Gary Avenue
Gary Avenue is a major thoroughfare through downtown Fairfield, part of the street pattern planned by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company in 1909, and named in honor of Elbert Gary, the first president of TCI's parent company, U.S. Steel.
Gary Avenue runs southwest as a continuation of Avenue E Ensley, which also becomes Lloyd Noland Parkway as it passes below I-20/59. Gary Avenue and Lloyd Noland Parkway split between 40th Street Ensley and 41st Street Ensley, with Gary bending westward and crossing Opossum Creek before entering Fairfield's business district. The street proceeds southwest, then turns to the south at 47th Street Ensley, terminating at Valley Road / Donald Parkway. Formerly the section of Valley Road continuing to E. J. Oliver Boulevard was also addressed as Gary Avenue.
The Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Company's No. 5 Ensley-Fairfield streetcar line ran down Gary Avenue, and that service continues as MAX Transit Route 5.
Notable addresses
- 4506: Birmingham Islamic Center's West Side Masjid (2010–)
- North Plaza intersects (southeast only)
- Fairfield Memorial Park (built 1910)
- Crawford Street intersects (northwest only)
- South Plaza intersects (southeast only)
- 4600: former location of First Bank of Corey / Hotel Plaza (built 1910)
- 4604: Carmichael Building, former location of Fairfield City Hall
- 4607: former location of Fairfield First National Bank Branch, AmSouth Bank
- 4615: Walter J. Hanna Public Library
- 48th Street Ensley intersects
- 4801: Restoration Academy high school
- 49th Street Ensley intersects
- former location of A & P (1950–)
- 50th Street Ensley intersects
- 5003: Capstone Counseling Center / Neo Jazz School of Music
- 5004: former location of Gary Theatre (1924)
- 5005–5007: former location of Fairfield Theatre (1950s)
- 51st Street Ensley intersects
- 5104: Stephen Smith Fine Art (2016–), former location of Fairfield Theatre (1920s)
- 52nd Street Ensley intersects
- 5224: former location of Piggly Wiggly (1925)