Allen & Jemison Hardware Company, 620 Greensboro Avenue, 1930
Hardware stores
Allen & Jemison Hardware Company was organized in 1883 when Thomas B. Allen bought a half interest in a hardware business owned and founded by William C. Jemison in 1878. Jemison was president until he sold out to the company, resigning as president. Thomas B. Allen then became the second president of the company.
The company was in business in Tuscaloosa for over 100 years. In 1971, Stratten-Warren, a Memphis Company bought the business and moved it to 2220 University Boulevard. In 1979, Wayne and Opal Stone purchased the hardware business.
1907 the store advertised guns, pistols and cartridges, high grade vehicles and harness, Studebaker wagons and buggies, Rex buggies, Remington & Smith guns, white hickory wagons, wood mowers, rakes & binders, Fairbanks scales, Magnolia cement, Atlas Portland cement, paints, oils, sash doors, blinds, lumber, nails, grates, mantels, laths, plaster, hair, brick, horse shoes, glass, putty, coal, lime, stoves and tin ware. Thomas B. Allen and Robert Jemison served as President, M. R. Jemison as Secretary and Treasurer, and A.C. Cade and R.P. Prowell as Directors.
Originally a one-story store, Allen & Jemison expanded to its three adjacent stores. In1903, the company built a four-story building and in 1911 added warehouse space. The building is located on the northwest corner of Greensboro Avenue and 7th Street. In 1971 when Stratten-Warren bought and moved the business, they sold the landmark building to James Spiller who used it as retail and warehouse space for his furniture store. In 2002, Christ Episcopal Church the building, then known as the Spiller Building, and, in 2008, decided to demolish the building. The city of Tuscaloosa intervened and the building was renovated as the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center opening in 2013.
http://cac.tuscarts.org/
Personal Collection of Jason Townsend
circa 1930
Jason Townsend (Description)
Elizabeth Bradt (Description)
Betty Slowe (Description)
Drawing
81
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Allen & Jemison Hardware Company, 620 Greensboro Avenue, 1942
Hardware stores
Allen & Jemison Hardware Company was organized in 1883 when Thomas B. Allen bought a half interest in a hardware business owned and founded by William C. Jemison in 1878. Jemison was president until he sold out to the company, resigning as president. Thomas B. Allen then became the second president of the company.
The company was in business in Tuscaloosa for over 100 years. In 1971, Stratten-Warren, a Memphis Company bought the business and moved it to 2220 University Boulevard. In 1979, Wayne and Opal Stone purchased the hardware business.
1907 the store advertised guns, pistols and cartridges, high grade vehicles and harness, Studebaker wagons and buggies, Rex buggies, Remington & Smith guns, white hickory wagons, wood mowers, rakes & binders, Fairbanks scales, Magnolia cement, Atlas Portland cement, paints, oils, sash doors, blinds, lumber, nails, grates, mantels, laths, plaster, hair, brick, horse shoes, glass, putty, coal, lime, stoves and tin ware. Thomas B. Allen and Robert Jemison served as President, M. R. Jemison as Secretary and Treasurer, and A.C. Cade and R.P. Prowell as Directors.
Originally a one-story store, Allen & Jemison expanded to its three adjacent stores. In1903, the company built a four-story building and in 1911 added warehouse space. The building is located on the northwest corner of Greensboro Avenue and 7th Street. In 1971 when Stratten-Warren bought and moved the business, they sold the landmark building to James Spiller who used it as retail and warehouse space for his furniture store. In 2002, Christ Episcopal Church bought the building, then known as the Spiller Building, and, in 2008, decided to demolish the building. The city of Tuscaloosa intervened and the building was renovated as the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center opening in 2013.
http://cac.tuscarts.org/
1942
Jason Townsend (Description)
Elizabeth Bradt (Description)
Betty Slowe (Description)
Photograph
54
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Allen & Jemison Hardware Company, 620 Greensboro Avenue, 1946
Hardware stores
Allen & Jemison Hardware Company was organized in 1883 when Thomas B. Allen bought a half interest in a hardware business owned and founded by William C. Jemison in 1878. Jemison was president until he sold out to the company, resigning as president. Thomas B. Allen then became the second president of the company.
The company was in business in Tuscaloosa for over 100 years. In 1971, Stratten-Warren, a Memphis Company bought the business and moved it to 2220 University Boulevard. In 1979, Wayne and Opal Stone purchased the hardware business.
1907 the store advertised guns, pistols and cartridges, high grade vehicles and harness, Studebaker wagons and buggies, Rex buggies, Remington & Smith guns, white hickory wagons, wood mowers, rakes & binders, Fairbanks scales, Magnolia cement, Atlas Portland cement, paints, oils, sash doors, blinds, lumber, nails, grates, mantels, laths, plaster, hair, brick, horse shoes, glass, putty, coal, lime, stoves and tin ware. Thomas B. Allen and Robert Jemison served as President, M. R. Jemison as Secretary and Treasurer, and A.C. Cade and R.P. Prowell as Directors.
