The Kildare Mansion in Huntsville

Last month brother Richard and I spent our standard July weekend together. As usual, we started on Friday with lunch at the Bright Star Restaurant in Bessemer and that afternoon took in the annual coin show at the Bessemer Civic Center. Then we did a backroads drive through parts of scenic Jefferson and Walker counties we had never seen before. We stopped in Jasper at the Oak Hill Cemetery where several ancestors are buried and drove by the Bankhead family mansion. Finally we ended up in Huntsville for a couple of days with mom. Saturday and Sunday afternoons were spent in a "memory tour" of the city taking in our previous residences, schools and so forth. Several blog posts will be coming on all of that.

Richard and I did the Sunday portion without mom, and near the end we came across something unexpected and previously unknown to us--the Kildare mansion, also known as the Kildare-McCormick House. Let's investigate. 

This elaborate Queen Anne-style house was built on 72 acres in 1886-7 by Michael O'Shaugnessey, a businessman who had come to Huntsville from Nashville in 1881. He named the mansion "Kildare" after the county in Ireland where he was born.

In 1900 O'Shaugnessey sold the house to Virginia McCormick, the daughter of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper. McCormick and her companion/caretaker wintered in the house and became well-known for their local philanthropic efforts. McCormick moved out of the house in 1931, and the following year the family sold it and subdivided the acreage. In the decades following various owners have used the house as a hotel, boarding house, health spa, antique shop and brothel. James Reece bought Kildare in 1975 and began extensive renovations. The current owners bought the property in 2007.

A website devoted to the house notes that "Kildare has become the target of thrill seekers, gawkers, & vandals that have hindered the restoration effort. To curb the problems so that restoration could continue,  the current owners began construction of a privacy fence in October of 2013.  Before the final fence design was even revealed, the fence, which is proportional to the structure (the house is over 65' tall) came under fire from the city for being ugly, too tall, too weak, AND too strong.

"The current owners continue to endure car loads of juveniles (and sometimes adults) cruising around the house at all hours of the night on a regular basis. The goal of these thrill seekers is to elicit a response from the owners by honking horns, flashing lights, yelling obscenities, etc.  Of course many of the teens upload their crimes to YouTube hoping to garner fame for their efforts."

The Wikipedia entry linked in the first paragraph has an extensive description of the architecture of this 40-room, 17,000 square foot behemoth that was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Perhaps one day Kildare will be open for tours of its magnificence. More information is here and here.

"A maypole dance at ""Kildare,"" the estate built by cottonseed oil tycoon, Michael O'Shaughnessy, off Meridian Street. In 1881, Michael and his brother, James F. O'Shaughnessy, used their great wealth to create the North Alabama Improvement Company and transform Huntsville's economy by funding many business projects such as the Dallas Mill and the Monte Sano Hotel."

Undated at the source; perhaps 1890's?

Source: Huntsville-Madison County Public Library Digital Archives

A Visit to the Bright Star Restaurant

In recent years many Alabama restaurants have gained national acclaim, but only one of them has been around for more than a century. Tom Bonduris opened The Bright Star in Birmingham in 1907 as a 25-seat cafe. After several moves to larger quarters, he ended up in the current location in Bessemer in May 1915. An unknown travelling artist from Germany painted the European scenes on the murals inside. At the time Bessemer was a booming mining town, and the Bright Star operated around the clock.

Bill Koikos became co-owner in 1925 and worked until his death in 1980. He created their famous fried snapper throats dish. His two sons and a cousin currently operate the business. The restaurant has been expanded several times over the years and now seats 330 customers.

More history can be found at the BhamWiki linked in the first paragraph and on the restaurant's web site. Niki Sepsas' book A Centennial Celebration of The Bright Star Restaurant published in 2007 has much detailed history and many memories from customers. The book is heavily illustrated.

Last month brother Richard and I had lunch there on a Friday before making our annual visit to the coin show at the Bessemer Civic Center. Richard had that snapper throats meal, as he did last year. I had the broiled snapper; I've forgotten what I had in 2017. But it was delicious! If you've never been to the Bright Star, make a visit. You'll have a great meal, and see an historical landmark as well!

Some more comments are below. 

This four-story building was constructed by the Bessemer Realty Company. Pope Drugstore, Realty Barbershop, and legal and medical officers in addition to the Bright Star were operating there when it opened in 1915.

We found this sign in our booth this year. Marble from Sylacauga, perhaps?

As you might suspect, many famous people have eaten at the Bright Star through the decades. Bear Bryant always had a table in the back just outside the kitchen, which allowed him to enter and exit unobtrusively.

My Son Amos Has a New Book Out!

In March 2014 I wrote a blog post entitled "Three Generations in One Library" that discussed our family's presence on the shelves of UAB's Sterne Library. Covers of books by dad and myself are below. I also included this passage:

"My son Amos IV finished his M.A. in creative writing at UAB in 2011, and a copy of his thesis, a collection of three short stories, is held at Sterne along with all theses and dissertations done at the university. The library's catalog record for "Nobody Knows How It Got This Good" can be found here. Maybe one day Sterne will be able to buy a more formally published version."

