Allen & Jemison Hardware Company, 620 Greensboro Avenue, circa 1890

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Title

Allen & Jemison Hardware Company, 620 Greensboro Avenue, circa 1890

Subject

Hardware stores

Description

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/

Source

Tuscaloosa News Archive

Date

Circa 1890

Contributor

Jason Townsend (Description)

Type

Photograph

Identifier

73

Coverage

Tuscaloosa (AL)

Original Format

Photograph

Physical Dimensions

10 x 8 1/16 inches