Southern Life & Health Insurance building

This articles is about the 1920s office building on Highland Avenue. For the 1954 building on 7th Avenue South, see Southern Life & Health Insurance building (1954) and for the 1973 building, see 2101 Highland Avenue.

The Southern Life & Health Insurance building is a 4-story office building at 2121 Highland Avenue. It was constructed in the 1920s for the Southern Life & Health Insurance Company.

The 23,000 square-foot classical-style limestone building was designed by Warren, Knight & Davis. Its ornately-detailed main lobby is raised several steps above the sidewalk. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

The building was leased in 1978 to Dominick, Fletcher, Yeilding, Wood & Lloyd attorneys. The partners in that firm purchased the property in 1994. They put the building on the market in 2012 before moving their offices to Ridge Park. It was bought from them for $1.7 million by 2121 Highland Partners, and affiliate of Shannon Waltchack, and renovated by Hallmark Construction to become the headquarters for First Partners Bank in 2013. In 2019 Progress Bank, which had already acquired First Partners, purchased the building from Shannon Waltchack.

Tenants

• Ground floor: Southern Life & Health Insurance Co. (1920s-1959), Dominick, Fletcher, Yeilding, Wood & Lloyd attorneys (1978-2012), First Partners Bank (2013-2017)
• Rooms
  • 1st floor
    • 108–114: F. D. Kilpatrick dentist (1929)
    • 112–118: S. H. Welsh physician (1929), Walter Hardy physician (1946)
    • 119–122: Walter Hardy physician (1929–1935), Robert Brannon physician (1946)
  • 2nd floor: Southern Life & Health Insurance Co. bookkeeping and industrial departments (1946)
  • 3rd floor: Drennen & Taylor / H. L. Cheves physicians (1929), Earle Drennen / Benjamin Goldstein / Sigmond Kahn physicians (1935)
    • 305: Harry Shugerman physician (1929–1946)
    • 306: Harry Goldner physician (1946)
    • 310: Neal Andrews physician (1946–1953)
    • 315: Paul Boon dentist (1946–1953)
    • 317: Hardee Johnston physician (1935–1946)
  • 4th floor:
    • 401-406: Charles Bray dentist (1935), Boyd Tarpley dentist (1946), Walter Hardy physician (1953-1959)
    • 401: Charles Bray dentist (1929)
    • 407–408: William Coleman physician (1946–1959)
      • 407: Jefferson County Medical Society (1953)
    • 408-411: Mary Lytle dentist (1935), Malta Naramore Jr physician (1959)
      • 408: William Coleman physician (1953)
      • 411: Robert Monette dentist (1946–1953)
    • 412-422: Russell Blanton / Sam Stubbins physicians (1935), Martin Anderson physician (1946), Robert Brannon / Landon Timberlake physicians (1953), Southern Life & Health Insurance Co. mail rooms (1959)
      • 412: Robert Brannon / S. G. Stubbins physicians (1929)

References

• Tomberlin, Michael (June 3, 2012) "Birmingham's Southern Life building up for sale as law firm plans move." The Birmingham News
• Todd, Helen (June/July 2013) "Renovating A Classic: An inside look at the historic renovation of the new First Partners Bank Building ." Alabama Construction News
• Van der Bijl, Hanno (July 16, 2019) "Alabama bank buys historic Five Points South property." Birmingham Business Journal