Attachment7_BICR_Complete_NR_Nomination_2006_Excerpt.pdf

rorm lu-vuu (Oct. 1990)

9¥o UMa NO. 1UOZ4-UUI8

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

1. Name of Property historic name Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District other names/site number N/A

2. Location street & number portions of S'*" Ave N; 4"* Ave N; 5'*' Ave N.; 6"’ Ave N; 7''' Ave. N; 8“’ Ave. N; 15"’ NAQ not for publication St. N; 16'*' St. N; I?'" St. N; 19"' S. N city or town state Alabama

Birmingham code county Jefferson code 073 n vicinity N/A zip code 35203

3. State/Federal Agency Certification

As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, 1 hereby certify that this nomination

□ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set for in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the prop erty 13 meets □ does not meet the National Register criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant 3 nationally □ statewide □ locally. (See continuation sheet for additional comments.)

IftiM ^1.

Sighattire of certifying official/Title

State Historic Preservation Office, Alabama Historical Commission State or Federal agency and bureau

In my opinion, the property Q meets Q does not meet the National Register criteria. (Q See Continuation sheet for additional comments.)

Signature of certifying official/Title Date

State or Federal agency and bureau

4. National Park Service Certification / A I herehyxertify that the property is:

IQ enterentered in the National Register.

r~l See continuation sheet

□ determined eligible for the National Register.

□ See continuation sheet

□ determined not eligible for the

National Register.

Q removed from the National

Register.

□ other, (ex plain;) _____________

' x\g: ature of the Date of Action

Attachment 7

Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL Name of Property "1 County and State

5. Classification

Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply)

Category of Property (Check only one box)

Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in count.)

13 private 3 public-local 1 1 public-State n building(s) 3 district Q site

Contributing Noncontributing

20 5 buildings 3 public-Federal O structure 3 sites n object structures 1 objects

24 5 Total

Name of related multiple property listing (Enter “N/A” if property is not part of a multiple property listing.)

Number of Contributing resources previously listed in the National Register

Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, 1933-1979 MPS 11

6. Function or Use

Historic Functions Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) RELIGION: church

(Enter categories from instructions) RELIGION: church

COMMERCE: business; professional; organizational;

financial institution; restaurant

COMMERCE: business; professional; organizational; finan cial institution; restaurant

FUNERARY: mortuary FUNERARY: mortuary EDUCATION: library RECREATION/CULTURE: park, monument, work of art, museum SOCIAL: meeting hall EDUCATION: research facility RECREATION: park, monument SOCIAL: meeting hall

7. Description

Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) Classical Revival; Gothic Revival; Renaissance Revival;

Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation BRICK; STONE; CONCRETE

Romanesque Revival; Byzantine Revival; Colonial Re vival, Art Deco; International, Jeffersonian Classicism walls BRICK; CONCRETE; MASONITE; GRANITE;

LIMESTONE

roof ASPHALT SHINGLE; ASPHALT other METAL; GLASS

Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.)

See Attached Sheets

Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Name of Property

Jefferson County, AL County and State

8. Statement of Significance Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark “x” in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for the National Register.)

Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions)

^ A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.

Ethnic Heritage: African American Social History

O B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.

n C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.

Period of Significance 1933-1979 .i

□ D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.

Criteria Considerations (Mark “x” in all the boxes that apply.)

Property is:

I I A owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes.

Significant Dates

I I B removed from its original location.

^ C moved from its original location, n D a cemetery.

□ E a reconstructed building, object, or structure.

Q F a commemorative property

Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked) N/A

Cultural Affiliation N/A

Architect/Builder ^ G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance Turner, Smith & Baston;

within the past 50 years. Turner, George;

Rayfield, Wallace (see continuation sheet)

Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.)

9. Major Bibliographical References Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.)

Previous documentation on file (NFS): N/A

□ preliminary determination of individual listing (36

CFR 67) has been requested ^ previously listed in the National Register

□ Previously determined eligible by the National

Register

□ designated a National Historic Landmark ^ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey

# HABS AL 898

Primary location of additional data:

S State Historic Preservation Office

□ Other State Agency

□ Federal Agency Q Local Government Q University S Other Name of repository;

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham Public Library Archives, Birmingham Historical Society

□ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # r

Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Name of Property

Jefferson County, AL County and State

10. Geographical Data

Acreage of Property approx. 36 acres

UTM References (Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet.)

1 16 517020 3708640 3 16 517720 3709200 Easting Northing

Zone 2 16 517490 3709150

Zone

4 16

Easting

517820

Northing

3709000

Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.)

Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.)

Q See continuation sheet

11. Form Prepared By

Name/tite Birmingham Historical Society, with consultants Organization Birmingham Historical Society date February 9, 2006 street & number One Sloss Quarters telephone 205-251-1880 city or town Birmingham state AL zip code 35223

Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form;

Continuation Sheets Maps

A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property’s location A Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources.

Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property.

Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items.)

Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of SHPO or FPO.)

Name Multiple Street & number city or town state

Telephone _ ___ zip code

Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Fixes to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listing. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.)

Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gather ing and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administra tive Services Division, National Park Service, P. O. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Projects (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20303.

NPS FORM 10-900.A (8-80)

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

OMB Approval No. 1024-001S

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL

VII. Description

The Birmingham Civil Ri^ts Historic District contains three groups of resources and the streets that connect them.

The westernmost section, Northside, lies east of Seventeenth Street between Fourth and Seventh Avenues North in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama. This section contains a fine collection of historic African American commercial and cultural resources, including churches, stores and office buildings, a park, and an institute. Two properties: the Colored Masonic Temple and the Taxi Stand are part of the Fourth Avenue Historic District (2/11/1982). Three additional properties: the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church (9/17/1980; NHL 2/20/06), the A. G.

Gaston Building (9/11/2000), and Kelly Ingram Park (5/24/1984) are individually listed in the National Register. The second area is comprised of resources previously listed as part of the Downtown Birmingham Retail and Theatre Historic District (5/5/89; 6/26/98). Businesses within this district were targets and destinations for the various marches and boycotts launched from the Northside section. The Government Complex includes the city-county government complex and adjacent buildings, including the Greyhound Bus Station, forming the third pivotal area in this nomination.

Although many buildings of the early 20th century have been demolished, particularly houses in the residential districts just west of the historic district, and other newer structures built over the last 40 years, significant landmarks, as well as the historic grid of streets, alleys, and sidewalks, remain to convey the sense of place, association, design, location and setting of the period of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The nominated district meets the registration requirements for historic districts listed in the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, 1933-1979 MPS.

March Routes The primary march routes are extant street corridors in the Birmingham city center. These corridors tie the strategy centers of the western section of the district to those government and retail locations that actually witnessed the implementation of those strategies. As organized groups, demonstrators moved along the designated corridors to reach their destinations and returned. The routes are counted as sites and not structures because their significance to this district lies in the fact they were locations of events and not significant as structures themselves. The linear nature of these corridors also demonstrates the physical segregation between the African American neighborhood where the marches originated and the retail and government areas that were the final destinations of the marches and the Movement’s goals of equal access.

1. 6“* Avenue North is the primary route that connects the western section to the municipal complex around Woodrow Wilson Park (Linn Park today). This City Beautiful style group of government buddings extends between Nineteenth and Twenty-first Streets North (now Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard) and from Park Place to Eighth Avenue North. The complex includes Birmingham City Hall, the Jefferson County Courthouse, the Boutwell Auditorium and the Birmingham Public Library (now Linn-Henley Research Library). These buildings have entrances both on the park and on surrounding streets and avenues. The Greyhound Bus Terminal is diagonally across 19th Street from the Birmingham City Hall 19th Street entrance, the entrance most frequently the site of demonstrations and marches in the 1960s. The Jefferson County Courthouse (12/27/1982) is listed individually in the National Register.

(C)

2. 5“* Avenue North to 19*'' Street North served as a primary route that participants in the April-May 1963 Birmingham demonstrations used to reach the retail core, the southeast section of the district. This retail core extends from the intersection of Nineteenth Street at Third Avenue North - termed “Integration Comer” by demonstrators -along 19th Street to Second Avenue North. The five properties within this section are part of the Downtown Birmingham National Register Retail and Theatre historic district (5/5/1989). Four of the five buildings are contributing properties: S. H. Kress & Co. Building (1/4/1982) and Loveman’s Department Store (now the museum portion of the McWane Science Center (listed 4/14/1983) are individually listed in the National Register. (C)

NPS FORM 10-900-A (8-86)

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

OMB Approval No. 1024-0018

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL

I :4

Addresses included within the district are as follows. Resources already listed in the National Register are de noted with an NRHP.

4“’Avenue North: 1500, 1522, 1526, 1530, 1622 (NRHP), 1630 (NRHP) S'" Avenue North: 1427, 1501, 1509, 1510, 1513, 1521, 1527 (NRHP), 1600 (Kelly Ingram Park-NRHP), 1617 h*” Avenue North: 1408-1414, 1500, 1530 (NRHP), 1616, 7‘" Avenue North: 1413,1420,1501 15*" Street North: 708 16*" Street North: 409, 413, 500

Retail District:

2"“ Avenue North: 1821 (NRHP) 3"* Avenue North: 1900 (NRHP) 19*" Street North: 214, 219 (NRHP), 224 (NRHP)

Government Complex 5‘" Avenue North: 1800 (NRHP) 7‘" Avenue North: Linn Park (NE comer of 7* Ave N and 20* Street North) 8‘" Avenue North: 1930 19*" Street North: 618 20*" Street North: 710 (City Hall) 2r* Street North: 716 (Jefferson County Courthouse-NRHP) Park Place: 2100

