Photographs of Abandoned Buildings and Historic Sites in Bessemer, Alabama
Founded in 1887, Bessemer, Alabama has a current population of between 25,000 and 27,000 people. It’s about 15 miles from Birmingham — a big city with a fair amount of abandoned places itself.
Thanks to deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone in nearby, Bessemer became a steel producing town, and grew rapidly, quickly becoming a Victorian-era boomtown. The National Register of Historic Places says that the city had wealthy people with the means to create architectural “confections.”
Like other parts of the nation, steel production declined in the late 20th century and ultimately left Bessemer altogether.
By 2019, publications were declaring Bessemer as the “worst city to live in Alabama.”
Notable People from Bessemer
Famed baseball player Bo Jackson was born in Bessemer.
Noted photographer P.H. Polk was born in Bessemer in 1898, and for five years ran the Department of Photography at the Tuskegee Institute. He was the Institute’s official photographer for 40 years. He also operated a studio in town.
Bessemer Grocery Company
The Bessemer Grocery Company was built in 1907. They sold wholesale groceries, flour, feed and fertilizer. The building can be identified by it’s still intact ghost signs along the side of the building, the beauty of which is almost lost next to numerous hideous modern signs all over the building. The second floor was a boarding house advertised as “A.J. Jenkins, furnished rooms.”
Lincoln Theatre
The Lincoln Theatre, now in ruins, was built in 1948 and closed in the late ’70s or early ’80s.
This was a theater built to show movies to an African-American audience at a time when the Deep South was still very much segregated and Black movie-goers couldn’t attend whites-only theaters.
The building was purchased by Bessemer native and professional actor Andre Holland in 2017, who has announced plans to restore it for use as a movie theater and events space. As of 2024, newspapers reported that the plan was still in the works, although it appears no work has been done to date.
There are articles online with many photos of the inside of the theater, which still contains the original seats, the old projectors still intact, old film reels stacked up with a few cuttings of old movies curled up on the floor, and handwritten copies of flyers advertising Beverly Hills Cop 2.
Trolley Line Freight Depot
This building was a Trolley Line Freight Depot for the old Birmingham to Bessemer trolley service. It was constructed in 1905. After the trolley stopped using it, it became a soft drink warehouse and later a warehouse for Colley’s Wholesale Liquors.
The obvious and very clumsy repaints of the vintage signs were made as part of a 2011 restoration.
It’s safe to say that Coca-Cola would never have authorized a paint job that bad. Personally. I prefer to see an extremely faded original wall ad over even a competent fresh repaint, and this paint job was not competent.
WoCoPep Station built in 1928
Now a restaurant, this building was originally a service station called the WoCoPep Station, built in 1928. A taxi service operated out of this building at some point in its history as well.
Bessemer Freight Depot
This big building beside the railroad tracks was built in 1917 as the Bessemer Freight Depot for the Southern Railway Company, which also built the train depot nearby (Now the Bessemer History Museum). An architectural salvage and furniture store operated in the building from 2014 until 2017.
Bessemer Cornice Works
Constructed in 1900, this big building was the home of Bessemer Cornice Works, manufacturer of molding used in building construction. Later, it became the home of Long-Lewis Hardware and eventually Long-Lewis Ford.
Links and Sources
Abandoned Alabama. “The Vintage Station.”
https://www.abandonedalabama.com/the-vintage-station/
Birmingham Times. “How Alabama’s First Family of Film Plans to Renovate Bessemer’s Lincoln Theatre.”
https://www.birminghamtimes.com/2024/10/renovating-bessemers-lincoln-theatre-andre-hollands-next-act/
Encyclopedia of Alabama. “Bessemer.”
https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/bessemer/
Historic Downtown Bessemer
https://downtownbessemer.blogspot.com/2007/02/11-bessemer-cornice-works.html
National Park Service. National Register of Historic Places. “Downtown Bessemer Historic District.”
https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/145824d7-3fbc-4356-bfdf-622a8f52bcd5/
Wikipedia. “Bessemer, Alabama.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessemer,_Alabama
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