Tidwell Hall

The University of Alabama Extension Center was located at 720 20th Street South. Completed in June of 1954, this building replaced the wood-frame house at 2131 6th Avenue North as the site of the University of Alabama Extension Center.

The lettering on the façade of the building changed numerous times during the building’s history depending on who owned the building and its designated use at any given time.

History

• On June 6, 1954: The University of Alabama Extension Center building was completed.
• On June 10, 1956, the building was named in honor of Robert E. Tidwell, dean of The University of Alabama Extension Division. The building continued to be known as the “Extension Center” until the late 1960s when “Tidwell Hall” was finally placed on the building’s facade.
• In 1966, Tidwell Hall became the home of the College of General Studies, where classes of English and history were taught. It contained 17 classrooms, six labs and 20 offices for faculty. It also was home of the library, the registrar, the records office, the campus bookstore and the educational television studio. The University College Library, an extension of the library at the University of Alabama was created to support non-medical programs of the newly-designated Birmingham university. The 10,000 volumes in the collection were housed in the basement of Tidwell Hall under the care of history professor Virginia Van de Veer Hamilton. In 1967 librarian Perry Cannon took over supervision. As the university gained autonomy in 1969, Cannon led the change from Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress classification. In August 1970 Paul Spence became the new library director and the library was moved to the Mortimer Jordan Armory Building.
• In 1971 the College of General Studies became University College
• In 1981 the UAB School of Public Health was created and departments within the School were located mostly within Tidwell Hall. As the number of faculty increased, several departments utilized space outside of Tidwell for large research projects and/or staff.
• In 1996 the Dean’s Office and the Department of Biostatistics moved to the new Ryals Public Health Building.
• In 1998 the Departments of Epidemiology (EPI) and Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) moved to the Ryals Building. EHS and EPI laboratories were moved temporarily to Volker Hall until the sixth floor of the Ryals building was completed in 2001.
• Demolition of Tidwell began the week of May 11, 1998. Most of the structure was demolished within a couple of months, but a small section of the 1st and 2nd floors that were attached to the adjoining Dental School were left intact for structural integrity reasons until the construction of the Hugh Kaul Human Genetics Building began in 1999.

Occupancy

1980’s

• 1st floor: International Health
• 2nd floor: Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Maternal & Child Health, Health Behavior
• 3rd floor: Dean’s Office
• 4th floor: Environmental Health Sciences
• 5th floor: Storage and several offices

1990’s

• 1st floor: International Health
• 2nd floor: Epidemiology
• 3rd floor: Dean’s Office, Health Care Organization & Policy
• 4th floor: Environmental Health Sciences
• 5th floor: Storage and a few offices

Laboratories were located on the first and fourth floors. Classrooms were located on the first and third floors. In the latter part of 1984 and continuing into the spring of 1985, renovations to the second floor resulted in the creation of new office space for the departments of Epidemiology, Maternal and Child Health, Biostatistics, and a computer lab for general use by faculty, staff, and students. In 1985, the computer lab was outfitted with Apple IIe and DEC Rainbow microcomputers. IBM AT microcomputers were purchased for faculty and staff and IBM Displaywriter word processing systems were utilized by secretarial staff for word processing tasks.

References

• Fisher, Virginia E. (1995) Building on a Vision: A fifty-year retrospective of UAB’s Academic Health Center. Crane Hill Publishers, 2923 Crescent Ave, Birmingham, AL. ISBN 1881548147
• McWilliams, Tennant S. (2007) New lights in the valley : the emergence of UAB. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c2007. ISBN 9780817315467

External links

• [1] “Tidwell slated for demolition” (March 9, 1998) UAB Reporter
• [2] “End of an Era” (May 18, 1998) UAB Reporter