Ensley

Ensley is a large community located in Opossum Valley in the western section of Birmingham. It is named for its founder and promoter Enoch Ensley and was home of the mammoth Ensley Works operated by the Tennessee Coal Iron & Railroad Company (a division of U. S. Steel after 1907). Originally independent, the city was annexed into Birmingham as part of the Greater Birmingham legislation which took effect on January 1, 1910. The closing of the Ensley Works triggered a general decline in the area after the 1970s. Ensley's downtown has staged several attempts at revitalization, but remains largely vacant.

History

Colonel Enoch Ensley acquired significant property in Jefferson County in the early 1880s by purchasing the Pratt Coal and Coke Company, the Alice Furnace Company, and the Linn Iron Company. Joined by Afred Shook and T. T. Hillman, he was able to effect a merger with TCI which made him president of the company on December 8, 1886. It was on TCI's behalf, then, that Ensley began laying out what he planned to become "the great industrial city of the nation".

Located at the southern edge of the Pratt Coal Seam, near the waters of Village Creek and adjacent to the trackage of the Lousville & Nashville Railroad, Ensley considered the site perfect for a center of iron and steel making and manufacture. He compared the potential for utilizing the available resources to "a brindle cow sucking herself" and confidently named the new city for himself. In order to capitalize on the land-rush that was sure to accompany TCI's industrial developments, he incorporated the Ensley Land Company with partners Thomas Radcliff, HIlman, and William Walker. TCI purchased 4,000 acres from Ensley and the company proceeded to survey and plat a grid of streets adjoining the proposed plant site.

Newport, Rhode Island sanitary engineer George Waring, Jr was contracted to coordinate the street layout with separated storm and sanitary sewers, an innovation which he had brought previously to Col. Ensley's native Memphis, Tennessee from Europe. A passenger streetcar, the Ensley Railway, connected the new city to Birmingham in 1887 and the Ensley Hotel was constructed to host visitors and prospective investors.

Ensley includes the landmark Tuxedo Junction, made famous by Erskine Hawkins' 1939 hit tune of the same name.

References

• White, Marjorie Longenecker (1981) The Birmingham District: An Industrial History and Guide. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society ISBN 9990230099
• Prince, A. G. (1982) Landmarks of Ensley: Past and Present. revised edition. Ensley: Best Printing Service