

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Birmingham Photo of the Day (49): Airport Terminal

This two-story building opened with great fanfare on May 31, 1931, as the new terminal for the Birmingham airport. A single runway served American Airways flights from Atlanta to Fort Worth.

The present terminal opened in 1973. A detailed history of the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport can be found at the BhamWiki site. That article has a photo of the original terminal taken in February 1947. Based on the vehicle seen in the lower left, the photo below was probably taken earlier. 

I wonder what kind of security procedures passengers had to submit to in 1931? 

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections