Boutwell Auditorium

Boutwell Auditorium (also known as Boutwell Memorial Auditorium, formerly Municipal Auditorium) is a city-owned 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena on 8th Avenue North facing Linn Park.

It was constructed in 1924. A later renovation added to the lobby and meeting room space in front of the brick facade, giving the street view of the auditorium a decidedly modernist marble, aluminum and glass look. The auditorium was renamed for Mayor Albert Boutwell.

In 1996 the first sections of a the Birmingham Urban Mural were erected on a steel framework on the exterior east wall of the auditorium.

In 1997 Boutwell hosted a watershed event for Birmingham's gay community. After ABC 33/40 declined to air the episode of the television sitcom Ellen which portrayed the title character "coming out" as a lesbian, Birmingham Pride Alabama, with help from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, organized a screening of the episode at Boutwell. Approximately 2,500 people attended the event and listened to a series of speakers proclaim that gays in Birmingham would no longer be invisible.

The auditorium is home to the Birmingham Power basketball team.

Master plans for the future of the Birmingham Museum of Art, which adjoins Boutwell Auditorium, have included expanding onto its current site.

References

• Boulard, Garry. (June 24, 1997) You can go home again." The Advocate.