GPS City GuideBirminghamJohn Hand Building

Stop 17 of 25 · Birmingham audio walking tour

John Hand Building

Birmingham · 1912 · Birmingham's early skyscraper landmark

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on John Hand Building — how it came to be, who it mattered to, and what to look for while you're standing in front of it.

Twenty floors of the John Hand Building climb above you here in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. From the sidewalk you can read the facts in its form: 287 feet (87 m) tall, twenty floors completed in 1912. For a moment in the city’s skyline it was the tallest building here until the City Federal Building rose a year later in 1913.

The lower eight floors are for commercial use and the upper twelve floors are for residential use. In 1983 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, a recognition of its civic presence. For most of its life from construction until the mid-1990s it was owned and occupied by AmSouth Bancorporation and its predecessors; after AmSouth moved staff to other downtown offices and its Riverchase Campus, developers bought the tower.

A careful renovation in 2000 cost $20 million. It served as the corporate headquarters of Cadence Bank until 2013 when that office relocated to the Concord Center. More recently the building served as the corporate headquarters for Shipt, whose logo graced the south side until 2022 when it was replaced by Landing.

Notice its 287-foot profile still marking downtown's skyline, logo now reading Landing.

Where it is

Coordinates
33.51435, -86.80518
Area
Birmingham
Era
1912 · Birmingham's early skyscraper landmark
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.