Pollock-Stephens Institute

The Pollock-Stephens Institute was a private day and boarding school for girls operated by Charles Holmes and his wife at 423 19th Street North, at the corner of 5th Avenue North. The school was founded in September 1890 and formally chartered in February 1893. Mrs Edmond Taylor Taliaferro served as principal in 1903.

The school continued to operate as late as 1909, but later that year the Birmingham YWCA purchased the former school. Three years later they commissioned architect David O. Whilldin to design a major expansion, including a gymnasium, swimming pool and dormitory wing.

The YWCA relocated to the former Dixie-Carlton Hotel in 1948. The building was later demolished and the site currently serves as an accessible parking lot for Regions Bank customers.

Notable alumni

• Kate Wallace, 1907

References

• advertisement in Green, Fred L. (1896) Birmingham Church Directory of Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham: Dispatch Stationery Co.