An interesting book related to early Birmingham is the 1908 publication Views of Birmingham. Its full title gives a hint of its purpose: Views of Birmingham, Alabama with a Glimpse at some of the Natural Resources of the Birmingham District and the Industries Based thereon. The 64 page book has pages of photos devoted to various buildings such as Union Station, Masonic Temple and St. Vincent Hospital; street scenes like "Third Avenue at Night", the city water works and various impressive mansions. The publisher was Isidore Newman and Son, bankers in New York and New Orleans. Newman was the owner of street railways in Birmingham and other cities, so this was a natural promotional effort.
I've done blog posts with some details on several of these photos, such as the Morris Hotel, Powell School, the U.S. Weather Bureau building, the Birmingham Water Works Shades Mountain filtration plant and two of the mansions in Glen Iris Park. This one continues that series.
The Views photograph below shows the buildings of two organizations, the Southern and Birmingham Athletic Clubs. The Southern was a private gentleman's club founded as the Komus Club in 1886. This building opened in 1901; the BhamWiki entry has a photo of the club's interior. The organization folded in 1931 during the Great Depression. The Birmingham Red Cross occupied the building from 1943 until 1967, when it was demolished. The AmSouth-Sonat building was constructed on the site.
Founded in 1886, the Birmingham Athletic Club opened the three story building shown in 1903. The interior, which included a basement, featured everything from a rifle range and bowling alley to a gymnasium and library. In 1892 the BAC put together a football team, and played the new University of Alabama team on November 12 at Lakeview Park. Alabama managed one 4-point touchdown, but BAC founder Joseph Ross kicked a 65-yard, 5-point field goal for the win. Scoring for U.S. football was a bit different at that time.
In 1925 the BAC constructed a ten story headquarters elsewhere and sold this building to a local Ku Klux Klan organization. The Klan never occupied it and sold it to the YMCA. Later tenants included the YWCA and the Dixie-Carlton Hotel. The structure was demolished in 1955 for a parking lot.
You can download a PDF of this book at the Internet Archive. A Flickr site has all the pages.
Below I've included another photo from 1906 and a color postcard of these two buildings.
SOURCE: Troy University Libraries via Alabama Mosaic