NPS FORM Itt-MOJk («-»»)

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

OMB A|>proval No. 1024.001 S

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL

3. 19'" Street North to 3"* Avenue North to 18‘" Street North to 4'" Avenue North (return route from Retail district) also served as a primary route that participants in the Apri 1-May 1963 Birmingham demonstrations used to reach the retail core, the southeast section of the district. This retail core extends from the intersection of Nineteenth Street at Third Avenue North along 19th Street to Second Avenue North. This route served also a route for demonstrators returning to the base churches to regroup and report on the day's events. (C) Western Section (Northside)

Fourth Avenue, North

4. Smith & Gaston Funeral Home (c. 1958), 1500 Fourth Avenue North One-storey funeral home with traditional features but of modem construction date, oriented to the comer and generally in a Y shape: veneered in varitone pinkish brick; gabled roofline with main section, the stem of the Y, with prominent comer entrance, flanked by wings to either side. Open-gabled projecting entry porch supported by four square concrete posts and topped by a Colonial Revival-style cupola with painted glass lantern. The limestone-faced facade contains an entry panel with central double metal-and-glass doors with stained glass window above, flanked by 1-over-l windows; decorative bas relief cartouches and swags over the windows. Wings include the East Chapel, a gable-front pavilion at southeast end, of same construc tion as main building. Porte cochere on northwest end. A one-storey portion along the rear alley serves as a garage for hearses. C

5. J.M. Bail Bonding (c. 1910), 1522 Fourth Avenue North Two-storey commercial building, 25' frontage, brick constmction with combed varitone buff brick ve neer on facade; plate glass storefront with entry in east side pier; above storefront is a row of five round-arched windows, now filled with glass block. Two rectangular windows on upper storey, also now filled with glass block. Double brackets at the east and west ends support an unadorned wood comice. At one time a funeral home of the Smith & Gaston company, the building was remodeled about 1946. C

6. Gay Office Supply (c, 1920), 1526 Fourth Avenue North One-storey commercial building, concrete block constmction with brick face-veneer, now painted; flat parapet. Three-part storefront windows with glass transoms, central single-door entry with replacement door.

Now fitted with metal security bars over first-floor openings. C

7. Metropolitan AME Zion Church (1955), 1530 Fourth Avenue North Turner, Smith & Batson, architects; L.S. Gaillard, contractor

Red brick Gothic Revival church, front-gable roof with parapet returns and stepped stone-capped cor ner buttresses. Prominent central entry projection with composite arched stone portal and stained glass oculus in upper gable face. Buttressed walls to either side of the facade are in place of towers; projecting entry vesti bule in the east of these with double-door side entry under an arched tympanum.

Five sanctuary bays defined by shouldered pilasters, each containing a tripartite arched stained glass window, the main arched portion separated from the lower rectangular panels by masonry spandrels. Lower crossing gabled projections toward rear containing a final window, although these do not serve the sanctuary itself. Two-storey Sunday School and office building of brick constmction at rear. C

8. Taxi Stand {c. 1949), 1622 Fourth Avenue North (Fourth Avenue North Historic District, 2/11/1982) Small one-storey brick commercial building, originally associated with the Masonic Temple (see be low): concrete block constmction with modem combed red brick veneer, flat parapet; entry in chamfered southeast comer with missing transom panel; large square single-pane plate window on south (Fourth Avenue North) elevation. Older windows on east side are wood-frame 3V-over-l sash. The building was constmcted after a 1930 City of Birmingham ordinance that required separate taxi services for blacks and whites. C

NPS FORM 10-900-A(W«)

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

0MB Approval No. 1024-0018

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL

9. Colored Masonic Temple (1922), 1630 Fourth Avenue North (Fourth Avenue North Historic District, 2/11/1982) Taylor & Persley, architects; Windham Brothers Construction Co., contractors

A seven-storey commercial office building and Masonic hall, in form a four-part stacked block in Classical Revival style: rusticated limestone base; walls buff brick on the street faces; five primary facade bays on Fourth Avenue North, nine bays along I?* Street side. Above the base, the three parts of the building are defined by molded cornices above the fourth and sixth floors; bays below the fourth-floor cornice are defined by engaged columns on the Fourth Avenue facade and attached columns along IT* Street; above this, bays are defined by pilasters. Upper-storey windows are pairs and trios of 1-over-l wood sash. The primary entry is three sets of doors on Fourth Avenue, now with replacement commercial metal doors; this area is emphasized above the base by the four Corinthian-capped engaged columns crowned by a gabled parapet.

The building interior is intact, with its small lobby and street-lining commercial spaces, its second-floor grand ballroom, and on the upper floors doughnut corridors lined with wire-glassed upper walls and wooden office doors.

