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

Birmingham Photo of the Day (57): East Lake Bathers

Seeing old photographs I always wonder "Where are they now?", or, in examples this old, "Whatever happened to them all?"

The photograph below was taken by Oscar V. Hunt [1882-1964] sometime in the early 1900's. The shot is one of hundreds he took in the Birmingham area over the years; you can see many of them here.

East Lake Park, originally developed as a private facility in 1886 by the East Lake Land Company, became a city park in 1917. The one hundred acres have featured many attractions over the years, including a hotel, golf course, dance pavilion and theater. The lake was created when Roebuck Creek and Village Springs were dammed.

In December 1888 the body of eight year-old May Hawes was found floating in the lake. Her father Richard was tried, convicted and executed for the notorious crimes that also included the murder of her younger sister Irene and his wife Emma. May's spirit is said to haunt the lake. 

Although taken less than 20 years after that event, these people seem to have no worries about crime. They have probably gathered at the request of the photographer; based on squinting and eye shading, they are looking into the sun. One young man on the lower right is looking down at the water. And what's up with that kid in the front row center? Is he crying or yelling or just making a funny face for the photograph?

In the background a man is heading away from the group, perhaps not wanting to be photographed. Just to the right of the Bath House is a man with his arms outstretched, perhaps seeking attention. Who is the figure in white between him and the Bath House? Two or three other people can be seen in the upper right on the shore also behind the fence. 

There don't seem to be many women in this photo....

Source: Birmingham Public Library

Birmingham Photo of the Day (19): Orphans Home (?), East Lake, 1908

This photo continues our series from the 1908 book Views of Birmingham. 

Interestingly, the photo is apparently misidentified in the book. According to the listing in Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections, the structure is actually the main administration building of Howard College [now Samford University] which was in East Lake at the time. Founded in Marion in 1841, the school moved to East Lake in 1887 and then to its current location in Homewood in the 1950s.

A more extensive history of "Old Main" can be found on the BhamWiki site. The building was demolished in 1960 and an apartment complex built on the site.

I guess photographs were mis-identified even before the Internet! 

The real Orphans' Home, built originally as a private girls' school, can be seen at the BhamWiki site.