Slagtex

Slagtex was a concrete building product manufactured by the Birmingham Slag Company as an alternative to terra-cotta masonry, often used for building walls and partitions that would be covered with face brick, stone or stucco. The company also used the Slagtex name for a line of pressed concrete brick.

Birmingham Slag constructed its $50,000 brick plant in Ensley in 1921. It used the company's "No. 7 Ensley Basic Slag", sieved to 1/4" and below, as the aggregate for concrete bricks manufactured by the continuous molding and steam-curing process patented by D. F. Shope of Portland, Oregon. The plant was designed to be operated by 20 workers, who could produce 30,000 bricks per day.

According to the company's advertising, numerous buildings built in the late 1920s incorporated Slagtex products:

• Model home in Belview Heights for developer W. A. Poindexter
• Ted Joy residence
• Bungalow Court on Cliff Road, 1925
• several houses designed by George Turner in Homewood's "Hollywood" district
• the Parking Point retail block on 26th Street South
• the Watts Building, 1928
• the Ramsay-McCormack Building in Ensley, 1929
• Ramsay High School, 1930
• Protective Life Building, 1928
• Birmingham National Garage
• Southern Life & Health Insurance Building

References

• "Slag Company Manufactures Concrete Brick" (October 22, 1921) Rock Products, Vol. 24, No. 22, pp. 22-24