1907

Tom Bonduras at the Bright Star restaurant in 1907

1907 was the 36th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham.

Events

• June 18: 10 people were injured when a Frisco switch engine and a North Highland streetcar collided at 19th Street and 9th Avenue North.
• June 30: The first Southern Railway train pulled into the platform at the site of the future Birmingham Terminal Station.
• September 12: The Hillman Hotel hosted the first annual banquet of the Caterers of Alabama.
• October 8: Buffalo Bill's Wild West performed in Opelika.
• October: Stocks crashed during an ongoing recession, triggering the 1907 financial panic.
• The Birmingham Motorcycle Club was founded.
• May: Traveling showman Orlando Clayton Brooks purchased the mummified body of Hazel Farris from Harvey Lee Boswell.
• Hillman Hospital was sold to Jefferson County.
• Phelan Park was dedicated.
• Bessemer's Berney Park was renamed for industrialist Henry DeBardeleben.
• November 15: Contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink headlined a recital at the Jefferson Theatre.
• December 16: 57 workers were killed in the 1907 Yolande Mine explosion.

Government

• B. B. Comer succeeded William Jelks as Governor of Alabama.
• Henry Gray succeeded Russell Cunningham as Lieutenant Governor of Alabama.
• John H. Bankhead succeeded John Tyler Morgan as U.S. Senator from Alabama.
• Archibald Carmichael was elected Speaker of the Alabama State House of Representatives.
• January 15: E. L. Higdon succeeded Andrew W. Burgin as Jefferson County Sheriff.
• February 18: George Ward defeated Frank O'Brien for Mayor of Birmingham in the 1907 Birmingham municipal election.
• John L. Parker served briefly as Mayor of Birmingham during George Ward's trip to Italy.
• The "Southern Judicial District" of St Clair County was established, with its seat at Pell City.
• October 28: Temperance voters carried the 1907 prohibition election, meaning that Prohibition would be enacted county-wide beginning January 1, 1908.
• The City of Elyton was reincorporated.
• August 5: Governor B. B. Comer was lobbied to sign the Smyer and King "Greater Birmingham" bills during a meeting of the Commercial Club of Birmingham at the Hippodrome Theater.
• August 7: A state law authorizing a referendum for the "Greater Birmingham" merger proposal was signed by Governor B. B. Comer.
• Robert Thach began serving as Birmingham City Attorney.
• T. O. Long succeeded J. S. Moore was Walker County Sheriff.
• The Birmingham Municipal Ownership League formed and campaigned in favor of public ownership of the Birmingham Water Works.
• The Mobile Basin and Tennessee River Association formed and lobbied for improvements to water transport in Alabama.
• The Jefferson County Legislative Delegation was comprised of John Glover, James Littleberry Jr, Samuel John, Jere King, Robert Lovelady, Milton Ragsdale, and Walter Urquhart.

Business

• Birmingham Beverage Co. was founded.
• The Bluff Park Hotel opened.
• Bon Ton Hatters opened in the Roden Block.
• The Bright Star Restaurant opened in Bessemer.
• The Peanut Depot opened as Terminal Candy Kitchen on Morris Avenue.
• William Jelks founded the Protective Life Insurance Co.
• The Peek Beverage Company changed its name to the Rye-Ola Company.
• Architects William Warren and William Welton formed the partnership of Warren & Welton.
• Dewberry & Sons acquired the business of H. H. Copeland.
• July 26: The South Birmingham Heights Land Company was formed.
• October 26: The Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company idled the Oxmoor Furnaces.
• November: U.S. Steel acquired controlling interest in Birmingham's Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company and appointed George Crawford was president.

Disestablishments

• J. L. Chalifoux & Co. clothing store failed.
• The architectural firm of Breeding & Whilldin split up.
• The Dude Saloon, Peerless Saloon, Motlow Distilling Company, and numerous other businesses closed in anticipation of county-wide prohibition.
• Edgar Martin sold the Martin Cracker Co. to the American Bakery Co.

Education

• The Bessemer Public Library opened.
• The "Blackfriars" drama troupe was founded at the University of Alabama.
• Minor School opened in Ensley.
• B. A. Thompson was elected President of the Birmingham Board of Education.
• James McCoy succeeded John Turner as President of Birmingham College.
• Booker City was purchased by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company and Miles College principal James Bray began overseeing plans to relocated the institution to Corey (now Fairfield)
• Thomas Palmer succeeded Francis Peterson as President of the University of Montevallo.

Religion

• January 6: Compton Hill Baptist Church was organized.
• The All Saints Episcopal Mission was established on 29th Street South.
• 1st Church of Christ Scientist moved into the Five Points Chapel.
• Temple Beth-El was founded by former members of Knesseth Israel Congregation.
• Maronite missionary Mobarek Bellama visited Birmingham and helped organize what would become St Elias Maronite Church.
• Missionary Baptist Church was organized in Odenville.
• Hoyt Dobbs succeeded James McCoy as pastor of Five Points Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
• William Sellers began holding a Sunday School which grew to become White's Chapel Baptist Church.
• The Triumph Methodist Church merged with the Church of God in Christ, forming what became the Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ.