After more than a year of anticipation since manuscript acceptance, my son Amos' collection of short stories has finally been published by Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama. The blurb on the publisher's web site notes,

"Drawing heavily on the author's experiences growing up in Central Alabama, Nobody Knows How It Got This Good explores themes of racial injustice, class, the Civil Rights Movement, environmental catastrophe, imprisonment, suburbanization, and the perennial themes of love, life and loss. 

Through sixteen stories sharing common environments and characters – a used car salesman, a cook on death row, a lynching survivor, a U.S. Census enumerator – Nobody Knows How It Got This Good, the author’s first short story collection, attempts to come to terms with the modern South. Though set in the Deep South, these stories aspire with humor and pathos to address national dilemmas."

The stories are set in the Birmingham area, and follow these characters as they move their own personal damaged landscapes in a place as problematic as Alabama and the "Magic City". Serious and funny combine in unexpected ways in this collection.

The book is available from various independent bookstores and libraries around the country, and online from Small Press Distribution, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million. The book has been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews and New Southern Fugitives. The Louisiana Book News blog has recently picked son Amos’ new collection of stories set in the #Birmingham #Alabama area for its list of “Exciting new releases by Louisiana authors”. 

Amos was interviewed about the book by Alina Stefanescu of the Alabama Writers Conclave. Deep South Magazine published a "cover reveal" back in February. The cover photo was taken by William Widmer and the cover design is by Paul Halupka. 

His fiction and poems have appeared in Arcadia, Birmingham Arts Journal, Clarion, Fieldstone Review, Folio, Grain Magazine, Gravel, The Hollins Critic, Interim, New Ohio Review, New Orleans Review, Off the Coast, Pale Horse Review, Roanoke Review, Salamander, Tacenda Literary Magazine, Union Station Magazine, Yes, Poetry and Zouch. 

After years living in Boston and Lafayette and Baton Rouge, he now lives and works in New Orleans. His author website can be found at www.amosjasperwright.com

Alabama has produced a number of short story authors, including Truman Capote and Mary Ward Brown. I'm proud to see Amos join such distinguished company!

Talking Pictures Come to Birmingham

A topic I've approached several times on this blog concerns various silent movies filmed in the Birmingham area. Naturally the article below grabbed my attention on one of my forays around Alabama Mosaic. Published in 1940, the article interviewed J.T. Amberson, "who has been operating motion picture machines...since 1903...and who has operated in every picture house ever in Birmingham...". 

Amberson gave author Bob Luckie a vivid portrait of film exhibition in the city in the early silent era. He noted that sound projection was attempted during this time, but the inability to synchronize it with the picture quickly killed the technique until improvements arrived in the late 1920's.  

The projectionist worked long hours, from nine in the morning until nearly midnight. He cranked and rewound the film by hand. In the earliest years the shows lasted five minutes or less and cost a nickel to attend. Amberson did work in places with exotic names--the Marvel, Theaterium, the Odeon, Amuse-You [Amuse-U] and the Vaudette. 

The 1940 U.S. Census gives us a bit of information about John T. Amberson. He was born "about 1887", was married to Lettie K., and they had an eight year-old daughter, Lucille. The couple rented a house on Second Avenue South. Amberson's occupation was listed as "Projectionist" in the "Picture Show" industry. 

Author of the article Robert E. Luckie, Jr., went on to bigger things. A Birmingham Southern graduate, Luckie worked for the News before World War II. In 1953 he founded the advertising firm Luckie and Company which grew to become one of the top 50 such businesses in the United States. Luckie died in 2007; two sons currently run the agency. 

An overview of silent film history can be found here. A history of sound in film is here.

Birmingham News article July 21, 1940

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Joan Crawford Visited Birmingham--Twice

I recently read Bob Thomas' 1978 biography of actress Joan Crawford and ran across an interesting tidbit related to Birmingham. Let's investigate.

Crawford was one of the giant stars of American cinema from the late 1920's well into the 1960's. In her first film in 1925, Lady of the Night, she was a stand-in for the star, Norma Shearer, with whom Crawford would compete at MGM in just a few years. Her final film was 1970's Trog. In between she became a star by the end of the silent era, made the transition to talkies and continued her stardom for decades despite career ups and downs. She appeared in such classics and/or box office successes as Our Dancing Daughters, Rain, Untamed, Montana Moon, Mildred Pierce, Possessed, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? She was nominated three times for an Academy Award and won Best Actress for Mildred Pierce. 

Crawford's first three marriages to actors Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Phillip Terry and Franchot Tone ended in divorce. Her fourth and final marriage to Alfred Steele in 1955 eventually brought her to Birmingham.

Steele was a businessman in the soft drink industry. He rose to Vice-President for Marketing at Coca-Cola and eventually became CEO at Pepsi in 1949. Under Steele sales tripled from 1955 until 1957, and the brand was introduced around the world. He died of a heart attack in April 1959.

Crawford and Steele had married in Las Vegas in May 1959. After Steele's death Crawford was appointed to the company's Board of Directors and remained in that post until her forced retirement in 1973. During those years she was a relentless promoter of Pepsi; the brand appears in several of her later films.