Originally a one-story store, Allen & Jemison expanded to its three adjacent stores. In1903, the company built a four-story building and in 1911 added warehouse space. The building is located on the northwest corner of Greensboro Avenue and 7th Street. In 1971 when Stratten-Warren bought and moved the business, they sold the landmark building to James Spiller who used it as retail and warehouse space for his furniture store. In 2002, Christ Episcopal Church the building, then known as the Spiller Building, and, in 2008, decided to demolish the building. The city of Tuscaloosa intervened and the building was renovated as the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center opening in 2013.
http://cac.tuscarts.org/
Personal Collection of Jason Townsend
1946
Jason Townsend (Description)
Elizabeth Bradt (Description)
Betty Slowe (Description)
Advertisement
84
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Friedman and Rosenau Advertisement, 1896
Stores, Retail
Atlanta Store
This Friedman and Rosenau advertisement for men's clothing appeared in The Crimson-White in 1896.
The store, at the corner of University Boulevard and Greensboro Avenue, was on the site of the 10-story bank building that is a landmark today.
Called the Atlanta Store, the men's clothing store had previously been run by Bernard Friedman and Emmanuel Loveman and was sold to Herman Rosenau and Victor Friedman in 1885.
Friedman and Rosenau owned the store until it burned in 1914. Its site was empty for several years until Merchant's Bank built the bank building that opened in 1925.
The Crimson-White
November 10, 1986
Betty Slowe (Description)
Advertisement
1010
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Atlanta Store
Stores, Retail
Bernard Friedman and Emanuel Loveman owned
the Atlanta Store which stood at the corner of Broad Street (now University Boulevard) and Market Street (now Greensboro Avenue) where the 10-story bank building stands now as a Tuscaloosa landmark.
The men owned the store until 1885 when they sold it to Herman Rosenau and Victor Friedman, The store burned in 1914 and the site stayed empty until the bank building was erected in 1925.
Tuscaloosa News
Circa 1910
Betty Slowe (Description)
Photograph
2043
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Atlanta Store Burns, 1914
Stores, Retail
The Atlanta Store stood at the corner of Broad Street (now University Boulevard) and Market Street (now Greensboro Avenue) where the 10-story bank building stands now as a Tuscaloosa landmark.
The store was owned by Bernard Friedman and Emmanuel Loveman until 1885 when it was sold to Herman Rosenau and Victor Friedman, the owners when the store burned in 1914.
The Atlanta Store advertised in the 1870s that it offered wholesale and retail, foreign and domestic, dry goods including boots, shoes, hats and notions. Custom-made clothing was a specialty of its tailoring establishment.
The site remained empty until Merchant's Bank built the present bank building that opened in 1925.
1914
Betty Slowe (Description)
Elizabeth Bradt (Description)
Photograph
1011
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Remains of Friedman and Rosenau Dry Goods Store
Businesses
Men inspect the remains of a burned building, believed to be the Friedman and Rosenau Dry Goods Store, which burned in the early 1900s. It was located on the corner of Market Street (now Greensboro Avenue) and Broad Street (now University Boulevard) where a ten-story bank building, stands now. The corner site was unoccupied for years after the fire until the Merchant's Bank and Trust built the bank building on the site in 1925.
Tuscaloosa News Archive
Early 1900s
Betty Slowe (Description)
Photograph
519
Tuscaloosa (AL)
S.F. Alston Company Advertisement, 1905
Furniture showrooms
Alston, Samuel Fitts
Stores, Retail
An advertisement scanned from the 1905 Corolla, the University of Alabama yearbook.
The Corolla, v. 12, 1905
The Corolla
University of Alabama
1905
Paul W. Bryant Museum
Advertisement
483
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Alston Building, Tuscaloosa's First Skyscraper, circa 1910
Dirt roads
The Alston Building is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Greensboro Avenue and Sixth Street. It was completed in 1910 on the site of the old Tuscaloosa County Courthouse, which had stood there since 1845. The Alston Building was the city’s first “skyscraper”, and was originally regarded as the tallest building on a dirt street in America. It was designed by Carson and Thetherow architects from Birmingham.
Lustig's Bookstore
Circa 1910
Postcard
27
Tuscaloosa (AL)
Alston Building, circa 1915
The Alston Building is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Greensboro Avenue and Sixth Street. It was completed in 1910 on the site of the old Tuscaloosa County Courthouse, which had stood there since 1845. The Alston Building was the city’s first “skyscraper”, and was originally said to be the tallest building on a dirt street in America. It was designed by Carson and Thetherow architects from Birmingham.
Notice the street lights. This area was one of the first to have street lights in Tuscaloosa.
Jemison Van de Graaff Foundation
Circa 1915
Photograph
683
Tuscaloosa (AL)