We’ll start our Birmingham tour with the first landmark, the “Heaviest Corner on Earth,” whose name originated at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, referring to the four historic skyscrapers at the intersection of 20th Street and 1st Avenue North. As I remarked yesterday, I think Chicago actually has a heavier historic intersection at South LaSalle Street and West Quincy Street (the Rookery anchors one corner) but I digress

We’ll start with my favorite, the soaring John A. Hand Building, from 1912. It has a broader pedestal and I suspect that due to its slender profile, it very well could have been designed for an expansion of the office tower. William Welton of New York was the architect.

It was originally built as the American Trust and Savings Bank and much like the Marquette Building in St. Louis, it has a heavy ornate public face on the lower floors, and more modern upper floors.

Just look at the Corinthian pilaster capital below, built in a city only founded just over forty years before. Miracle City was certain a fair appellation for Birmingham.

Next up is the Empire Building, built in 1909 in a Renaissance Revival style. Unlike the building above, I believe this was always built as a complete composition. It was designed by Carpenter of New York City.

Much like in the designs of Louis Sullivan, there is a base, a shaft and capital section of the building, showing the continued influence of the firm of Adler & Sullivan, though their influence was waining.

Setting off from the white terracotta are two pink granite columns; they are not single shaft but pieced together in enormous sections.

The Brown Marx Building was in fact a skyscraper built in two phases, with initially a slender tower that was later amended into the current appearance. It was built in 1906 according to designs by William Weston.

It is under renovation and perhaps out of the four buildings at the intersection, it is the one in most need of being “fixed” after unfortunate mid-Twentieth Century interventions.

The final building is the Woodward Building, and also the oldest, built in 1902, also designed by William Weston.

There is even a plaque on the sidewalk commemorating the intersection.

Here’s a bonus skyscraper. Also designed by William Weston, the City Federal Building is twenty-seven stories tall, towering over the city a couple of blocks away from the Heaviest Corner.

It was originally built as the Jefferson County Savings Bank, and if you look closely below, you can see where that name was attached.

Stout Ionic columns guard the first three floors.

I always appreciate the enthusiasm of turn of the Twentieth Century builders who left brick on sides of their buildings; they were so certain that one day it would be joined by another tall building.