Created, lived, and retold, right here in Jones Valley, Birmingham.

3 Comments

  • Tom Says

    I would invite you to come up to Woodlawn and take photos. This somewhat forgotten part of Birmingham now has the newly restored Woodrow Hall. This building was built in 1914 and housed the Masonic Order of Woodlawn. It has a really great interior with exposed brick walls, high ceilings and large wooden beams. And since the weather is turning grey and rainy, for a limited time we are inviting professional photographers to use the banquet hall, stairways and foyer with its large windows for engagement photos free of charge. (subject to availability of course!)

    Enjoy a part of Birmingham’s history!

    • Tom, I’d love to come take pictures at Woodrow Hall. I’d love to know more about the site itself. Please note: I’m no professional photographer, but I’d love to help tell the story of this historical building that’s been so lovingly brought back to life!

      • Tom Says

        and Laura, we would love to have you! Your photos capture a lot of emotion around the city and I for one have enjoyed seeing them and reading your blog!

        The building is a designated historical site that is basically the center of Woodlawn. It, as I stated above, is nearly a century old. It hosted the Freemasons for most of the last century but fell into disrepair. The roof was leaking, the building had been “remodeled” with the addition of suspended ceilings, faux wood paneling and shag carpeting sometime (presumably) in the 70′s.

        My son and son-in-law took more than a year and a lot of resources to remove all of the ill conceived remodeling details, repaired the roof, modernized the wiring, HVAC, plumbing and of course the lighting and it now hosts community events like it must have a century ago! They renamed the event space, which takes up the entire third floor, Woodrow Hall.

        We are really pleased that wedding celebrations, reunions and other gatherings are taking place in a place that was until recently an eyesore to NE Birmingham. It has become a sign of the hope for Woodlawn and is now providing employment for several people with more to come. Soon a teaching center will locate in the building and several professionals have moved into what used to be boarded up rooms! We have opened the building up to community meetings and are pleased to host fund raising events.

        The building has a rich history and an even more rich patina that creates a perfect event venue for people to celebrate life! Several photographers have used it for photo shoots and that gave us the idea of opening it up for shooting sessions for engagement photos at no charge to the photographer or bride and groom.

        We are attempting to gather more historical facts about the building and if you can send any “ole-timers” our way, we would LOVE to talk to them and record their story!

        So, come on over and bring your camera!

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