Birmingham Hotel
The Birmingham Hotel was a 6-story hotel location on the northwest corner of 18th Street and 2nd Avenue North. The plaster-faced building, constructed in the late 1890s, exaggerated its verticality with tall windows and sleek ornament. An octagonal corner tower originally supported a rooftop observation platform while the long facade on 18th Street was topped with a stepped gable with deep cornices which were later removed.
In 1906 Riley Cronk was proprietor. The hotel advertised "furnishings new throughout" and "dining room service the best." It offered lodgings on the "European plan" for $1.00 and up. The rates were unchanged in 1910.
The business was renamed the New Florence Hotel in 1916, taking the name of the just-demolished Florence Hotel a block east, though the businesses were not related. The hotel, which then served mainly long-term residents, was destroyed by fire on June 6, 1935. A guest at the hotel was suspected of intentionally setting the fire, which caused two fatalities.
The New Florence Hotel reopened in 1937 at 406½ 18th Street North. Joseph Anderson managed the hotel and Mae Grady managed the New Florence Cafe on the ground floor. Both businesses disappeared by 1938.
References
- "Suspect Jailed in Birmingham Fire Case" (June 7, 1935) The Tuscaloosa News
- Polk's Birmingham (Jefferson County, Ala.) City Directory (1937) Richmond, Virginia: R. L. Polk & Co.
- Sulzby, James Frederick (1960) Historic Alabama Hotels and Resorts. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press ISBN 0817353097