Paramount's Publix Theatres chain built the Alabama Theatre you see here in 1927 as its flagship movie palace for the southeastern United States. When it opened it seated 2,500 people, making it the largest house in the Birmingham theater district, which was once home to many large theaters and movie palaces that offered vaudeville, performing arts, nickelodeons and Hollywood films. Construction plans were announced in 1926, and after a delayed groundbreaking on April 1, 1927, the grand opening was held as originally scheduled.
Built to show silent films, the Alabama still houses its original Wurlitzer theater organ. Its history has been preserved: the theater and its organ were added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on February 15, 1977 and to the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1979; it was designated the state's historic theater in 1993 and was most recently surveyed by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1996. Picture the Alabama and the Lyric, the district's only remaining theaters, still lit and running side by side as of 2024.