Medical Arts Building

This article is about an existing building. For the unbuilt building, see Medical Arts Building (7th Avenue South).

As the Hotel Highland in January 2009.

The Medical Arts Building or Medical Arts Tower is an 8-story building built at 1023 20th Street South in 1931 as medical offices. It was developed by the Kamram Grotto, a fraternal order made up of Freemasons who also built the nearby Pickwick Club in the same year. The architect was Charles H. McCauley, who studied similar developments in Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville and St Louis before completing the design. Construction was completed in just six months.

The brick-clad building has stone and terra-cotta ornaments as well as cast aluminum spandrels below the windows. The art-deco styling carries over into the elevator lobby where a star motif symbolizes the building's location at Five Points South. Originally the ground floor was occupied by an apothecary and other shops.

In the 1980s the building was converted into the Pickwick Hotel by developer Donald Kahn. Kidd/Plosser/Sprague designed the renovations which were carried out by Brasfield & Gorrie. Kahn also redeveloped the area behind the hotel into a retail and restaurant district called Pickwick Place, constructing a four-story parking deck to serve both. In 2007 the hotel was fully renovated by Long & Cox Properties, which renamed it the Hotel Highland.

Tenants

• basement
  • Medical Arts Brace Shop (1946)
  • Medical Arts Garage (1946)
• ground floor
  • lobby
    • Southeastern Optical Co. (1946)
  • 1017: T-Bones restaurant (Anthony Crawford 2014-), former location of Coleman Cleaners (1941), U.S. Post Office South Highland Station (1946-1953), Hall's Men's Shop (1964), Term Finance Co. (1970), Subway, Purple Onion, Roxy's Country Cooking (2008), Camp Taco (2009-2011)
    • 1019: former location of Insured Cleaners (1946), Lewdon's Hat Shop (1949-1953), Medical Arts Optical Co. (1964-1970)
    • 1021: Phone Clinic, former location of Birmingham Apothecary (Fletcher Gray 1946-1970)
    • 1023: entrance
    • 1025: former location of John Cefalu (1919), Mayberger's Variety Shop (1922), Junior League Gift Shop & Library used clothes (1941–1946), Five Points Barber Shop (1970), All Star Instant Printing (1982), Sakura restaurant, Sekisui restaurant, Pho Pho restaurant (2015-December 2019)
• 2nd floor
  • 201–212: Meadows & Kesmodel physicians (1946)
  • 214–222: Sherrill & Conwell physicians (1946)
• 3rd floor
  • 301–305: William Rosser physician (1946)
  • 306–310: Harry Bradford / Patton Bradford dentists (1946)
  • 311-314: Jerome Meyer physician (1946)
  • 315–317: Robert Cothran physician (1946)
  • 318: Brown Linder physician (1946)
  • 322: Virgil Heard dentist (1946)
• 4th floor
  • 402–407: Thomas Magruder / Frank Wilson physicians (1946)
  • 408–409: James Ferry physician (1946)
  • 410–412: Vivian Cooper dentist (1946)
  • 414-417: Charles King physician (1946)
  • 418–420: D. Lawson Massey dentist (1946)
  • 421–422: Ralph Griffin dentist (1946)
• 5th floor
  • 501–505: Gilbert Fisher physician (1946)
  • 506–508: Jaratt Robertson physician (1946)
  • 510–512: Frank Kay physician (1946)
  • 514–517: S. Sellers Underwood physician (1946)
  • 518–522: William Beddow physician (1946)
• 6th floor
  • 601–604: Levert Gravlee / James Gravlee dentists (1946)
  • 605–608: Arthur Harris physician (1946)
  • 609–612: Claude Ford / Bert Wiesel physicians (1946)
  • 614–622: Joseph Hirsh physician (1946)
• 7th floor
  • 701–711: Scott, McQuiddy & Collins physicians (1946)
  • 712–728: Belford Lester / H. B. Morris physicians (1946)
• 8th floor
  • 801–802: John Hillhouse physician (1946)
  • 803–805: Joseph Cunningham physician (1946)
  • 806–809: Frank Clements physician (1946)
  • 810–812: Edward McConnell physician (1946)
  • 814: Cabot Lull physician (1946)
  • 815–822: James Mason / James Mason Jr physicians (1946)
• 9th floor
  • building office

References

• Burkhardt, Ann McQuorquodale and Alice Meriwether Bowsher (November 1982) "Town Within a City: The Five Points South Neighborhood 1880-1930." Journal of the Birmingham Historical Society. Vol. 7, Nos. 3-4

External links

Locate with
Google Maps

• "History of the Hotel Highland and Pickwick Hotel and Suites, Birmingham" at thehotelhighland.com