Alice Furnaces
Alice Furnaces was the first iron-making blast furnace operation to be constructed within the borders of the new City of Birmingham. It was located at the southwestern end of the city's Railroad Reservation, between the tracks of the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, near where they diverge.
The project was financed by Henry F. DeBardeleben and T. T. Hillman of the Pratt Coal & Coke Company. Construction of the plant began on September 29, 1879 and the first furnace, Alice Furnace No. 1, went into blast on November 23, 1880. It was followed by Alice Furnace No. 2, blown on on July 23, 1883.
The furnace was initially supplied with red iron ore from Grace's Gap, and later purchased ore from the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company (TCI) mines at Hillman and Redding. Coal for the Alice Furnaces was supplied by the Pratt Company on a dedicated rail line that was later absorbed into the Birmingham Mineral Railroad. The company operated large batteries of coke ovens on site, (150 by 1880 and as many as 250 during peak production, when iron was produced continuously in runs lasting 12 months or more.
Basic iron from Alice Furnaces was shipped to steel plants around the country, with none of it rejected as unfit. The demonstrated quality of iron produced there was instrumental for Enoch Ensley's ability to finance construction of the Ensley Works with capital investments from the L & N Railroad and TCI.
The second furnace was significantly more efficient than the first, producing more than 150 tons of iron in a 24-hour period in 1886. Alice Furnace No. 1 was dismantled in 1905. The second furnace was idled in 1927 and scrapped within two years. The entire site was a vacant lot by 1940. Its eastern end was acquired as part of the right-of-way for I-65.
The remainder of the Alice Furnace site currently serves as the home of the Construction Division of the Birmingham Department of Public Works, accessed from Golden Flake Drive.
References
- "Alice Furnaces" (July 23, 2006) Bhamrails.info - accessed November 23, 2015