Excavating UAB's Architectural Heritage

By Matt Windsor

Remembrance of Things Past

Acres of vacant lots surround a growing campus in this aerial view from 1959. Insets: 1. These married-student quarters have been replaced by UAB's new Campus Recreation Center. 2. Three health-care facilities—the Boshell Diabetes Building, the Spain-Wallace Building, and the West Pavilion—are squeezed into the former home of the Crippled Children's Hospital. 3. All aboard! The Street Car Diner once greeted passersby on a block that is now an employee parking lot opposite the Kirklin Clinic. 4. Tidwell Hall, the original Southside home of UAB, was replaced by the Kaul Human Genetics Building. 5. This row of apartment buildings was pressed into service as dorms and university offices in UAB's early years; the site's current tenant is a DoubleTree hotel.