Sports

• The 1907 Birmingham Base Ball Club, managed by Harry Vaughn, finished in fifth place in the Southern League.
• The Birmingham Giants claimed a Southern title.
• November 16: The 1907 Iron Bowl, played at the Alabama State Fairgrounds, ended in a 6-6 tie.

Works

Terrace Court apartments

Bessemer Public Library

• First Presbyterian Church commissioned a marble baptismal font from Giuseppe Moretti.
• May 29: The USS Birmingham (CL-2) was launched from Quincy, Massachusetts.

Buildings

• 5th Avenue North underpass under the planned Birmingham Terminal Station
• Bell Building for Southern Bell at 1814 2nd Avenue North
• Bessemer Public Library on the corner of 18th Street North and 4th Avenue
• Blanch Barnard residence, a brothel, at 2227 1st Avenue South
• The Bluff Park Hotel on Shades Mountain
• Lee Bradley residence at 640 Idlewild Circle
• Hardin House
• The George Harris residence at 2731 Highland Avenue
• Lone Pine Mines at present-day Vulcan Park
• Minor School at 1916 Pike Road
• The A. H. Parker residence at 522 5th Street North
• Pilgrim Congregational Hall at 725 19th Street North
• Pleasant Hill Academy in McCalla
• St Andrew's Rectory
• Terrace Court at Five Points South
• Robert Warner residence at 2733 Highland Avenue
• Weather Bureau Building 1221 13th Street North
• The cut through Brock's Gap for the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Railroad was completed.
• Crestview Memorial Gardens in Adamsville was founded.

Demolitions

• The vacant Chalifoux Building burned down.
• Gunn's Pharmacy at 2017 2nd Avenue North was damaged by fire.

Publications

• The Arc Light weekly was launched.
• L. H. Harrison began publishing the weekly The Birmingham Blade.
• The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce commissioned Ethel Armes to compile, The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama.
• "The Ransom of Red Chief" short story by O. Henry, set in Summit.

Individuals

• Hugo Black returned to Birmingham to open a law office.
• Harry Coveleski made his Major League debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.
• Henry Edmonds became pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Montgomery.
• B. O. Hargrove joined the Birmingham Fire Department.
• Seale Harris joined the Medical College of Alabama in Mobile as chair of the practice of medicine.
• Wallace Rayfield resigned from the faculty of Tuskegee Institute to open an architectural practice in Birmingham.
• Merchant Raymond Rochell relocated to Birmingham from Pulaski, Tennessee.
• Sculptor Giuseppe Moretti hired Geneva Mercer as an apprentice.
• Oscar Hundley was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
• John Hearst Miller was appointed to the Jefferson County Circuit Court.

Births

• January 18: Asbury Howard, labor organizer, civil rights leader and state legislator
• January 20: Bob Adams, Major League pitcher
• April 21: Milton Grafman, rabbi for Temple Emanu-El
• May 6: Ivy Andrews, Major League pitcher and Birmingham Barons manager
• July 6: John M. Connolly, radio announcer and manager for WBRC-AM
• July 25: Seybourn Lynne, U.S. District Court Judge
• August 16: S. Lawrence Johnson, pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church
• August 29: Edward Gardner, Baptist minister and president of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
• September 2: Ben Sankey, Major League shortstop
• October 22: R. C. Coleman, businessman and real estate developer
• November 26: Abe Berkowitz, attorney
• Joe Giattina, insurance executive and band leader
• J. T. Waggoner Sr, Birmingham City Commissioner

Graduations

• Hugh Locke earned his law degree at Vanderbilt University.
• Chauncey Sparks earned his bachelor of arts from Mercer University.
• Harry Pembleton graduated high school in Stamford, Connecticut.

Marriages

• Edward Barrett married Lewis Robertson Butt.
• Jimmie Jones married the former Cynthia Bryan.
• Eugene Knight married the former Nellie Ray Reeder.
• Lloyd Noland married the former Margaret Gillick.

Deaths

• May 12: Samuel Hamilton, Birmingham Police officer
• June 11: John Tyler Morgan, former U.S. Senator and Klan leader
• September 9: Jerry Johnson was lynched in Birmingham.
• September 21: James Lane, Confederate general
• November 11: J. B. Cunningham, principal of Birmingham High School
• December 16: 1907 Yolande Mine explosion

Context

In 1907 an earthquake killed nearly 1,000 in Jamaica. Romanian peasant rose in revolt. Robert Baden-Powell led his first Boy Scout camp. Oklahoma became the 46th state. Gustav V succeeded Oscar II as King of Sweden. New York began the New Year's Eve tradition of a ball drop in Times Square. Rudyard Kipling won the Nobel prize for literature.

Notable people born in 1907 include actors Gene Autry, Katharine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Barbara Stanwyck, John Wayne and Fay Wray; architect Oscar Niemeyer; artist Frida Kahlo; authors Rachel Carson, Robert Heinlein and Daphne du Maurier; businessman Orville Redenbacher; cartoonists Hergé and William Steig; Haitian dictator François Duvalier; Justices Warren Burger and Lewis Powell Jr; poet W. H. Auden; and singers Cab Calloway and Tino Rossi.

Notable deaths in 1907 included author Sully Prudhomme; chemist Dmitri Mendeleev; composer Edvard Grieg; engineer William Le Baron Jenney; and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

1900s

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