 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The newly renovated historic building that houses the Center for Regional
Planning and Design is the former Young & Vann Supply Co.
As advocates of revitalizing downtowns, the Center partners considered
it important to locate in a reclaimed historic building.
The building was built in the late 1890s as the Alabama distribution center for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. The structure was based on generic plans from Anheuser-Busch, with local association of the architectural firm Wheelock, Joy and Wheelock. It originally included an office, a beer warehouse, horse stables and facilities for the beer wagons.
Large wooden double doors, still in existence, served as the gateway for the wagons. With the enactment of Prohibition in 1907, beer companies curtailed operations and the brewer eventually vacated.
Young & Vann Supply Co. occupied the building beginning in about 1910, and purchased it in 1926. (The date ‘1906’ that appears on the outside of the rear building is the date of Young & Vann’s founding.) The company sold industrial supplies and heavy hardware, initially specialized in supplies and equipment for mines, furnaces, textile mills, contractors and manufacturers.
Sloss Real Estate Group Inc., which purchased the 28,000 square-foot building from Young & Vann in 2002, is well known for renovating historic city structures. Sloss President Cathy Crenshaw worked with the partners on the redesign, spending $3 million on renovations. Stone Building Co. served as the contractor; Birmingham architect Christ Engel handled the renovation.
The structure is one of the few surviving examples of Victorian Romanesque
commercial architecture in downtown Birmingham, and is listed as a contributing
structure in the historic Downtown Retail and Theatre District, a National
Register of Historic Places district established in 1989.
