Photo is of former Woodlawn City Hall(my notes 2 story wooden structure as of this picture was made into a battery place downstairs and maybe where someone lived upstairs. The name of the battery shop is Turner and Morgan and the cars in the front are in the 30's(I think)) Woodlawn My mother was Florence Hawkins Wood Moss. My grandfather was Obadiah Washington Wood Jr and his father was Obadiah Washington Wood Sr. My greatgrandfather moved to Woodlawn from what is now Huffman(suburb of Birmingham). His parents lived in South Carolina My greatgrandfather and grandfather never really had a profession. When they needed money,they simply sold some of their land. My grandfathers home was on Second Avenue South and he had a large garden that extended up to First Avenue. I was the youngest granddaughter and he would allow me into his garden,which had not one weed,but he would not let me bother any of his flower beds. Their life was a very simple life but a very enjoyable one. The church was the real center of activity. Back then you went to the morning service and then you went back at night too. The Woods were Baptist. Blacks have been in Woodlawn since the beginning,because Obadiah Washington Sr brought slaves when he moved there. After the Civil Waer,he setablished Zion City as a part of Woodlawn reserved for blacks and he gave them land. He had only three requirements. They had to be former Wood slaves. They had to be Masons. And they had to be Baptist. Alot of Woodlawn residents were railroad men-engineers and firemen. Woodlawn was in "The Call District" which meant they could be reached by telephone and told that a certain train was coming in and needing repairs. They could get on the Tidewater Line,the express streetcar,and get to the shop quickly. Woodlawn has some problems now. So many of the people have moved"over the mountain" and out toward Roebuck that the people left are in the "twilight years." Elizabeth Moss Brown April1st 1887 The L and N Station opens for traffic April 8th 1951 The B'ham Museum of Art opens April 11th 1887 The furnances in the Ensley iron plant go into blast for the first time April 12th 1960 New York Times reporter Harrison Salisbury describes Bham as a city of racial hatred and violence and is subsequently sued for libel by city officials April 14th 1894 8,000 coal miners begin a long and unsuccessful strike April 16th 1963 Dr Martin Luther King Jr defends his civil rights activities in a letter to local white ministers written in the Birmingham City Jail April 19th 1882 The Sloss Furnace is fired for the first time April 23rd 1911 Dr H. A. El-Kourie, B'ham physician argues before U.S. Congress that Syrians and Greeks are members of the white race April 24th 1922 WSY,the first Bham radio station broadcast its first program April 28th 1892 The first electric streetcar in Bham begins service in Avondale April 30th 1921 Children from Ensley,Wenonah and other villages take part in the TCI"May Day" pagent called "A Quest for Health"