In the late 19th and early 20th century, Birmingham, Alabama saw a vast period of growth, and with its growth came an expansion of services, notably the fire department. The city organized its first fire department in 1885 with two stations. It employed 21 firemen and 15 horses by 1890. While Birmingham spent less per capita on services than similar-sized Southern cities, it spent more on fire and education. Downtown business leaders demanded top-quality fire protection. Better fire coverage kept insurance rates low. In 1910, Birmingham annexed several suburban towns, doubling the city’s population. Suburban residents demanded better fire protection soon after. As a result, many new fire stations were built throughout the city.
Birmingham built 24 fully equipped, professional fire stations during the 1920s. Avondale, East Lake, Ensley, Southside, West End, and Woodlawn all received new stations with neighborhood-friendly designs. Before 1920, most suburban stations were located near central business districts, and their architecture reflected their surroundings, with minimal decoration. The stations built after 1920 were primarily in residential areas and constructed in styles popular at the time, including Spanish Revival, Tudor Revival, and Beau-Arts.
Birmingham Fire Station No. 16 was built in 1926 and is the best example of a multi-use station in Birmingham. In addition to serving as a fire station, the Spanish Revival-style building also served as the community’s police station and jail. The Ensley police department moved its headquarters into the building in April 1926 and the fire department moved several weeks earlier.
The fire station was considered modern for its time. The main body of the building was a rectangular block that housed the municipal police station and jail. Two one-story wings housed the fire station that projected out of the main block’s front facade, creating a courtyard. One wing contained a garage with two bays for hose trucks and equipment. The other wing housed the fire station office and temporary housing for firefighters. The office wing features three arches above the entrance. Two sides and the rear of the building have six-over-six double-hung sash windows.
The jail has four main rooms, one for black men, one for black women, one for white men, and one for white women. Each of these four main divisions contains individual cells arranged in two tiers. The white women’s section “is as nice a boudoir as anyone would want,” according to an article in The Birmingham News. There are no individual cells here. The bunks are wide with several partitioned shower baths. The cells, painted white throughout, were as clean and airy as any hospital room. As the 25 or so young African American inmates filed into the jail on transfer from the old quarters, it appeared there were no unhappy faces in the group. They enjoyed picking out their cells and bunks. It was decided that “long-timers” should have the upper tiers. The prisoners held a housewarming and performed on the harmonica as a young man named “Rabbit” Johnson performed a dance routine in the central cell section of the jail.
In December 1926, Sergeant H. O. Hardin was attacked in his office in the Ensley jail by Frank Montgomery, a local Ensley man. Sergeant Hardin was at his desk when Montgomery dashed into his office brandishing a pistol that he attempted to fire several times directly at the officer. Hardin wrestled the weapon from him. Montgomery pulled out a knife and rushed Hardin again. Hardin fired one shot wounding Montgomery who was transferred to Hillman Hospital where he later died. Mrs. T. A. Watson, who entered the office to use the telephone, witnessed the incident. Sergeant Hardin said he had never seen the man before and did not know of any motive.
In January 1927, R. A. Lines, an electrician at Banner Convict Mines, and Mrs. Earl Holbrooks were held in the Ensley Jail and charged with aiding and abetting the escape of two inmates. One of the inmates that escaped was the woman’s husband who was serving 10 to 15 years for burglary. The other inmate was Walter Lambert, serving 80 years for murder. Oscar Metz, the assistant solicitor, stated that his office had evidence that Lines accepted $350 from Mrs. Holbrooks to allow them to escape. Lines told the escapees which car to get in to pass through the prison gates. Once outside the prison, Lines admitted that he took the men some clothes, picked the pair up a mile from Banner, and drove them to Tuscaloosa. Mrs. Holbrooks went with the men to Tuscaloosa. Authorities found a letter on her from her husband directing her to give Lines the $350. Earl Holbrooks was arrested a year prior after he and a friend robbed a safe at the Buffalo Rock Bottling Company and pleaded guilty. The two escapees were still on the loose when Lines and Mrs. Holbrooks were arrested.
There were reports of an outbreak of smallpox at the Ensley Jail in January 1928. Dr. R. H. Drake, assistant director of the division of infectious diseases, rushed to the jail to inspect suspected cases. He discovered it was a simple nettle rash, a skin allergy similar to hives.
