Denechaud House

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Denechaud House in 2010. Photo by Cougar_6

The Denechaud House, originally the Denechaud European Hotel and Restaurant was a hotel located at 2107 2nd Avenue North, adjoining the Florentine Building in downtown Birmingham. The property, owned by New Orleans hotelier E. F. Denechaud and operated by his sons Edward and Louis, opened in 1887. The building featured one of the most elaborate cornices in town, matched in ornateness by the window surrounds on the front.

The hotel survived only two years, with the sons returning to New Orleans to help operate their father's business. After the hotel's closure, the building has housed a grocery, sewing machine company, a paint supply store, apartments, and a furniture store.

In the late 1920s, the building housed the Quality Market, one of a row of grocery stores and bakeries stretching across half the block. In the 1960s and 1970s, the ground floor was occupied by the Peoples Loan Co. pawn shop. Extensive work in 1985 and 1986 restored the historic facade as well as a painted sign high on the building's east wall, long hidden behind an adjacent structure.

From 1993 to 2002 Designform architects had offices in the Denechaud House. It was later owned by William Upshaw and Patricia Comer and housed their Comer & Upshaw law firm and a residential loft. Redevelopment of the third floor from office space into a 2,000-square-foot loft was assisted by a City of Birmingham business development loan. An elevator connects all three floors.

In 2018 RealtySouth broker Greg Comer opened a new office in the building. After that office closed, Upshaw and Comer gutted the bottom two floors. They put the building up for sale in 2024 with an asking price of $1.9 million.

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