Released on April 26 by The History Press, this 144-page book takes you on a guided tour of historic sites that were important to the history of Birmingham and outlying areas. In addition to well known attractions like Birmingham’s famous Vulcan statue, this book also pays special attention to places that have faded into the past and aren’t as well known. With a forward by Birmingham history expert Tim Hollis, “Lost Birmingham” is a “must read” for Alabama history buffs.
Crider, an Alabama native, is especially well suited to tell this story. A longtime resident of the Birmingham area, she and her husband, Kyle, spend their free time traveling the state’s backroads collecting information for their widely-read blog, “Strange Alabama,” which can be read on the state’s most popular Web site, www.al.com. Much of what they’ve discovered in their travels over the years has found its way into “Lost Birmingham.”
Between the covers of “Lost Birmingham,” Crider provides in-depth descriptions of scores of cool and unusual sites and gives readers gems of information they won’t likely find anywhere else. Chief among these sites are the Hillman Hospital, which was Birmingham’s first hospital and a forerunner to the now massive UAB Medical Center; the Powell School, which was Birmingham’s first school; the Steiner Building, which sits on the site of Birmingham’s first house; the Shelby Hotel, which was the first hotel in the state with running water and electricity; and the Caldwell Hotel, which was advertised as “absolutely fireproof,” but burned to the ground in 1894. Crider also gives an entertaining description of the old Thomas Jefferson Hotel, which featured a zeppelin mooring station on its towering roof.
I especially enjoyed the portion of the book that described the corner of 20th Street and 1st Avenue North in Birmingham, which is also known as “The Heaviest Corner on Earth.” The corner was given this promotional name in 1911 when four of the tallest buildings in the south appeared in a relatively short amount of time. This intersection was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Sports buffs in the reading audience will also get a kick out of Crider’s description of Lakeview Park, which was the site of the first Alabama-Auburn football game. That game, which at the time was called “the greatest football game ever played in Birmingham,” was played on Feb. 22, 1893. Back then, Auburn was known as the Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical College, and the “Orange and Blue” went on to beat the “Tuskaloosa” squad, 32-22, in front of a crowd of 5,000.
In the end, I highly recommend “Lost Birmingham” to anyone in the reading audience who enjoys Alabama history or reading about unusual, out of the way places. Not only is the book educational, but it’s also entertaining. Copies of the book are available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com and sell for less than $14 each.
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