Birmingham Southern College - Southern Accent Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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h«! year wiis 1870. T«n men put their money to- gelher to hiiy more than 4.000 acres of land near the small Alabama town of Hlylon. It was a momentous occasion. Within a few months, engineers had set the crossing of the South and North Alabama Railroad east of Elyton and sur- veyors were marking out the city with a downtown area. The city of Birmingham was officially incorporat- ed on December 18. 1971. with a population of 1.200. Then the iron boom began in Birmingham in 1880 when two coke furnaces went into operation. In the city ' s first twenty years, the population Increased to 26.000 and was given the nickname The Magic City ' ■ in recognition of its rapid growth. Steel and steel-related industries remained the backbone of Birmingham ' s economy throughout the city ' s early years. By 1910. its population had risen to 120.000. Birmingham ' s renaissance into a thriving metropolis of 930.000 people is due to a combination of factors: its location in the geographic center of the Southeast, progressive business climate, emphasis on the art.s. and unparalleled re.sidential areas. When newcomers ask what ' s so special about Birmingham, there are plenty of firsts. bests, , and onlys to mention. A quick look down Birmingham (Ireen, for example, provides a view of the .state ' s talle.st build- ing Soon to be c ompleted, the SoulhtrusI Tower rises 34 floors on the corner of 20th and 5th Avenue North. just a few blocks away on 19th Street stands the .state ' s largest office building. The corporate head- quarters of th»! Alabama Power Company. To the ea.st on 23rd Street, the YMCA Downtown r;enlt!r offers exercisers a facility ranked among the lop three in the country. Nearby, on the corner of 4th Avenue and 22nd Street, the mcxlern pre.ss«!S (»f 7 ' he Hirminghurn News produce the .state ' s largest new.spaptir. Further Binmnghpm

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m ' % 1 south on LalcBshore Drive, ilif Living unci Progressive Farmer 111.1 .: „. wooded lot. Also headquartered here ar e Fortui company Vulcan Materials; two Fortune Servi... firms. AmvSouthBank Corporation and Torchma Corporation, and regional utility companies Bell- South Services and South Central Bell. In 1985 the Birmingham Area Chamber of Com- merce was the fastest growing chamber for U.S. cities of comparable size and the .sixth fastest growing in the nation for all citi J Overall, Birmingham boasts tht; uirgcsi iiiiniDiT engineers among Southeastern cities. They work at lop-ranked firms such as Southern Research Insti- tute, the largest non-profit research and develop- ment lalxiratory in the Southeast. Far to the south in Hoover, the Riverchase Calleria opened recently as the largest enclosed shopping mall in the South, with the longest skylight in the Western Hemisphere. But Birmingham ' s achievements are not all on the business side. In education, medicine, arts and leisure living, the Magic City offers choices second to none in the Southeast. Sir mil