The Temple is physically and historically a major property in the EWstrict: its offices served prominent black lawyers, the ACMHR, and the NAACP, which the State of Alabama closed in 1956, inaugurating the Birmingham “Movement”, and other civil rights and community organizations, as well as the masons. C

Fifth Avenue North

Birmingham Tobacco & Grocery (c. 1910,1950), 1501 Fifth Avenue North Two-storey commercial double block and garage/warehouse addition, 50' frontage, older building of brick construction with street faces veneered in butter-jointed buff brick, now painted; crested parapets on front on either side of central stair bay; both storefronts and the front entry now sealed with block. Upper ma sonry contains blind panels and lozenges; seven upstairs bays on front with replacement metal-frame windows;

same in window openings along west side. Original 2-over-2 wood sash visible on east wall.

The one-storey brick-veneered garage/warehouse addition extends to the alley behind, where there are two vehicular doors. Windows along 15* Street are filled with glass block. C

Park Plaza Apartments (1952), 1509 Fifth Avenue North (now part of motel?)

One-storey row of apartments set end-wise on Fifth Avenue North: red brick veneer base with compo sition board siding; hipped roof with vents; metal casement windows. C

A.G. Gaston Motel (1954,1963,1983), 1510 Fifth Avenue North Stanley B. Echols, architect; Steel City Construction Company, builders

A two-storey flat-roofed motel court with a one-storey office portion on either side of a drive-through into the interior court. Original face brick is varitone smooth red, now augmented on the Fifth Avenue North fa9ade by a salmon brick overlay with panels of projecting headers. Originally built as a motel with an associ ated restaurant and second-floor offices, the building was in 1983 heavily remodeled for residential use, with a facing of random-course sandstone and Roman brick added on the street sides. The interior court is now faced in composition wood siding and is fronted by a two-storey iron-framed covered walkway in customary motel style of the 1950s. Unit windows are small metal-frame sash.

This is a major significant resource in this district, bombed in 1963 and subsequently reopened as a motel, but becoming a residential facility for the elderly in 1983. SCLC leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

stayed in room 49, now numbered 10; it was chosen because it was the honeymoon suite and larger than the other rooms. The press conference announcing the Birmingham agreement that terminated the marches of April-May 1963 took place in the courtyard on May 10,1963. C

NP8 FORM tO-eOO-A (8-M) 0MB Approval No. 1024>0018

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL r-.

I?:-

16.

Citizen Drug Building (1960), 1513 Fifth Avenue North Two-storey commercial building, 25’ frontage, a relatively modem building in an earlier commercial style: brick veneer, now painted; facade has comer entry into main store space, a plate show window, and a fi nal bay with entry to the upstairs. Three upper-storey bays with metal casement windows; six similar windows along east side.

Built to house the Citizen Dmg business when it moved out of the A.G. Gaston Building next door (see below). C

WENN Radio Sign (c. 1960,1968), 1521 Fifth Avenue North A metal and neon sign mounted on a pole, I-shaped with WENN on the upper arm, RADIO on the stem, and AM1320/FM 107.7 on the lower arm. The station began in the Gaston Building with the support of this firm, but its DJs later purchased the station and subsequently moved the station to its own building nearby, recently demolished.

The sign originally belonged to Citizens Federal, which had offices in the Gaston Building. After the bank moved to another site in 1968, the sign was reworked to show the station’s identification and its inde pendence as a broadcaster (the AG letters were removed.). C

A.G. Gaston Building (1959-60), 1527 Fifth Avenue North (NR 9-11-2000) Perry C. Langston, Architect; Bank Building and Equipment Corporation, Contractor

Three-storey commercial office building with set-back penthouse and associated auditorium, among the earliest commercial International Style buildings in Birmingham: reinforced concrete frame with brick ve neer on the ground floor and aluminum-framed glass and acrylic infill panels on upper storeys. Its most arrest ing exterior feature is the blue acrylic panels that define the second- and third-storey floor plates and create a horizontal balance to the vertical elements of the design. Daily meetings of the Coordinating Committee for the April-May 1963 marches took place in the second floor conference room.

The L.R. Hall auditorium on the 16* Street side of the building is faced in buff brick on the ground level, above which is a girded screen with colorful inlaid glazed tiles; the entry consists of two sets of com mercial double doors under a shallow flat metal canopy. C

Kelly Ingram Park (1871, alterations from 1979 to mid-1990s) (NR 5/24/84) Occupying a square block between 16* and 17* Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues

North, one of the three parks designated in the city plan of 1871 and named after the first American sailor killed in World War I.

An open green space with paths crossing in the center, the park was the site of major Civil Rights demonstrations in April and May of 1963. In 1979 black businessman A.G. Gaston commemorated prominent black citizens by placing statues here.

In the 1990s the City of Birmingham, during the administration of its first black mayor, Richard Ar rington Jr., redesigned the park to commemorate the events of 1963, transforming it through the use of reflect ing pools, walks and statuary. All previous improvements excepting the Gaston memorials were removed. C

Freedom Manor (c. 1980), 1617 Fifth Avenue North A six-storey commercial residential apartment building: concrete construction with a dark buff brick base; masonite panel spandrels on upper levels, sandwiching bands of metal-frame windows, small sash on front and rear, plate on the ends. Entries on Fifth Avenue North and off rear parking lot, the former with a projecting canvas awning, the latter with a solid flat canopy on concrete pylons.

