Quinlan Castle - Birmingham, Alabama
N 33° 30.208 W 086° 47.784
16S E 518910 N 3707122
Built in 1927, this 4-story, castle-shaped building has remained vacant and deteriorating for years despite being listed as an historic site.
Waymark Code: WM4KYX
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 09/04/2008
Views: 29
Located on the northwest corner of 9th Avenue South and 21st Street South. The building, which is now owned by the city of Birmingham, has been vacant since the mid 1990s. The city regularly solicited proposals for its redevelopment, but the process has been hindered by historic building protections applied to the structure. In 2008, the building was purchased by neighbor Southern Research Institute.
Quinlan Castle was designed by noted architect William C. Weston and constructed by H. P. Hanna, who formed the Quinlan Construction Company for the project. The unusual castle motif has been credited to a pair of doctors, investors in the building, who were inspired by castles they saw in France during World War I. A 1929 advertisement makes the unlikely claim that the design was based on "the actual plans of a medieval English castle."
The building is composed of two U-shaped halves connected by arched gateways on the north and south, forming a 4-story rectangle clad in light-brown sandstone and punctuated with dozens of arch-topped windows. The roofline is crested with a battlement and adorned with round turrets at each corner.
The name of the building was adopted from Quinlan Avenue, the former name of 9th Avenue South which honored Bishop Quinlan of the Catholic Diocese of Mobile. Quinlan had purchased the hilltop and surrounding property as a potential site for Birmingham's first Catholic church.
Street address:
9th Ave So. & 21st St.
Birmingham, AL USA
35205
County / Borough / Parish: Jefferson County, AL
Year listed: 1984
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering
Periods of significance: 1925-1949
Historic function: Domestic
Current function: Private
Privately owned?: yes
Season start / Season finish: From: 07/13/2015 To: 07/13/2015
Hours of operation: From: 12:00 AM To: 12:00 AM
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 1: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Please give the date and brief account of your visit. Include any additional observations or information that you may have, particularly about the current condition of the site. Additional photos are highly encouraged, but not mandatory.