Fox Building

The Fox Building was a 3-story brick commercial building located on the northwest corner of 19th Street and 4th Avenue North on lots 18 & 19 of Block 61 in downtown Birmingham. It was constructed in 1895 for John Fox's Sons Groceries, which had been founded near the Alice Furnace in 1888 by John Fox and his three sons.

The Fox Building was constructed in the Italian Renaissance "Palazzo" style. Its brick walls were ornamented with large cast—iron columns on the facade and classical swags in the spandrels. The top was crowned by a deeply modelled cornice.

After moving in, John Fox's Sons Groceries became the city's largest grocery store and meat market. The business closed in 1910 and the building hosted a succession of businesses including a meat market, drug store, and barber shop. The Birmingham Business College kept offices on the 2nd floor. The Chicago Clothing Company, a shoe store, a finance company and the Paris Men's Shop also used the address. The open upper floor, called the Third Loft, was rented out for community meetings, stage productions, concerts and worship services, including the first services of what became the West End Church of Christ.

Ownership of the building was passed to the Sloss-Shephard Real Estate Company in 1946. Robert Shepherd recalled that as long as he had known of it, that the building had been considered a "white elephant" with little intrinsic value. By the 1970s, the building was in poor condition with boarded-up windows, cracked brick and holes in the roof.

In 1975 the Board of Governors for the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta approved plans by the local branch to begin acquiring all the other parcels on Block 61 for future expansion. The long-vacant Fox Building was purchased by the bank in March 1978 for $350,000.

On August 17, 1979 the Bama Demolition Company obtained a permit from the city and began preparations to raze the building. Soon a "Committee to Save the Fox Building" was formed, helped by Birmingham News columnist James Nelson. They succeeded in having the demolition permit suspended on August 30 while alternatives to demolition were explored. The city's offer to purchase the building at a discounted price was turned down and no other viable offers appeared.

They got the structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places, effective August 11, 1980. Meanwhile the Birmingham City Council voted down a proposal by John Katapodis to condemn the building and the demolition permit was restored. Supporters of the bank's plans believed that the Federal Reserve might move their operations out of downtown if their expansion plans were stymied. (In fact, the bank did move to Liberty Park in 2000.)

In September 1980 the committee filed suit in U.S. District Court to argue that the bank had not fulfilled requirements established to restrict Federal agencies from destroying listed properties. Ultimately Judge U. W. Clemon ruled that the objections had come too late to justify reversing the bank's plans. The Fox Building was demolished in 1981.

References

• White, Marjorie Longenecker (1977) Downtown Birmingham: Architectural and Historical Walking Tour Guide. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society.
• Nelson, James (August 31, 1980) "If the Fox Building Goes, It is the Rape of History". The Birmingham News
• "Committee to Save the Fox Building v. Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta" (1980) United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. 497 F.Supp. 504
• "Ruling Ends Fox Reprieve" (September 24, 1980) The Birmingham News