Built on the site of the four-storey c. 1910 Gary Hotel. NC

NPS FORM 10-900-A

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

OMBApcroval No. 1024-0018

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL

Sixth Avenue North

21.

Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Baptist Church (now Deliverance Temple) (1959), 1408-14 Sixth Avenue North A modest modem rendition of Jeffersonian Classicism: a front-gabled meetinghouse church with clas sical decorative features: varitone red brick with buff trim; front gable over a shallow recessed porch, sup ported by four square brick pillars; oculus window in gable face with keystones; belfry, cupola and weather-vane on roof peak. Windows are round-headed in the five sanctuary bays, with metal-framed frosted glass.

Front entry now with commercial metal doors, flanked by similar windows without arches.

An arched brick portal connects this building on the west with its associated community building, originally a one-storey 50' commercial block with two wood-and-glass entries flanked by windows. This building was acquired by the present congregation in 1970 for its use. C

St. Paul Methodist Church (c. 1904; 1948-51), 1500 Sixth Avenue North George P. Turner, Architect

A Gothic influenced gable-front church on a raised basement, varitone smooth red brick veneer with limestone trim: Gothic-arched lancet windows, stone-capped buttresses; four sanctuary bays defined by pro jecting pilasters, each containing a 1995 window with stained glass pieces. Double stairs up to a slightly pro jecting molded Gothic-arched central portal defined by buttressed piers. The base is rusticated sandstone with segmental-head windows, for many years the only part of the building that was finished or that survived de struction of a 1904 building on the site. There is a two-storey flat-roofed annex on the east side, completed with the present building in 1951. Interior remodeled in 1966. C

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and Parsonage (1911), 1530 Sixth Avenue North (NR 9-17-80; HABS

1993; NHL 2006)

Wallace Rayfield, architect; Windham Brothers Constmction, builders

Described by HABS (AL-898) as follows: “The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church building exhibits an interesting eclectic of Romanesque and Byzantine styles, executed in warm brown brick on a foundation of dark brown rock-faced sandstone___(T)he church has a symmetrically balanced facade with towers and wide round-arched doorways and windows, and is executed in heavy masoniy with rock-faced stonework and other textured, decorative details. An element of the Byzantine is added ... by the central dome resting on a tall drum and two subsidiary domes located atop the front towers, which are reminiscent of the typical Byzantine ‘cross-in-square’ church plan. Other Byzantine-influenced fea tures include the polychrome brick and low-relief moldings.

The east and west [side] elevations are largely identical, divided into seven bays with arched, stained-glass windows set into six of the bays---- (W)indows of the transept [bays] are larger than the other windows with images of Christ within the stained glass. The rear elevation is punctured by double-hung windows at three levels that service [sic] offices and rear halls of the church.”

The adjacent parsonage, now offices, is a two-storey, flat-roofed house of the same iron-spotted buff brick of the church, with a projecting flat-roofed porch on comer wood posts; central entry with flanking un matched windows; three upstairs bays with metal-frame replacement windows; plain band below the parapet in place of a comice. C

Painters’ Local/Ans-O-Phone Building (1947, altered 1960), 1616 Sixth Avenue North One-storey commercial building, 50' frontage, of load-bearing brick construction, now faced in a lime stone base with upper metal screen, completely blind other than for the recessed central entry in a slightly pro jecting portal. Originally a union local office with standard central entry and flanking windows, the building was altered in 1960 to its present appearance, including the projecting box sign over the entry. C

NPS FORM 10-gOO-A (S-M)

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

0MB Approval No. 1024-0018

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL

Seventh Avenue North

22. Harris Early Learning Center (1990s), 1413 Seventh Avenue North A one- and two-storey Post-Modern school complex built around two central rectangular playground courtyards, occupying a complete half block on the south side of Seventh Avenue North: gabled roofline with shallow projecting crossing gabled bays; split-face block base with red brick and buff-banded veneer above; 2-over-2 sash windows with soldier-course headers on second storey; gabled porte cocheres over entry drives.

NC

23. Ballard-Hamilton House and Office (1940), 1420 Seventh Avenue North Two-storey Colonial Revival-influenced house with wide side gables: combed buff brick veneer on first floor, quoined with dark iron-spotted brown brick; projecting window bays flank the central entry. Nov elty board on upper storey; five upstairs bays with 6-over-6 wood sash, a small one in the center. Terra cotta terrace with iron railings; stuccoed end chimney, west side.

