Watts Building (1928)

The Watts Building is a 236 foot tall, 17 story Art Deco apartment building located on the northwest corner of 3rd Avenue North and 20th Street in downtown Birmingham. It was built in 1927 by Thomas Haynes Watts III, who had built an earlier four-story Watts Building on the same site in 1888.

1888 Watts Building

The first Watts Building was a richly ornamented four-story Second-Empire style commercial building with a mansard roof. Watts hired it's builder, Charles M. Allen and Son to demolish it in 1927 and to construct its high-rise successor.

A 1906 Birmingham Age-Herald story reveals that Doctors Laura E. Burton and Irene Bullard had their medical practice in room 14 of this building. Burton was shot and killed by her ex-husband at her home in North Haven.

1927 Watts Building

Watts commissioned the design of the replacement tower from architects Warren, Knight & Davis. The new building would have space for as many as 300 offices and stores.The building is clad on the south and west (street) sides with cream-colored terra cotta in vertical bands with windows separated by brick spandrels. The north side is mainly brick with terra-cotta at the corners and ledges. The east side (rear) is unfenestrated, but graphically ornamented with large vertical bands of brick delineated by terra-cotta frames. Thick gables frame the pitched slate roof. Allen again served as contractor, and the construction cost was estimated at $1 million.

In 1977 the exterior spandrels were obscured during renovations for the offices of Molton, Allen & Williams, a real-estate company. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

In 1999 the upper floors were converted from office to residential use, creating 34 loft apartments and refurbishing 30,000 square feet of commercial leased space. The cost of the renovation, including a new 16-story aluminum fire-escape stair, was $6.1 million.

In 2006 an attorney and resident of the Watts Building, Sandra Gregory was abducted from the building's parking lot in view of witnesses and a closed-circuit video camera. The ensuing search riveted the news media for the remainder of the day. She was rescued by police at a Homewood motel that same evening.

Retail tenants

Old photographs indicate that the following tenants have been housed in the Watts Building:

• Fashion Hat Shop (1976-7)
• Lollar's Cameras (1976-7)
• Russell Stover Candies (1976-7)

Current tenants include:

• Renasent Bank (formerly Heritage Bank) (1999-present)

References

• Jefferson County Historical Commission. (1998) Birmingham and Jefferson County, Alabama Images of America Series. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN0752413465
• Satterfield, Carolyn Green. (1976) Historic Sites of Jefferson County, Alabama. Prepared for the Jefferson County Historical Commission. Birmingham: Gray Printing Co.
• White, Marjorie Longenecker, ed. (1977) Downtown Birmingham: Architectural and Historical Walking Tour Guide. Birmingham:Birmingham Historical Society.
• "Watts Building opens its doors." (December 24, 1999) Birmingham Business Journal.
• "Doctor Kills Wife and Self; Dentist Shot." (April 10, 1906) "Birmingham Age-Herald", republished by A. J. Wright, Early Female Physicians of Alabama - accessed June 1, 2006