Carraway Boulevard

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Carraway Boulevard (also known as 26th Street North) is the on-grade section of U. S. Highway 31 running through the north side of downtown Birmingham. A small section of the street also runs on the surface beneath the elevated Elton B. Stephens Expressway south of the western terminus of U. S. Highway 280 at I-59/I-20/20.

Carraway Boulevard is named for the Carraway Medical Center which dominates the streetscape in Norwood. The highway becomes the "Decatur Highway" as it crosses the Norfolk Southern Railroad near North Birmingham Park. The railroad turns south and parallels Carraway Boulevard to the former site of the Birmingham Terminal Station, which occupied two blocks of 26th Street centered on 5th Avenue North.

Prior to the construction of the Elton B. Stephens Expressway, 26th Street continued south over the Railroad reservation on the 26th Street viaduct, which once sheltered Ingalls Iron Works.

The first electric "thoroughfare lighting" was installed on 26th Street North on poles spaced 200 feet apart. The lighting was upgraded with new, taller poles on 100-foot spacings between 1st Avenue and 29th Avenue under the city's 1945 contract with the Birmingham Electric Company.

Notable locations

For an alphabetical list of locations, see the Carraway Boulevard category.

• 1st Avenue North intersection (road ends; 1st Avenue North viaduct to east)
• 2nd Avenue North intersection
  • 210: former location of Birmingham Mirror Co. (1925)
• 3rd Avenue North intersection (west only)
• Former 4th Avenue North intersection
  • 406: former location of Chris's Place
  • 410: former location of J. F. Winter store (1923)
  • former location of Birmingham Terminal Station
• 5th Avenue North intersection (west only; 5th Avenue continues east under Carraway Boulevard in the 5th Avenue North tunnel)
  • Park Place (Hope VI project)
  • former location of Gus Jebeles's shop and Birmingham Terminal Station
• 6th Avenue North intersection (west); I-20/59 exit ramp (east)
  • Park Place (Hope VI project)
• 7th Avenue North intersection
  • Park Place (Hope VI project)
• Reverend Abraham Woods, Jr Boulevard (8th Avenue) intersection
  • 920: former location of Salvatore's & Omar's Drive-In
  • I-20/59 interchange
• Richard Arrington Jr Boulevard North (10th Avenue) intersection
  • I-20/59 interchange
  • 1015: former location of Melrose Ice Cream
• 11th Avenue North intersection
  • 1100: former location of Burks Pan-Am Service Station (1951–?)
• 12th Avenue North intersection
  • former location of Norton's Florist
  • 1212: former location of Colonial Stores (1957–?) and Bruno's grocery store (1967–?)
  • 1217: former location of Kentucky Fried Chicken
  • 1227: former location of Salt and Pepper and H. Salt Fish & Chips
• 13th Avenue North intersection (west only)
• 1300: Norwood Park, Kirby Middle School
• Carraway Parkway intersection (west only)
• 15th Avenue North intersection
  • 1500: Norwood Clinic
• 16th Avenue North intersection (west only)
  • 1600: Carraway Hospital
• 21st Avenue North intersection
• 2200-2400: Bridge over railroad and Village Creek
• Finley Boulevard intersection
• 2600-2900: Bridge over railroad
• 29th Avenue North intersection
  • 3001: former location of O. Z. Hall Motors
  • 31st Avenue North
  • former location of Hill Food Stores North Birmingham store
  • 3102: former location of Cowgill Drugs
  • 3103: former location of Catfish King
  • 3200: Etheridge Brothers Barber & Style No. 3
• 33rd Avenue North intersection
  • 3300: Olivet Monumental Baptist Church
• 35th Avenue North intersection
  • 3500: North Birmingham Elementary School