Originally a combined residence and physician’s office, the house also provided meeting space for Af rican American community groups. It is now occupied by a business. Formation Methods, LLC. C

24. Poole Funeral Chapel (1952), 708 IS*" Street North One- and two-storey funeral service complex with gable-front chapel pavilions flanking a central entry section: red brick veneer, chapel entries are traditional wood doors recessed in limestone frames-, faux quoin-ing and gable-end returns also on these end sections. Central portion is a flat-roofed projection from a set back two-storey core, fronted by a girded metal-and-glass entry panel. Occasional windows are narrow with metal frames and orange or red tinted glass. The two-storey core of the building is not readily visible from the street. Fifteenth-Street entries under a projecting flat metal canopy. Garage at rear (c. 1950): Brick, metal, and concrete multiple-bay shed garage with asphalt shingle flat roof. C

Fifteenth Street North

25. St. John’s AME Church and Day Care Center (1973), 708 15‘" Street North Modem church building with steeply pitched upper roof, buff brick veneer, canopied entrance. A modified tower with a cross separates the sanctuary from the adjoining Day Care Center: two storeys, same brick construction with narrow window bays alternating with brick piers.

This was the site of the Romanesque St. John’s AME Church, which hosted Movement meetings and the training of children for the marches of 1963; it was demolished to make way for the present buildings. NC

Sixteenth Street North

26. Infinity Club Connection (c. 1949; altered 1990), 409 16*'' Street North One-storey concrete block commercial building, now significantly altered for social use and reoriented with its entrance facing lb* Street: originally of concrete block construction with brick veneer on its 50' Fourth Avenue facade, now covered in pebbledash panels; long west side with central entry and shingled porte cochere, blind pebbledash bays defined by brick piers; flanking the entry, bays are faced in permastone. NC due to alterations.

NP8 FORM 10-900-A (8-86)

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

OMB Approval No. 1024-0018

Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL

Sixteenth Street North, continued:

27. Post Office Garage/Shores-Lee Law Offices (c. 1924; c. 1995), 413 16*'' Street North One-storey commercial building, originally built as a garage for the U.S. Post Office with a commer cial comer component: load-bearing brick masonry, veneered on street faces and now painted; slightly re cessed office window bays with modem aluminum-and-glass entries. Patterned courses in upper face and be low parapet; molded parapet cap; canvas barrel awnings.

Redeveloped for offices about 1980, at which time the vehicle doors were converted to window bays;

the building was acquired by Attorney and Judge Helen Shores Lee about 1995 and turned into a law center in honor of her father. Civil Rights lawyer Arthur Shores. It also houses other professional offices. C

28. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (1990), 500 16**’ Street North Two-storey institutional building with traditional features, including a dome that reflects that of the

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church across the avenue: varitone buff brick veneer, central pavilion with entry through an arcade with recessed ambulatory along 16* Street North, flanked by two long rectangular wings running east-west parallel with Sixth Avenue North; recessed double window bays with stuccoed panel facings along Sixth Avenue; pitched standing seam metal roof. NC

Southeast Section (Retail Core)

Second Avenue North

29. Pizitz Department Store (1923,1926), 1821 Second Avenue North (NR District, 1986) Harry B. Wheelock, architect.

Built in two stages, a major local eight-storey department store, a stacked commercial block faced in ivory-toned terra cotta with a classical comice at the top. The first-floor level inside is of double height to ac commodate the mezzanine, this constituting the exterior base of the column. The ground level consists of commercial storefronts and entries in both faces under a simple storefront comice; upper windows are trios of wood sash in bays defined by slightly projecting masonry piers; top-floor windows set in a Palladian style. In tervening spandrels marking the floor plates are decorated with unglazed terra cotta tiles.

Abandoned as a retail location in the 1990s, the building sits vacant at the time of this nomination but is scheduled for rehabilitation in the near future. C

Third Avenue North

30. S.H. Kress Building (1937), 1900 Third Avenue North (address now 30119* Street North) (NR 1982) Edward F. Sibbert, architect for S.H. Kress; Day & Sachs, builders. Cohen & Company, architects for the re habilitation of 2004; Charles & Vinzant, rehabilitation contractors

A five-storey department store building in the Art Modeme style favored by Kress for its Fifth Avenue store, produced in Birmingham in the same fine style but on a smaller scale. Clad in white terra cotta with a rounded comer in the “streamline Modeme” style: horizontal emphasis through trios of metal-frame windows resting on a continuous sill; scalloped and pleated decorative and framing elements around the storefronts.

Abandoned by Kress in 1978 and altered on the interior in the 1980s and again in the 1990s for office uses; rehabilitated in 2004 as a law office with all exterior and many interior Modeme details restored. C

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Nineteenth Street North

31. OmniMax Theatre, McWane Science Center (1997) (site of Newberry’s Department Store, 1916, NW Corner of 19“' Street and Second Avenue North (200 19“' Street North) Brasfield & Gorrie, general contractors

Modem IMAX movie theatre associated with the McWane Science Center: four storeys, a circular ribbed structure of reinforced concrete; brick veneer with lozenge-pattem decoration. Set back from the comer on a plaza with a fountain, with entries facing the comer.

