| City/Town: • Birmingham |
| Location Class: • Commercial |
| Built: • 1915 | Abandoned: • 1998 |
| Status: • Restored 2019 |
| Photojournalist: • David Bulit |
The Alabama Gas Corporation (Alagasco) Building is a five-story commercial building constructed in 1915. The building has also been referred to as the Birmingham Gas Company Building, the 1918 Building, and simply as 1918 1st Avenue North.
In 1937, the building became the offices of the Birmingham Gas Company, one of the city’s first public utilities. The company was chartered on June 4, 1879, before merging with the Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Company in 1898. The Southern Natural Gas Company acquired the Birmingham Gas Company and the Alabama Gas Company in 1937 and merged the two in 1948 to form Alagasco with the building located at 1918 1st Avenue North becoming its headquarters. Alagasco eventually spun off from Southern as a public distribution utility in 1953.
The building was combined with the adjoining Bank for Savings & Trusts with extensive interior renovations and a modern steel and glass facade in 1963. It continued to serve Alagasco as its headquarters until 1998 with the construction of the Energen Plaza building. Vacant since then, the building was finally purchased in 2015, and redeveloped in 2019 as a Fairfield Inn & Suites, operated jointly with the adjacent Elyton Hotel. The renovation involved the removal of the 1960s steel and glass facade, replacing it with simulated stucco.
