The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-30
MEN, Wr'rEN
 AND THINGS

it seemed to me that those enthusiasts
 who early in it's history named it the
 Magic City. were more of prophets
 than dreamers.
 At the Jewish Relief luncheon at the
 Tutwiler hotel on yesterday. my good
 friend pr. Phillips, the chairman, in in
 troducing me, said. Tim now going to
 call on man who has lived in this city
 more than quarter of a century, for
 in fact l have known him over thirty
 years" Dr. Newfield laughingly inter-
 jected; Own up and make it twoscore years"
 As a matter of fact Icame to Birming
 ham first in 1885. The 1880 census had
 credited it with 3,0S6 souls, but in the
 five years which had elapsed some
 other thousands like myself had been
 attracted by the wonderful tales told
 about it, and had come to sec if they
 were true. 1 came here the first time
 direct from the University of Alabama when it was still in the village stage
 or rather just an overgrown town.
 
 It was a boom town, but none of tho boomers" in their widest tales or fancy were bold enough to really pre- dict that its growth was going to be so phenomenal. I have always been glad
 that I lived through the early boom"
 days for ever afterward, while in other towns cities where the promoters were doing their best to inflate prices, I was able to keep my head and be just a Hooker on in Venice"
 
 I have lived here to see values go all to smash, and practically the whole citizenry to be living from hand to mouth, for when the boom" burst the rainbow of hope on the soap bubble of high prices seemed to vanish into thin air and the atmosphere was filled with gloom. It was time of discip- line, and in the end those who were able to stick it out and hold to what they had came out on the right side of the ledger, but many a poor fellow lost his all.
 Through the 35 years in which I have known Birmingham, I have never for one moment doubted it's ultimate sue cess. I have always belonged to the band of hopefuls, and having seen tse town grow into a great metropolis, avail myself of the opportunity of saying to my faint hearted friends who abandoned it for good and all when the lean days came, have not been a con- stant resident during the more than score of years since l first got off at the old Relay House, but like Finni gan, q have been off and on and gone agin" but for eighteen years past I've stuck and hope to spend the balance of my days here.
 I never knew Colonel Powell but l did know Dr. Caldwell, and the Mil | ners, John T., and Willis J., and Henry DeBardeleben, and J. H. Woodward and some of the other pioneers. Many of the leading bankers, lawyers physi clans, merchants, manufacturers and real estate dealers of today were young men friends of mine, and as I meet them and know of the positions they now hold in the social. political, com mercial and religious life of the city I am glad to have the chance of living side by side with such bunch of com
 munity builders.
 When the figures were announced yesterday morning I was standing at the Twentieth street entrance of the Tutwiler, and immediately my mind re- verted back @ score of years when the Jordan home, a center of social life. ocupied the site on which now stood one of the greatest hostelries in the en- tire south. A postcard of it with the old homestead in a corner with the l figures 1SS0-1920 would tell the story of how business had crowded out the residential section.
 walked around the streets in the downtown district trying to get line on the growth and progress of Birming ham by recalling the changes in the character of the buildings now occu- pying the choice sites. Take just one intersection for example, where First avenue crosses Twentieth street. The old Hewlett building on the southwest | corner gave way to the Woodward building our first skyscraper. The old Alabama National Bank building on the southeast corner once the pride
 of the town. was demolished for the l American Trusts palatial home. The 1 old Bank saloon, on the northw est cor
 ner, was torn down to make way for | the magnificent Empire building, while what was known as sIinn's Folly"
 on the northeast corner. which for so
 many years housed the First National l bank. was razed for the Brown Marx, , the largest office building this side of i the Mason and Dixon line. But enough ] of skyscrapers.
 l It was a long cry from the old Relay House through the Metropolitan, the | Caldwell, the Morris the Hillman and the Motion to the Tutwiler. I can well rem ember that when the Caldwell was l built on the site now occupied by the l Goodall- Brown Dry Goods Company's handsome store, many thought the l city would never be big enough to sup | port it, It was an imposing affair in it's day and when it was destroyed by
 fire it stopped the retail growth up
 First avenue.
 ! Tn the sos, the retail district ran
 along First avenue from Twenty first street to the OBrien opera house. Ca- | heen Brothers had a big department
 store on the corner now occupied by | the Birmingham Railway, Light and Power Company. Second avenue was
 also retail center. as was Twentieth street from Morris avenue on the south | to Fourth avenue on the north. There was also quite a little business done
 on Twenty first and Nineteenth streets
 Loveman, Joseph Loeb opened up
 moved to their present location there
 was a shifting of the retail business. | Back in those days the central churches were wooden affairs without
 much pretensions. I have seen the erec- ton of St. Paurs and the Church of the Advent, the building of the First
 Methodist, the First Baptist. the First
 Presbyterian all in the downtown dis
 trict In those days the old Cox home
 was practically the limit on the South side, although J. A. VanHoose George <, Morris, Robert Pearson and a few