These are notes I am writing to help me learn our industrial history. They are my best understanding, but that does not mean they are a correct understanding.
AERIAL VIEW LOOKING NORTH, ACIPO PIPEWORKS IN BACKGROUND. - Finley Round House, Sixteenth Street, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL
It was constructed in 1915 by Southern Railway with reinforce concrete. [BhamWiki] Remember that reinforced concrete would still be "bleeding edge" back then. And, as with coaling towers, that is probably why it is still standing. Reinforced concrete, if the contractor doesn't cheat and use too much sand, is strong and the demolition costs are high.
This page has a map that shows what Finley Yard used to look like before 1952 when Southern disassembled it and sold the land because Southern moved its operations to the Norris Yard in Irondale. [BhamWiki, rypn]
The backshop buildings to the west were sold to Farmers Market and American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO).
It appears that APCIPCO expanded by moving north of the tracks and Mill Steel Company now uses some of the backshop buildings. (I noticed that I drive just a few blocks away from this roundhouse when I use I-65 to go to Florida.)
The roundhouse was used as a cold storage warehouse. That is why there are truck loading doors on the roundhouse stalls, a newer rectangular building to the south, and a railroad spur on the east side. But that use has ended, and it is now abandoned. But it looks like the clerestory windows are strong enough that vandals haven't bothered to break them. I wonder if they are made with glass bricks.
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