Today City Daily Photobloggers around the world are posting their take on the the theme DOORWAYS.
My doorway is the vintage doorknob of the former Birmingham Realty Building on First Avenue North in downtown Birmingham. The bottom photo is the lovely detail over the office building. I am puzzled that I was unable to find out anymore about this longtime Birmingham realty company in a search. This is as much information as I could find here.
If any of my Birmingham readers have information about Birmingham Realty, I'll be happy to add it to this post.
Want to see more great Doorway interpretations???
28 comments:
This is an exquisite piece of "hardware"! Isn't it interesting how many things we can find that "should" be in a history book or some kind of record and aren't? I find that here, too - more often than I thought I would.
A beautiful lock on that door, V!!
This is a good art !!
Two beautiful images for today, Virgiia. Love the detail in the first and goodness, how impressive is that second one. She looks alittle fierce or is she a he?
I love the first photo. what magnificent details. a work of art.
These are such beautiful details.
Very beautiful. Like you, I have a collection of locks and doors/doorways. Amazing, too, how the face below resembles so many I've seen here...guess this must have been a classic face.
Sorry, Virginia, I can't give you any information about this building...! But I can enjoy these little pieces of it and wish to see more from inside, maybe...
I really like this nice reminder of how great doorknobs used to be. We had these old ornate door nobs in the house I grew up in. You just don't see that detail anymore.
I use picasa.
There were some good things in the "good old days," like this doorknob. Sturdy, usable and at the same time very attractive.
Re: the second picture - I often have wondered why the faces sculptured on building frequently look so unhappy. Look at this downturned mouth.
I just adore old hardware. This is beautiful, V!
Jacob, the faces look happier in summer.
Fantastic details, V.!
Cool choice for theme day. Happy November!!
Hiker,
I'm not sure. Remember, summer in Birmingham is enough to melt the concrete right off yo face!
I've never seen a door knob like that before. It is really wonderful.
What a lovely knob! Well, what else did you expect from me?!
Actually, its a really good take on the theme. Good to see some detail instead of just a door.
Love the door knob! I smiled when I opened your blog and saw the knob...my immediate reaction was " I knew Virginia would have an interesting take on the theme!!!" Love the face too...
Okay, you aced me and did a couple of (very good) doors. The community may get it's money's worth from me on the next theme day because they may, ahem, wait a long time for it.
Well, I forgot about theme day yet again, but I love your perspective.
Wow. I mean wow! Birmingham must really be something else.
This reminds me of some similar architecture in downtown Pcola. I have to wonder what people thought about them at the time they were put up,so much elegance. I love seeing the roots of a town/city. Very substantial for theme day, V.
Thanks everyone. I have Marley to thank. I visited late last night and found that Theme Day was Doorways. Quick, run to the archives and this is what I found. Now I realize I had a better one after looking around. I'll show it soon. I love Theme Days but wish I could stay on top of them better.
V
These were the founders of Birmingham.
The Birmingham Realty Company was a successor to the Elyton Land Company which incorporated in 1871 in order to develop the proposed new industrial city. The path of succession was somewhat convoluted, culminating in a bankruptcy sale in 1902. This building dates to 1905 and was designed by William C. Weston.
http://www.bhamwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Elyton_Land_Company
That's very pretty! Really a work of art.
Dystopos,
Thanks for that information. Elyton, that's why I couldn't find it on my search. Is it true it's owned by Barber now?
Yes, it's one of "The Barber Companies" with some notion of independence.
I threw together a short article on this building with a link to its entry in the Historic American Buildings Survey (just the photo and some data, no drawings)
http://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Birmingham_Realty_Company_Building
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