This comer was previously occupied by the 1916 Louis Saks Clothing Co., later Newberry’s Depart ment Store building, demolished to make way for the present theatre. NC

32. Loveman’s Department Store (McWane Science Center) (1934-35; remodeled 1990), 214 19“' Street North (NR District, 1986) D. & W. Lehman, architects, associated with Miller, Martin & Lewis

A four-storey department store building in Art Deco style, originally Loveman, Joseph & Loeb and built in the mid-1930s after a disastrous fire destroyed their older store on the site. Faced in limestone with vertical windows fronted by attenuated rectilinear iron ornament; heavy caps on the parapet piers filing the entrances. Chamfered comer bay beneath a clock, for many years a fa vorite meeting place downtown. At one time the windows were painted, an attempt to modernize the building’s appearance; this has been undone and the building well restored to serve as the McWane Science Center. C

33. F.W. Woolworth (1939), 219 19“' Street North (NR District, 1986) David Oliver Whilldin, architect

Three-storey commercial block in geometric Art Deco style, the last of the three major 1930s com mercial buildings built on the intersection of Third Avenue North and 19* Street. Faced in warm beige terra cotta, the building has a deep spandrel sign band above the storefront and a chamfered comer bay. The metal-frame windows are stacked in vertical pairs, separated by decorative masonry spandrels. The attenuated in cised geometric markings are the sole decorative treatment of the exterior. C

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Northeast Section (Government complex)

Park Place

34. Birmingham Public Library (1926-27), 2100 Park Place Miller & Martin, architects; Kidd/Plosser/Sprague, rehabilitation architects, 1986

A four-storey public building in the Renaissance Revival style, popular for libraries and museums in the second two decades of the 20* Century. Built of reinforced concrete and faced in Indiana limestone, with a symmetrical nine-bay facade along Park Place, although its original main entry has been moved to the Linn Park west side with a glassed and pedimented vestibule added in 1986 to create a new major entrance from the park. The Park Place facade contains six Ionic fluted columns that are two storeys high, resting in antis on the msticated base and supporting the comice, above which are two progressively set back attic storeys. The fas cia band below the comice is incised with names of great exemplars of the classical disciplines. C

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Eighth Avenue North

35. Municipal Auditorium/Boutwell Auditorium (1924; 1957), 1930 Eighth Avenue North Built in 1924 as one of the South’s largest (6,000 seats) and most modem auditoriums, the Municipal

Auditorium is of load-bearing brick constmction with a broad front-gabled roofline, now mostly obscured by the presence of a fronting addition. Designed in a Lombard or North Italian style with a blind arcade under the front eave line, it was enlarged by the City in 1957 by a modem front extension along Eighth Avenue; the addition, anticipated in the 1924 plans, created a public gathering place in the front interior of the building and meeting rooms and offices upstairs. C

Nineteenth Street North

36. Greyhound Bus Terminal (1950; altered 1970s), 618 lO* Street North A renovated bus depot that was originally a good example of Streamline Modeme that has been re done as a stylistic extension of the Burger King located in its north wing. Central main block with stepped-down side extensions, faced in gray-tone buff brick with a darker brick bulkhead with limestone cap. Main block contains recessed-course panel with the tall projecting company sign, and slightly recessed four-door en try, now with modernized glass and framing. The overall frame is defined by limestone block courses, fluted in the reveals of the recessed doorways. Modem additions include the projecting horizontal canopy with “Greyhound” lettering across the fascia. The Burger King North wing has a fake Mansard canopy attached.

Saw-toothed bus docks are along the south side and rear, under a flat metal canopy. C

Seventh Avenue North

Capitol ParkAVoodrow Wilson Park/Linn Park (1871; 1985) An original feature of the City plan for Birmingham, this park was originally named Capitol Park and was intended to be the location of a major public building. Some time after World War I the park was re named to honor President Woodrow Wilson, and it retained that name throughout this nomination’s period of significance. (It was renamed for Charles Linn on the occasion of the Linn-Henley Foundation donation of funds to renovate it in the 1980s.)

Plans for the City Beautiful complex of municipal buildings surrounding the park evolved in the 1920s following designs by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts. With WPA funding, the City of Birmingham hired Birmingham landscape designer William Kessler to design park improvements including the reflecting pools that visually link City Hall and the Courthouse (see Numbers 38 and 39 below). Monu ments in the park include statues commemorating several wars, including the Revolutionary and Civil Wars (the Confederate obelisk, 1905).

