Southern Club
The Southern Club was a private club located on the corner of 20th Street and 5th Avenue North. It was founded by a group that included Frank Ellis, Solon Jacobs and Thomas Thompson.
The club's three-story building was designed by Charles and Harry Wheelock and constructed in the 1890s near the Birmingham Athletic Club and the Young Men's Christian Association.
The clubhouse was the scene of the founding of Civitan International on April 15, 1920. In 1924 the club hosted the Birmingham Art Club's public exhibition of paintings by George Elmer Browne.
The club dissolved in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and closed for good in 1931. After that the building housed various government offices and was expanded with a fourth floor of offices under a new flat roof.
From 1943 to 1967 the building housed the Birmingham Red Cross.
It was demolished in 1967 to make way for the AmSouth-Sonat Tower.
Presidents
- William Leedy, 1907
- William Kettig
- Daniel Dimick, 1919
References
- Benners, T. H., Jr (July 1966) "Birmingham's Southern Club," Alabama Review. No. 19, pp. 233-37