Empire Hotel (1912)

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This article is about the former hotel. For other uses, see Empire Building (disambiguation).
The Empire Hotel, c. 1915

The Empire Hotel was a large hotel located at 2130 4th Avenue North, on the northwest corner of 22nd Street across from the 1917 Birmingham News building and behind St Paul's Cathedral in downtown Birmingham. It was constructed in 1911-1912 at a cost of $100,000 and was clad in face brick supplied by the Hydraulic Press-Brick Co. of St Louis, Missouri.

When it opened, the hotel was advertised as "having the atmosphere and appointment of a well-conditioned home". I. L. Fabian was the long-time manager. In 1913 the hotel was the scene of a forced abduction related to anti-union sentiment. William Welch, International Vice-President of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees had come to Birmingham as part of the union's efforts to assist employees of the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power Company Birmingham in organizing as a local chapter. He was met at the hotel by forty "detectives" who escorted him immediately back to the Birmingham Terminal Station and bought him a ticket to Cincinnati. A few of the men accompanied him as far as the state line. Welch soon returned and succeeded in swearing out arrest warrants against officials of BRL&P.

On January 19, 1914 the International Typographical Union Local No. 104 hosted a banquet for 150 people at the Empire Hotel in honor of Benjamin Franklin's 208th birthday. Harris's Orchestra entertained the crowd.

In 1941 Fabian, Abe Klotzman and Ralph Blach formed a partnership, the "Empire Hotel Company", which purchased the property. Blach served as manager until his death in 1963. His brother, Ivan continued until his own death in December 1965.

Frank Rumore operated the Empire Coffee Shop (later the Empire Cafe) on the ground floor, serving a meat-and-three menu. In 1951 the Land Title Company also had its offices in the Empire Hotel. By the 1960s, the Empire Hotel was just one of the many hotels of all classes in downtown Birmingham in which bellboys were operating as paid agents for transient prostitutes.

The site of the demolished Empire Hotel was used for Birmingham Parking Authority Deck 4.

References

  • The Motorman and Conductor (July 1913) Vol. 21, No. 8, p. 3
  • Weeks, J. D. (1999) Birmingham in Vintage Postcards. Postcard History Series. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Press. ISBN 9780738503332