Montgomery is the capital city of Alabama, located in the central part of the state. The city was founded and chartered in 1819 and named after Irish soldier Richard Montgomery. After the Civil War Montgomery, the population of the city multiplied and the city thrived, cotton, livestock, yellow pine and textile were the major industries. In 1886 Montgomery became the first city in the United States to install citywide electric streetcars. In the early 1900s, the real estate sector boomed and flourished with the spreading of suburban mania. In the mid-20th century, Montgomery was the center of civil right movement and protests. The Civil Rights Memorial in downtown Montgomery honors those who died during the civil rights movement.
Here below are some historical photos of Montgomery, Alabama from the early 20th century that show street scenes, buildings, landmarks and everyday life.
Whenever I see pictures of old Montgomery, I am just amazed at how STUPID the gen x, baby boomers, their parents, etc. were for just destroying all of that beauty to build suburbs and interstates. This happened all over the country, but Montgomery still hasn’t been able to recover from it.
They took beauty/culture and threw it away for the “American Dream”.
It was horrible, but it wasn’t Gen X or the Boomers that did it. The so-called Greatest Generation and their elders ruined our cities. I guess the Greatest Gen crowd didn’t get enough of destruction and demolition in WWII and decided to come home and demolish America.
Steve Young wrote “Montgomery in the Rain” as a lament for the demolition of much of the architectural beauty of the city.
Does anyone know where that post office was and when it was torn down? I’ve never seen it before.
I would like to know also.
That old Federal Courthouse and Post Office was at the corner of Dexter and South Lawrence. It’s now a bank building housing a tech incubator or something like that.
You can see the tower of the old county courthouse behind it. That old courthouse was demolished in the 1950s to build the courthouse annex that’s there now.