In March 1928, two stills were raided by Ensley detectives, one within two blocks of the jail, and the other in a popular residential section. Detectives Appling and Martin arrested J. F. Delap after the detectives discovered a still in the rear of a house at 17th Street and Avenue H. Officers said the still was not in operation and was a small capacity plant. Detectives Gallup and McFarland located another at 26th Street and Avenue F. The owner, D. Willingham, was arrested and charged with having a still in his possession.
In March 1930, 19-year-old Hinton A. LeCroy was arrested and brought to the Ensley Jail. He was held without bond on a murder charge. Hinton shot his father, E. H. LeCroy, with a 12-gauge shotgun blast to the head at their home in Wylam. E. H. LeCroy worked at T.C.I. Company’s by-products plant. His wife, Annie Bell LeCroy, and her adopted 15-year-old daughter, Sue Belle LeCroy, were both present at the shooting.
Reinforcement of the Southside and Ensley jails began in early January 1938 after an attempted escape from both jails. Hubert Jenkins, serving a long city jail sentence, attempted to escape the Southside jail weeks before being transferred to Ensley on December 7 along with several other long-term prisoners. An investigation revealed that Jenkins paid $25 to a trustee to open the women’s cell block which was being used as storage while the jail was being repaired. Jenkins had succeeded in sawing one of the cell bars when G. T. Wilson, desk sergeant caught him, and immediately notified Earl Wilson, city jail superintendent. Wilson spent the night investigating the attempted jailbreak, ultimately discovering a hacksaw hidden in the main cell block. Jenkins and the trustee were placed in solitary confinement. According to Wilson, he had never been satisfied with Ensley Jail and planned to reinforce it with steel bars and install new locks.
Following his arrest in Guntersville in January 1938, 24-year-old Nelson Kopp, described as “the man with the gun” in a $8,000 payroll robbery of Little Gem Coal Company in Dogwood, was held in Ensley Jail by sheriff’s deputies. Kopp was identified by J. M. Crumley, paymaster-timekeeper, as one of three men who stole the money at gunpoint two weeks prior and vanished. Deputies placed Kopp in the Ensley Jail as they gathered more information about the other two suspects. Shelby County deputies planned to transfer Kopp to Columbiana to await trial for the robbery. Kopp denied being “the man with the gun,” asserting he had nothing to do with the payroll robbery. Crumley and another man were brought to the jail and positively identified Kopp as one of the suspects. The three men abandoned a black Chevrolet coach near Saginaw after being chased by Shelby County deputies from the crime scene. The first car used by the men was a Chevrolet with plate C-9625, which was reported stolen from Dogwood’s mine commissary the day of the robbery. Six months earlier, Kopp was arrested by Birmingham police on grand larceny charges for operating an automobile theft ring. He was charged with taking an automobile valued at $750 from A. Shugerman. The trial was set for December 6, 1937, but he and five other accused were passed over. Deputies discovered 60 cases of whisky, valued at approximately $1,500, in Kopp’s room in a house in Southland, near Guntersville. He said the whisky, which was unstamped, had been purchased in Kentucky. The whisky was turned over to Guntersville officers and given to state alcohol agents for confiscation. The paymaster-timekeeper’s money was not recovered.
In January 1939, 26-year-old Fred Walsh was arrested for stealing chickens. Walsh told Judge Frederick V. Wells that “he had bought the fowls from a curb market.” A local resident cleaned the chickens and a dress hanging near the hen house was torn to tie the chickens’ feet together. Since a scrap of dress cloth disproved Walsh’s story, he was found guilty and sentenced to six months in the Ensley Jail with a $100 fine.
As part of a plan to reduce expenses in his department Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene (Bull) Conner announced in June 1939 that Ensley Jail would be closed permanently, and the 65 prisoners there would be transferred to the Southside Jail. The closure of Ensley Jail was due to two floors being completed in the Southside Jail addition as well as to reduce operating expenses. According to Connor’s plan, all prisoners arrested in the Western area would be held at Ensley Jail until 4 p.m. each day, then the prisoners would be transferred. Conner stated that Ensley’s jail was rundown and needed several thousand dollars of reconditioning. This would be necessary. Personnel from Ensley Jail were also brought to Southside Jail to increase the jail force due to the additional prisoners.
Birmingham residents contributed funds in 1942 to equip the Ensley fire station with first aid and lifesaving equipment. Respirators, stretchers, first aid kits, and similar device essentials were purchased with $1,300 raised from a community dance and through contributions. In 1975, a new fire station was built in Ensley replacing Birmingham Fire Station No. 16.
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