1914

Birmingham circa 1914

1914 was the 43rd year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• January 10: 12 miners died in the 1914 Rock Castle Mine explosion.
• January 14: The Lyric Theatre opened its doors with a program featuring cartoonist Rube Goldberg.
• January 17: Several cinemas in Birmingham were evacuated due to foul-smelling gas released from sealed glass balls brought in by unknown persons.
• January 19: The International Typographical Union Local No. 104 hosted a banquet for 150 people at the Empire Hotel in honor of Benjamin Franklin's 208th birthday.
• February 12: The East Lake Library opened on the second floor of East Lake City Hall.
• February 19: The Southern Railway's Queen & Crescent Limited was robbed between Trussville and Irondale as it approached Birmingham from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• March 14: Barker School was destroyed by a fire in the boiler room.
• May 8: The Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Building was destroyed by a large fire.
• May 11: Frank White assumed the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Joseph Johnston.
• July 9: A day-long picnic for Black residents was planned for this date by the Birmingham City Commission, but after protest from the Avondale Civic League it was canceled.
• October 5: 17 miners died in the 1914 Mulga Mine explosion.
• November 26: The Marx Brothers appeared on stage at the Lyric Theatre.
• Alabama Power built its first hydro-electric dam on the Coosa River, and created Lay Lake as a reservoir.
• New boilers were installed at Sloss Furnaces.
• The Birmingham Motor and Country Club purchased Edgewood Country Club.
• The resort hotel at Blount Springs closed down.
• Meetings of the Pioneers Club began.
• The City of Birmingham began showing free nightly motion pictures at Capitol Park.
• The Town of Odenville was incorporated.
• The Birmingham City Commission contracted with Warren Manning & Associates for a "City Plan of Birmingham"
• The Birmingham City Federation of Colored Women's Clubs was incorporated.

Harry Coveleski

Sports

• Pitcher Burleigh Grimes debuted with the Birmingham Barons.
• Pitcher Harry Coveleski returned to the major leagues, winning 22 starts for the Detroit Tigers.

Business

• January 15: George Bodeker founded the Bodeker National Detective Agency in the Brown-Marx Building.
• February 12: The American Steel and Wire Co. began production.
• W. P. G. Harding resigned as President of the First National Bank of Birmingham.
• Morris W. Bush succeeded Ward W. Jacobs as President of the Shelby Iron Company.
• Hahn Roofing Company was founded.
• Victor H. Hanson declared the Birmingham News to be the "South's Greatest Newspaper"
• Mining activities at Brookside peak with 600 men working the mines.
• Holy Innocents Hospital left the patronage of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama and became Children's Hospital.
• Robert A. Brown became president of the Alabama State Fair & Exhibit Association.
• Master Bakers Association was formed by fourteen leading bakeries to lobby the Birmingham Board of Aldermen for a smaller 5¢ loaf and to perform their own inspections of member plants.
• Sam Jackson's Emporium opened when Sam F. Jackson Sr took over an existing general store in Tuscaloosa.
• Essig & Busenlehner opened a $15,000 bakery for their Butter Nut and Butter Krust breads.
• Eugene Matthiack and Louis Busenlehner opened the Sanitary Bakery at 930 11th Street South.

Education

• "The Machine", a secret society of fraternities, was founded at the University of Alabama.
• Reverend T. Peyton Walton founded the South Highland School for Girls on 12th Avenue South.

Religion

• February 14: St Elias Maronite Church was dedicated.
• March 14: Homewood's Union Missionary Baptist Church was formed by merger of Healing Springs Baptist Church and Walnut Street Baptist Church.
• Ensley Highlands Methodist Church was organized.

Works

Books

• The Book of Birmingham and Alabama, by the Birmingham Ledger
• The Case Against the Little White Slaver. by Henry Ford, with an account of research done at Ensley High School.

The Tutwiler

Buildings

• 120 18th Street South
• Broad Street Missionary Baptist Church at 121 Morris Avenue
• Coosa River Dam
• Hood-McPherson building
• Long Building, Bessemer, Ager & Clines architects / Roper & Strauss contractors
• Lyric Theatre
• Molton Hotel
• Tutwiler Hotel (1914)
• Woodlawn Masonic Temple
• Elephant House for Miss Fancy at Avondale Park
• Construction began on Alabama State Highway 25 over Double Oak Mountain
• Boyles Depot on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
• First Baptist Church of Sylacauga

• Industrial High School was condemned.

Individuals

• Martin Eagan succeeded George Bodeker as Chief of the Birmingham Police Department.
• Hugo Black began a four year term as Jefferson County prosecutor.
• Alf Brown rejoined the Birmingham Fire Department.
• Arthur Brown served as president of the National Medical Association.
• Harvie Branscomb graduated from Birmingham College
• William Tynes married poet Mary Ella Pollard.

Sun Ra

Births

• January 31: Dorothea Warren Fox, commercial artist
• April 12: Hugo Marx Jr, investment banker
• April 13: Bill Durks, sideshow performer
• April 20: Betty Lou Gerson, radio actress
• May 22: Herman Poole Blount (Sun Ra), jazz composer and bandleader
• July 4: Luther Smith, Salvation Army commander
• July 26: Erskine Hawkins, jazz composer and bandleader
• August 7: Anna Praytor, educator and bookseller
• August 11: Hugh Martin, lyricist
• September 1: Bert Bank, Alabama Football Network founder
• October 13: Joseph A. Durick, Catholic bishop
• November 10: Big Chief Ellis, blues pianist
• December 3: Mac Drennen, president of Drennen Bros. mercantile
• December 25: Noel Gayler, US Navy admiral and Director of the National Security Agency
• Julia Crowder, civic activist
• Akiva Ostrovsky, cantor and mohel at Temple Beth-El
• Bernice Shepherd, former head of housekeeping at East End Memorial Hospital
• George Watson, Medal of Honor winner

Deaths

• February 21: Harry Vaughn, Birmingham Barons manager
• September 20: William Pettiford, Baptist minister and banker
• October 26: Thomas Jeffers, former Mayor of Birmingham

Context

1914 saw the opening of major conflict in World War I. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was founded. Mother's Day was made a national holiday by President Wilson. Ireland was granted Home Rule. Babe Ruth debuted in the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox. The Panama Canal Treaty was signed and the canal opened to traffic. Pope Pius X was succeeded by Pope Benedict XV. The Federal Reserve Bank opened for business. Stainless steel was first available in consumer goods. Mohandas Gandhi began to lead the movement for Indian independence. The first air conditioner was patented by W. H. Carrier.

Notable births of 1914 include Danny Thomas, William S. Burroughs, Ralph Ellison, Alec Guinness, Joe Louis, Yuri Andropov, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr, Allen Funt, Dylan Thomas, Jonas Salk, and Joe DiMaggio. Deaths in 1914 included Adlai Stevenson, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, Pope Pius X, and John Muir. Notable films of 1914 included The Squaw Man, Tillie's Punctured Romance, and Charlie Chaplin's Making a Living. Books published in 1914 included The Dubliners by James Joyce and Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. W. C. Handy's St Louis Blues was published, and Ralph Vaughan Williams London Symphony (No. 2) was premiered.

1910s

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