Birmingham Commercial Club
The Birmingham Commercial Club, a precursor of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, was founded in May 1893 as a general businessmen's association. The organization attracted a diverse membership from all types of business and adopted a rather generic agenda - focussing on attracting capital and commerce to the city, supporting public investment in freight and road connections, and discouraging the organization of labor unions.
In 1899 a group of merchants split off from the Commercial Club to create the Birmingham Board of Trade, which concerned itself with issues more specific to its membership.
In 1903 the Commercial Club, headed by Fred Jackson, assumed the planning of Birmingham's exhibit for the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis, Missouri. They commissioned Giuseppe Moretti to design and construct the towering cast-iron statue of Vulcan.
The Commercial Club was one of the strongest backers of various annexation campaigns that culminated in the Greater Birmingham annexation of 1910.
References
- Harris, Carl V. (1977) Political Power in Birmingham, 1871-1921. Twentieth-Century America Series. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 087049211X