Kaulton
Kaulton was a model company town constructed by the Kaul Lumber Company of Birmingham around its new sawmill just south of Tuscaloosa in 1912.
Kaulton's 80-acre layout was designed by George H. Miller of Boston. It featured wide lots with four-room houses each equipped with water, sewer and electrical service and two chimneys. Kaul built company store and offices were in the town, and also constructed a hotel, churches, schools, clubhouses and parks. A company-sponsored Industrial league baseball team played on Kaulton Field.
Founder John Kaul described the development as a product of the "new welfare emphasis in the southern lumber industry." He further explained that, "our aim was to create conditions promoting healthfulness and contentment that we might have an efficient working force."
The experiment did not survive long after Kaul's death as investors, including his son, Hugh, shut down the mill in 1931. The lumber company continued to collect rents from occupants of the houses and other buildings, but did not update or maintain the them adequately.
The City of Tuscaloosa annexed the former Kaulton site in the early 1950s. In the 1960s city officials relocated most of the residents and demolished the substandard houses, leaving a few houses on Pine Street and part of the former commissary intact. Kaulton Park and Kaulton Field were preserved as city parks.
Most of the lumber company's files regarding the town were lost as part of the firm's policy of destroying outdated records. Some photographs and other documents survived and are part of the Kaul Land and Lumber Company collection at the Birmingham Public Library archives.
References
- Armes, Ethel (March 22, 1913) "Timber Camp Planning in Alabama". The Survey
- Cruikshank, George H. (1920) History of Birmingham and Its Environs: A Narrative Account of Their Historical Progress, Their People, and Their Principal Interests 2 volumes. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. - via Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections