Caldwell Hotel

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Caldwell Hotel logo.jpg
Drawing of the Caldwell Hotel from an 1893 menu card

The Caldwell Hotel, completed in 1889, was a six-story, 100-room hotel located on the northeast corner of 22nd Street and 1st Avenue North in downtown Birmingham. The hotel was destroyed in a fire on July 21, 1894.

The hotel was incorporated, with $100,000 in capital, on February 3, 1886 by officers of the Elyton Land Company. They named it for their president, Henry Caldwell, who agreed to allow his own residence to be moved to 4th Avenue North to make way for construction. Architect Edouard Sidel was commissioned to create the design, and Henry M. Allen hired to oversee construction, at a projected cost of $250,000.

The Renaissance revival-styled building was clad in stone, terra cotta and Philadephia pressed brick and gave the impression of being one of the city's most durable monuments, and was even billed as being of fireproof construction. It occupied a 150-foot square plot with an open courtyard in the center giving light to each room.

Before the hotel was completed, the property was sold for a loss, with Dr Caldwell and John Boddie entering the sole bid of $54,849.82 and assuming the outstanding bond debt of $118,000. Immediately afterward, Caldwell ordered furnishings from a company in Grand Rapids, Michigan whose agent was on-hand, and made plans to open the doors as soon as possible. When it did open in 1889, the hotel's 165-foot height distinguished it as Alabama's second "high-rise" building (after the Moses Building, constructed in Montgomery in 1887).

The Caldwell Hotel after the July 21, 1894 fire

Overseen by manager Ed Freeman, the Caldwell succeeded the Florence Hotel as the young city's most luxurious accommodations. The hotel's parlors and ballrooms hosted the annual balls of the Fortnight, Monogram and Cosmos Clubs as well as numerous other meetings and events. The hotel hosted a luncheon for President Benjamin Harrison in 1891.


In February 1893, the Caldwell served as headquarters for the Alabama team for the first Iron Bowl. A special menu prepared for the evening of February 22 offered "Consomme a la Tuscaloosa" alongside "Potage a l'Auburn" as a first course before "Baked Kikoph Trout", "Braized Quarter Back of Tennessee Lamb" and other such delicacies, followed up by "One-team-out-in-the-cold Sherbet".

A year later, the Caldwell played host for the proceedings of the 1894 Confederate Veterans Reunion, which drew more than 10,000 visitors to the city. The two-story dining room held a massive chandelier and the lobby boasted hand-carved furnishings and fine oil paintings, as well as a marble bust of Caldwell, placed in front of a gilt Alabama coat-of-arms. A salon under the hotel's gilded dome hosted frequent high-stakes poker games.

Despite the claim that the building was "fireproof", a massive fire that broke out at the Stowers Furniture Company late in the evening of July 20 spread to the hotel, leaving only its brick walls standing as smoldering ruins the next morning. No lives were lost in the blaze, which was controlled during the night from spreading to the rest of the business district.

Following the demise of the Caldwell, the Morris Hotel, which had previously included office floors, was expanded into a full-service hotel. The ruined walls of the Caldwell remained standing until 1905, when the site was acquired by the Goodall-Brown Dry Goods Company for its offices and warehouse, recently renovated as the Goodall-Brown Lofts.

References

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