Title Building
- This article is about the 1903 Title Guarantee building, for the 1940s building on 20th Street, see Land Title Building.
The Title Guarantee Loan & Trust Building is a 9-story, 120-foot-tall office building constructed in 1903 at 2024 3rd Avenue North, on the corner of 21st Street across from the Jefferson County Courthouse by the Title Guarantee Loan & Trust Company. It was designed by architect William Weston and built by T. C. Thompson & Brothers.
The steel-framed building has a brown brick facade, laid with recessed courses on the second and upper floors to evoke rusticated stone.
The building was the home of the first "First Order" Weather Bureau station in Birmingham. It also housed the Birmingham Sunday School Association, the Peddinghaus Studio portrait photographers, the Silver Pheasant Tea Room, and the first professional offices of architect David O. Whilldin.
The deep cornice was removed in 1956. A renovation commissioned by then-owner John Lauriello cleaned years of soot from the brick in 1986. Moody & Associates provided design work for the renovations, carried out by Charles & Vinzant Construction Company.
Following the remodeling, the ground floor was occupied by First Commercial Bank. Later it housed Safari Cup coffee shop (2002-2009) and O'Carr's delicatessen (2010). The building is presently the home of Southpace Properties, which erected a neon sign on the corner in 2011.
References
- White, Marjorie Longenecker (1977) Downtown Birmingham: Architectural and Historical Walking Tour Guide. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society.
- Bowsher, Alice Meriwether, Philip A. Morris & Marjorie Longenecker (1990) Cinderella Stories: Transformations of Historic Birmingham Buildings. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society.