aka Reed Books.
The building is located several blocks east of my beloved Alabama Theatre and was built in the 1880s- 1890s. The two upper floors house attorneys’ offices, with this quirky storefront on the street level.
When I was in sixth through eighth grades, I would ride the city bus home from school every day. I had a ride who brought me from the school several miles south (built in 1903 and still standing — a post for another day) downtown in time to catch the 3:15 bus home. More often than not, though, I spent a pleasurable hour or two wandering downtown. This block had a cafeteria — you could go through the line and get a doughnut for a dime. My best friend’s mother worked in the Watts Building, further down the block, which had a pseudo-Automat on the 13th floor — another adventure in after-school snacks for a pair of adventurous 12-year-olds. (Very daring, that — the building owners insisted on labeling it the 13th floor at a time when most elevators skipped from 12th to 14th.)
This building, now home to Reed Books, housed the Government Printing Office Bookstore at that time, another haven for book-loving girls with next to no spending money. (I think I still have some of the national park pamphlets I bought for a nickel back then. Vicarious travel!) From the shape of the store front, I wouldn’t be surprised if this were originally a grocery or dry-goods store. I’ll have to find out.
5 Comments
What a cool place. It reminds me of the bookstore Meg Ryan had in “You’ve Got Mail”. I love that movie! I also was a bookworm in school. Anytime you couldn’t find me, I was in the library. Still am.
Bet you can still get a whiff of the Government Ink used in said pamphlets?
What a fascinatingly eclectic store! I love the Porky Pig and the Emmett Kelly clown in the window. How brave of your parents to allow you the chance to wander downtown, and eat store-bought donuts, not to mention poisoning your mind with gummint literature!
I told you Birmingham was a quirky place!
Explains a lot, doesn’t it?
Remember, too, that many of the Very Bad Things about Birmingham were happening just a few blocks away during the time I was 10-11-12 and wandering around downtown by myself in the afternoons. My parents were either very brave, very foolhardy, or just didn’t care. Who knows?
That is so amazing! I think your parents were very brave. My Grandparents let me roam all over our small town in 1959-1970 in NE Mississippi. Bad time, but I loved the freedom in the summer riding horses and going all over the county.
This reminds me of when I was growing up in McAlester, Oklahoma. I would take 50¢ and walk about 7 blocks to town on Saturday morning. By myself. The matinee cost a dime at the fancy theatre, and a nickel at the rest of them. That was for 4 hours of entertainment. Soft drinks and candy bars (big ones) were a dime. Just before we moved to Texas, the prices went up to 20¢ at the fancy theatre, and 10¢ at the others. What a shock. After the matinee was over, I would hang out at one of the Hobby Shops in town; I think there were two. Then I would walk home. How things have changed!
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