Though Birmingham stands in the heart of the Deep South, it is not an Old South city.
Started in 1871 in the crossing of two railroad lines, the city blossomed through the early 1900s as it rapidly became the South's foremost industrial center. Iron and also steel production were a natural for Birmingham; underground lay abundant key ingredients---coal, iron ore as well as limestone. As an industry town, Birmingham suffered greatly around the Depression. After World War II the city expanded moderately while retaining its strong Southern character.
Concurrently a profound movement toward diversification was afoot. The huffing along with puffing of Birmingham's legendary iron and also steel mills was gradually replaced by a work force of medical along with engineering professionals. Today, Birmingham enjoys a balance of manufacturing along with service-oriented jobs in a booming work force.
Birmingham has been through a lot for a city so young. Unlike several older cities, Birmingham, now in its 128th year, is still within the stages of becoming.
Local historians divide the city's history into six epochs. The first, from the 1830s to the late 1860s, was a time when the area we currently know as Birmingham was called Elyton and also was just a small pioneer farm settlement. There was no town of any consequence---the great Alabama cities were Mobile, Selma as well as Montgomery. Though local residents fought for the Confederacy through the Civil War, minor damage was done to the area because, as one Union general wrote in his diary, the area deserved no attack as it was just a "poor, insignificant Southern village."
The second period, from about 1870 to 1880, was a time when railroads as well as land barons created a town that was named Birmingham, after England's industrial giant. Formally organized in 1871, the new town became a commercial hub, with railroads crisscrossing all over the community. The new community sprang up, thrived along with progressed so quickly that various observers said it happened "just like magic." Soon the nickname "The Magic City" was applied to Birmingham. In addition, it was a time when older Alabama cities started to resent the growth as well as success of their neighbor to the north. The city's detractors, as well as there were a number of, started referring to the city as "Little Birmy."
Their scorn subsided somewhat when the town was nearly destroyed, first by a cholera epidemic as well as then by economic depression.
The natural abundance of coal, iron ore as well as limestone, however, assured the resurgence of the little boom town, as well as Birmingham moved into its third epoch with remarkable vitality.
Beginning about 1880 and also continuing in the Great Depression, this city used Yankee capital and an infusion of labor from former plantations and European emigrants. The mining as well as metals industries were the catalyst for other enterprises, from banks to barbershops. But the controlling influences belonged not to local citizens, but to wealthy industrialists from the North.
The fourth distinct period began with the Depression and ran through the late 1950s. During this period of wartime economy along with shaky post-war recovery, the city suffered greatly. The mills kept producing, although not a single major commercial building was constructed downtown from the 1920s until the early 1960s.
The decade of the 1960s and early '70s was the fifth epoch. It brought events that would forever change the image of the city. This was the historical era of police dogs as well as fire hoses turned on Civil Rights demonstrators, of the bombed-out 16th Street Baptist Church. The city's national reputation was near ruins.
The horrors of the 1960s still haunt the city right now and also have turned a permanent global spotlight on race relations - good and also bad - in Birmingham.
But within the mid-1970s, the growing influence and also reputation of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and also the strength of a prospering business/service economy ushered within the sixth epoch. The old magic was back as smart, affluent people associated with UAB along with other businesses took the lead at the community. Commercial construction drastically changed the skyline of the city, making it broader, more remarkable. Affluence and also education brought with it more cultural along with recreational opportunities.
The opening of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in 1993 did more to heal the city from within and also within the eyes of the nation than any other single event. Along with the opening of the Institute, the city managed at last to tell its own story, as well as by telling, soothe the wounds of the past.
Recently Mercedes-Benz opened its first American production facility in nearby Vance, turning out the enormously popular M-Class All-Activity Vehicle. New major destinations, including a full blown theme park and also the country's best science museums, have opened. Along with Birmingham's medical community is still recognized worldwide for its contributions to health care and healing.
Birmingham is a Southern city that is---all at once---young, traditional, vibrant, friendly, complex along with, some even say, exotic. The eccentricities of the South as well as Southerners has been widely noted in literature and also on film.
Unlike some larger Southern cities that have chosen to trade soul for growth and also development, Birmingham has retained its true Southern character; it is claimed that Birmingham is the last major Southern city in America. That's because it is impossible for us to become like every place else.
Birmingham is a distinctive along with comfortable place to visit and to live. While we continue to grow modern-day, we also treasure several of the ways of the small-town South. One can enjoy asparagus salad with roasted pecan dressing at an elegant salon for lunch, and look forward to supper at a cafe serving country-fried steak along with butter beans. The audience around the symphony concert will discuss college football games coming up the next day. And also the highbrow patrons of the Charity Ball will be elbow-to-elbow the next morning with workers on a Habitat for Humanity home.
It is diversity that is our greatest strength as well as our strongest appeal. We talk about progress, but having a decidedly Southern accent. We are a spectrum of attitudes and also cultures, all a part of the charm and also exoticism that is the South.