Wilson Building

The Wilson Building is a 3-story brick commercial building at 2213–2215 Morris Avenue in downtown Birmingham.

The building is notable for its handsome facade, divided into two bays, each with a group of three double-hung windows. On the second floor each rectangular window is topped by a shallow brick arch. On the third floor the window tops are curved to fit under a single large projecting arch.

The building was constructed circa 1890, and takes it name from Wilson & Sons wholesale groceries, which operated from the building from the 1930s to the 1970s.

In 1904 the building suffered a fire. On Sunday January 21, 1906 the building collapsed, leaving only part of the front wall intact and covering the adjacent L & N Railroad tracks with grain and debris. No one was in the building at the time, and no injuries were reported. The grain itself was largely salvaged. An adjoining structure occupied by J. F. Baldwin, a dealer in building materials, at 2217 Morris Avenue, was entirely destroyed by the collapse of its larger neighbor.

The building was restored in the the 1980s by Nimrod Long & Associates, Renneker Tichansky Architects, Renneker & Co. and James H. Haggard. Their efforts were recognized with a 1987 Birmingham Historical Society Preservation Award.

Tenants

• Wiggs & Bacon mining equipment (1887)
• flour & feed (1891), Birmingham Grain Co. (1896)
• Woode & Crabbe wholesale grain (–1906)
• Taylor-Wheeler Grocery Co. (1931)
• Wilson-Brown Co. wholesale grocer (1941)
• Wilson & Sons wholesale grocer (1964)
• Wilson & Sons wholesale grocery (1970)
• offices
  • 100: Alabama Policy Institute
  • 300: Hatcher Schuster Interiors / Lorberbaum McNair & Associates landscape architects
• Nimrod Long & Associates landscape architects / Renneker Tichansky Architects / Renneker & Co. / James H. Haggard

References

• "Walls Fall But No One Is Hurt" (January 22, 1906) The Birmingham Age-Herald, p. 5