Tag Archives: B’ham

Hunting for hidden treasure in Birmingham

levyslogoScott Register (of Reg’s Coffee House fame) let folks in on a little secret around metro Birmingham today via his Facebook account. Apparently Levy’s Jewelers… we’ll just let you read it as Reg wrote it:

“…They cleaned out a bunch of nice jewelry that was stuck in inventory, wrapped it up in their signature silver boxes & blue ribbons and randomly hid them all over Birmingham. Finders Keepers so to speak…

According to the comments in the Facebook status, they’ve hidden one silver box tied with a piece of blue ribbon for each of the years they’ve been in business (87 in all) everywhere from groceries to hospitals and everywhere in between. Sounds like a fun scavenger hunt to us.

Random Shots: a snapshot of Birmingham

Bob Farley/f8PhotoA few weeks ago we posted some photos from the Lyric Theatre in advance of the open house and included a photo of a mural of the city that was being stored in the building (it’s image #9).

Well, the centennial mural’s four pieces have been moved to the new home of the Birmingham Jefferson History Museum at the former Young & Vann building downtown. They were so large they had to open up the wall to get it into its new home. The Terminal‘s Bob Farley took a closer look at the mural and provided these photos to share with you in The Gallery. According to their website, we’ll get a chance to take a closer look in person come next spring.

Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo

Plans for cultural center in Ensley move forward

nixon4x6 Main Street Birmingham (MSB) got some several pieces of great news in recent days involving the Nixon Cultural Center project in Ensley will be able to move forward.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has awarded MSB more than $4,700 in matching grant funds to be used for future development of the former NAACP meeting space in Tuxedo Junction. The money is from the National Trust’s African American Preservation fund and it will be used to assist in planning for the project’s completion and sustained operations. They also just received word that the Alabama Historical Commission Review Board approved the Nixon Building’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places clearing the way for National Park Service approval. All of this news follows last fall’s $7,000 grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Photo: The Nixon Building. Courtesy of MSB.

It’ll take just a little longer at Ruffner

Tree Top Vistors Center - Ruffner Mountain Nature CenterWe’ve just received word that the repaving of the parking lot on Ruffner Mountain Nature Center‘s East Lake side that was scheduled for this week will now not start until tomorrow morning (BTW, they’ve launched their new website earlier this week).

If everything goes according to plan, officials at the center hope that hikers will be able to access the hiking trails from the East Lake side of the mountain beginning on Tuesday, June 30 (though they would rather you call the center before you head over there just in case bad weather causes additional delays).

The new visitors center is still not scheduled to be open to the general public until August; so for now you’ll just have to watch it from afar – after Tuesday – until then. The website’s front page has information about other access points for folks wanting to hike.

Image: courtesy of the organization’s website.

A new circulator for downtown Birmingham?

breeze-busThat’s what the topic will be at tomorrow’s Operation New Birmingham breakfast briefing, particularly why it would make sense to get on these new buses, the Breeze circulators. Charles Ball, executive director of the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham plans to be available to answer questions about the current status of the three year old In Town Transit Partnership and about how the downtown circulator would serve as the basis of a rethinking of the region’s transit system. You’ll be able to see portions of the presentation on the ITP website beginning late tomorrow morning.

It was also the last topic of conversation during last night’s first #bhamchat; the recap’s up over on my Birmingham.

A Smart Directory for teachers

Smart Directory logoThe Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham has recently launched a new directory for educational programs in the greater Birmingham area. The Smart Directory includes listings of in-school presentations, off-site programs and field trips and links to other useful resources for our community’s teachers – and those just interested in seeing all that we have available to us in the area.

Image: courtesy of the organization’s website

UPDATE: Water main break in Norwood

Not really sure of the extent of dmage, but we do know that there was a water main break in Birmingham’s Norwood community this morning near the intersection of Norwood Boulevard and 16th Avenue North. According to the Birmingham Water Works, a crew is on the way to assess and repaired the situation this afternoon.