See below for more on Crawford's adventures in Birmingham. 

Over the course of her career Crawford did youthful, smoldering and finally matronly. And she also did hats very well. 

Source: Joan Crawford--Marriages & Relationships

Crawford became a passionate promoter of Pepsi-Cola "with the same single-minded devotion that she had devoted to promoting Joan Crawford", wrote Thomas in his biography. "One of Joan's major missions was to lend glamour to the opening of bottling plants throughout the country and in foreign markets. The plants were generally located in outlying industrial areas, so Pepsi needed promotion to draw crowds. When full-page newspaper and television ads announced that Joan Crawford would appear, the results were often amazing."

 "At a Birmingham, Alabama, plant opening Joan signed autographs steadily for four hours and finally had to leave when her hand became too tired to hold a pen. Sixty thousand people appeared for the celebration. Five years later, bottler Jimmy Lee gave a "Thank You, Birmingham" party with Crawford as the major draw. The crowd was the largest in the city's history---73,000, more than attended the Alabama-Auburn football game." 

In October 1966 local Pepsi distributor Buffalo Rock opened a new bottling plant on a 15-acre site on Oxmoor Road. The facility cost two million dollars and sprawled over 75,000 square feet. To mark the occasion the Pepsi board of directors--including Crawford--decided to have a meeting there. That meeting was the first time the board had met at a bottling plant and the first time outside New York State. Thus Crawford's second appearance in the city must have been in 1971. 

Jimmy Lee, Jr. and Joan Crawford, October 1966

Source: Fisher, Virginia E. Buffalo Rock: A Hundred Years' Perspecttive [2000]

The new Buffalo Rock plant on Oxmoor Road that opened in October 1966

Source: Fisher, Virginia E. Buffalo Rock: A Hundred Years' Perspecttive [2000]

The Pepsi visits to Birmingham were not Crawford's only connection to Alabama. Early in her career she made several films with two Alabama natives, Dorothy Sebastian and Johnny Mack Brown. In 1928 Crawford appeared with both actors in Our Dancing Daughters. Crawford and Brown appeared in one of her rare westerns, Montana Moon. That 1930 film introduced the singing cowboy to the movies. Our Blushing Brides, another 1930 film, starred Crawford and Sebastian.   

Alabama Photos of the Day: Samford Hall at Auburn University

Auburn University's most iconic building is Samford Hall and its tower. The original building on the site, a four-story structure known as "Old Main", served the East Alabama Male College [Auburn's original name] from 1859 until it burned in June 1887. The current structure was built over the following couple of years and was also known as "Old Main". In May 1929 the building was named for Governor William Samford. After many interior changes over the years, Samford Hall is used today for administrative offices.

Below is a small selection of Samford Hall images and some comments. You can see many more via Alabama Mosaic. 

Samford Hall sometime ca. 1940. My parents were at Auburn in the late 1940's, so Samford may have looked similar to this view.

Source: Alabama Mosaic

The building to be known decades later as Samford Hall under construction ca. 1888

Source: Alabama Mosaic

This postcard from around 1930 gives the original name for the building, "Main".

Source: Alabama Mosaic

The bell in Samford rang on the hour for class change for many years, but has since been replaced by an electric clock. The bell remains in the tower.

Auburn University faculty in front of the "new" Old Main in 1914. Their identities can be found at the source page.

Source: Alabama Mosaic

These two photos were taken at winter graduation in December 2009. A couple of clowns are blocking the view in the one below. Wait--that's my daughter Becca and soon-to-be-son-in-law Matt Leon! Becca continued the family tradition of meeting a future spouse at Auburn just as my parents and Dianne and I did. Perhaps our new grandson Ezra Jasper Leon will do the same!

Birmingham Photos of the Day (65): Roberts Field

Roberts Field was the city's main airport from 1922 until 1935 when the Birmingham Municipal Airport opened. The hanger buildings seen below were located near what is now Roberts Industrial Drive and I-20/59. The airport was dedicated in June 1922 as the base for the 135th Observation Squadron [later the 114th] of the Alabama National Guard. Commercial passenger service began from Roberts Field in May 1928. The airport continued in use for a couple of decades after the city's airport opened. Industrial development of the site began in the 1960's.

A Navy Zeppelin, the Shenandoah, landed at Roberts in 1924--the year before its destruction in Ohio. Three years later Charles Lindbergh and his Spirit of St. Louis spent two days there. The BhamWiki site has a good overview of the history of Roberts Field. The resource Abandoned & Little Known Airfields: Alabama has extensive information, photos & maps related to Roberts Field. 

Roberts Field was named for Lt. Arthur Meredyth Roberts, who was killed in a training accident in France in World War I on October 18, 1918. He grew up in Birmingham and returned to the city after receiving his engineering degree from Cornell University. Roberts volunteered for service in August 1917. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Hangers at Roberts Field ca. 1925

Source: BhamWiki

Interior of the mess hall at Roberts Field ca. 1925

Two African American employees can be seen in the background.

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Lt. Arthur Meredyth Roberts [1889-1918]

Source: Find-A-Grave