Renovation of the park in 1985 included construction of a central fountain, a runnel toward Eighth Avenue, a cast-iron gazebo, and the planting of many trees. C

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Twentieth Street North

38. Birmingham City Hall (1947-50), 710 20‘" Street North Charles McCauley, architect

A restrained Art Deco skyscraper, the ten-storey City Hall is a steel and concrete structure faced in limestone with a polished granite base, central tower and flanking lower wings, its symmetrical east facade facing Woodrow Wilson (now Linn) Park; window bays are stacked within continuous recessed columns to emphasize the verticality of the building. The Park-side entry on the piano nobile main (2"“*) floor consists of three metal-and-glass doors with transoms, repeated on the 19*-Street side with steps to the ground-level en tries below.

Ground was broken in the spring of 1947, but the building was not completed until 1950. City Com missioner Eugene “Bull” Connor’s name is prominent in the Park-side cornerstone. C

Twenty-first Street North (now Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard)

39. Jefferson County Courthouse (1929-32), 716 21’* Street North (NR 12/27/82) Holabird & Root, architects, associated with Harry B. Wheelock; Jack B. Smith, supervising architect; South ern Ferro Concrete Co., general contractor; Giattina Fisher Aycock, architects for the 2002 rehabilitation

A nine-storey reinforced concrete courthouse building, faced in limestone and in generally an H shape, with entries off plazas on both sides between the arms of the H. An exceptional example of Art Deco design for public buildings: a series of low relief sculptural panels, designed by Les Friedlander, celebrate cultural in fluences of the County’s past. The window bays are stacked in recessed vertical panels separated by bronze spandrels between floors. What was originally the jail housing sits back from the main structure as an attic level.

The Courthouse has been rehabilitated over a period of years in the early 21““ century and many of its original interior features restored. C

40. Vance Federal Building/U.S. Post Office (1921), 1800 Fifth Avenue North James A. Wetmore, architect for the Government

A good example of federal Classical Revival style of the early 20* Century, this building extends the entire block along Fifth Avenue North: clad in Alabama marble, two storeys with an attic storey above the cornice; a Doric colonnade on the facade between substantial comer blocks; supporting an inset porch. Main-floor casement windows are round-arched on all sides, while second-storey windows are rectangular and also filled with metal-frame casements.

Rehabilitated in 1972 as a federal Courthouse after construction of a new Post Office facility on 24* Street North; rehabilitated again in 1991 and named after federal Circuit Judge Robert S. Vance. C

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Architect/builder (continued from form) McCauley, Charles Wetmore, James Miller & Martin ' Taylor & Persley Windham Brothers Construction Co.

Echlos, Stanley B.

Langston, Perry C.

Wheelock, Harry B.

Sibbert, Edward F.

Whilldin, David Oliver Holabird & Root Gaillard, L.S.

VIII. Statement of Significance

"But for Birmingham, we would not be here today." So stated the Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth to President John F.

Kennedy during the summer of 1963. "Here" was a meeting at the White House to plan what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that fulfilled the promise of freedom and equality given in the Declaration of Independence. The preceding centuries of racial struggle culminating in the events of that spring had made Birmingham the essential crucible that demonstrated to the nation and the world the failure of democracy in the United States as evidenced by the pervasiveness of racial prejudice and discrimination, both de jure and de facto. The very streets where brave black men and women, teenagers and little children, marched for justice and stood their ground facing an implacable enemy who directed fire hoses and police dogs on them, makes this area of Birmingham hallowed ground. The world watched as nonviolent protesters brought the strongest nation on earth to its knees and forced an end to state supported white supremacy. Ultimately the civil rights reforms won in the streets of Birmingham opened the American system to all people, black, white, red, and yellow, men and women, gays and lesbians, and the handicapped. It was here that the nation recognized the need to end discrimination and welcome diversity in order to achieve the dream that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., later described so eloquently in his peroration that summer at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. Consequently the structures and streets of Birmingham that in the spring of 1963 became a battleground for freedom deserve the same federal recognition as such historic sites as the Boston’s Old North Church and the fields of Gettysburg.

The Birmingham Civil Ri^ts Historic District in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama, is eligible under Criterion A for the National Register of Historic Places as a nationally significant property associated with the climax of the civil rights struggle.

The period of significance extends from 1956 when Shuttlesworth founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), a faith-based movement of ordinary people to "press forward persistently for Freedom and Democracy, and the removal from our society any forms of Second Class Citizenship" to April-May 1963, when ACMHR joined forces with King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to sponsor the Birmingham campaign and rid the city of segregation. In May 1963, thousands of black people demonstrated in the streets of Birmingham as hundreds went to jail for freedom. The protests won world condemnation of American domestic politics, galvanized the nation's press against segregation, and hastened the coming of national civil rights legislation.

The Birmingham Civil Rigjits District is locally significant under the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, 1933-1979 Multiple Property Submission (MPS) beginning in 1933, when a major demonstration took place in West (Kelly Ingram) Park and until 1979, when massive demonstrations in Woodrow Wilson (Linn) Park opposing police brutality

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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

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Section number Page Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District Jefferson County, AL resulted in support for the political campaign of…