Talk:3rd Avenue North
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Future planning
At some point, I expect we'll be breaking out the downtown streets block by block to provide more detail. When that happens we'll want a better way to show historical changes. Just thinking out loud. --Dystopos 09:39, 20 March 2009 (PDT)
1808
Somehow, 1808 is the address of both Lyric Hot Dogs and Haverty Furniture (originally the Majestic Theatre), but they are two separate spaces in two different buildings. I'd guess that some retail space at the Lyric Theatre was split at some point, but it's only a guess. --Lkseitz 20:13, 15 July 2009 (PDT)
- The map I'm using doesn't specify addresses, so I've used some guesswork and probably made some dumb mistakes. Apparently the original idea was that no matter what size parcel you had, each 25 feet of it would merit a new address. This hasn't always been held to, though, and many streets (especially outside downtown) got renumbered at one time or another. --Dystopos 20:53, 15 July 2009 (PDT)
- It's not just you. I noticed this discrepancy awhile ago. Searching for Superior Furniture (which is what it is currently, not Haverty -- I was looking at my 1980s Downtown Birmingham book at the time I typed the above), gives an address of 1808. But I think I've sussed it out. The Majestic (now Superior Furniture) was built in 1905, prior to the Lyric (1914). That means it got its address of 1808 first. So at the time of its building, there were either less stores between the Majestic and the corner or applying the 25' rule provided 1808. Google Earth says the Lyric is about 96' wide. Rounding it off to 100' does make the Majestic 1808 by the 25' rule.
If you look at the Google Maps street view, though, you can clearly see Lyric Hot Dogs should currently be 1808 (the unmarked Lyric lobby on the corner is 1800, the office space entrance -- much less than 25' -- is clearly labeled 1802, First City Mortgage is 1804, and 1806 is empty). I'll have to ask Cecil about how Lyric Hot Dogs manages with Superior Furniture on mail next time I see him. I wonder how they managed the office space in the Lyric's heyday? Perhaps both the offices and the Lyric were 1800 and they differentiated by suite numbers? See, this is why we need those city directories online! :-) --Lkseitz 12:34, 16 July 2009 (PDT)- In the Lyric's heyday, you could probably just address mail to "Mr. So and so. Lyric Building, Birmingham, Ala." --Dystopos 14:08, 16 July 2009 (PDT)
- It appears at some point the Lyric office space became 1802 where it wasn't before. The new Whitmire Lofts are 1826, but if you count backwards from there you get 1808 as the address of Superior Furniture. Yes, I did a search for "Lyric" in the 1910-1917 B'ham telephone directory and the number of businesses listed just as "Lyric bl" is ridiculous! And it's the same in 1930, 1940, 1950, & 1960! (Wow, there's even a few still in 1970.) There's no way we'll be able to list all the businesses that have occupied it on the 3rd Avenue page. --Lkseitz 10:15, 5 June 2014 (PDT)
- I'd love to get those entered into the wiki somehow, probably in a Lyric office building entry (unless you have a better idea) --Dystopos 11:01, 5 June 2014 (PDT)
- Well, this article already has a link for "Lyric Building." Currently it links to Lyric Theatre, but we could change it to a separate entry (which, naturally, would link to the Lyric Theatre entry). But I'm not volunteering to go through all those phone books right now. And did I mention "Lyric bl" is all the address they get? No suite or even floor numbers. --Lkseitz 15:09, 5 June 2014 (PDT)
- Yup. People used to rely on the ingenuity of their postmasters and mail carriers a lot more than they can now. --Dystopos 06:35, 6 June 2014 (PDT)
- Well, this article already has a link for "Lyric Building." Currently it links to Lyric Theatre, but we could change it to a separate entry (which, naturally, would link to the Lyric Theatre entry). But I'm not volunteering to go through all those phone books right now. And did I mention "Lyric bl" is all the address they get? No suite or even floor numbers. --Lkseitz 15:09, 5 June 2014 (PDT)
- I'd love to get those entered into the wiki somehow, probably in a Lyric office building entry (unless you have a better idea) --Dystopos 11:01, 5 June 2014 (PDT)
- It appears at some point the Lyric office space became 1802 where it wasn't before. The new Whitmire Lofts are 1826, but if you count backwards from there you get 1808 as the address of Superior Furniture. Yes, I did a search for "Lyric" in the 1910-1917 B'ham telephone directory and the number of businesses listed just as "Lyric bl" is ridiculous! And it's the same in 1930, 1940, 1950, & 1960! (Wow, there's even a few still in 1970.) There's no way we'll be able to list all the businesses that have occupied it on the 3rd Avenue page. --Lkseitz 10:15, 5 June 2014 (PDT)
- In the Lyric's heyday, you could probably just address mail to "Mr. So and so. Lyric Building, Birmingham, Ala." --Dystopos 14:08, 16 July 2009 (PDT)
- It's not just you. I noticed this discrepancy awhile ago. Searching for Superior Furniture (which is what it is currently, not Haverty -- I was looking at my 1980s Downtown Birmingham book at the time I typed the above), gives an address of 1808. But I think I've sussed it out. The Majestic (now Superior Furniture) was built in 1905, prior to the Lyric (1914). That means it got its address of 1808 first. So at the time of its building, there were either less stores between the Majestic and the corner or applying the 25' rule provided 1808. Google Earth says the Lyric is about 96' wide. Rounding it off to 100' does make the Majestic 1808 by the 25' rule.
Wide-Awake offices
- So the way it's listed now, it looks like the Wide-Awake offices were in the Goldstein building, but that building hadn't been built yet. Unfortunately, since we don't have a name for whatever building(s) were there previously, I'm not sure how best to fix it. --Lkseitz (talk) 05:55, 31 March 2019 (PDT)
- From my POV, the "(built 1927)" after "Goldstein Building" is strong enough. There are lots of examples of pre-existing addresses being reused by new buildings. Maybe some day we'll come up with a name or picture of the old one to flesh out the description. --Dystopos (talk) 11:13, 31 March 2019 (PDT)