An enduring part of downtown Birmingham has a new look that recalls how it first appeared to residents and visitors to the Magic City.
The Greyhound Bus Terminal on 19th Street North is nearing completion on a $14 million renovation and transformation into potential multi-use office space. The former bus depot, which has been dormant since 2017, now has an exterior that harkens back to its original look of more than 70 years ago, and an interior that updates and preserves the best features of its classic moderne style.
Its owner and developer, Mike Mouron, the chairman emeritus of Capstone Development Partners, had originally been trying to interest another buyer in the property. But the more he showed it, the more he was tempted by the building’s beauty, location and history. Its unique touches grew on him, he admitted.
“It’s an old building with its own patina, something you can’t replicate with new construction,” he said. “Every time I came, I’d see things I hadn’t seen before. And there is its proximity to downtown. You’ve got City Hall across the street. You’ve got Fire Station No. 1 across the other street. It’s near Alabama Power. There’s history here.”
The bus depot opened in 1950, a brick and glass structure with rear portals and parking for buses, a restaurant, showers and restrooms and accommodations for drivers. There was the main front entrance and a segregated side entrance.
The Jim Crow aspects of the station’s original design later took on new significance in 1961, when the depot became part of the story of the Freedom Riders, a group of Black and white civil rights activists traveling through the Deep South together to end segregation in transportation.
In May 1961, a group of the riders were brutally beaten at the Trailways bus terminal on Fourth Avenue North as they pulled into town. The Greyhound bus had already been firebombed and its passengers attacked on the road from Anniston.
A group on another bus, arriving at the Greyhound Station a few days later, were arrested by police. That bus included John Lewis, the Georgia Congressman who died last year.
As a marker outside the bus depot states, the Freedom Rides eventually continued from Birmingham to Montgomery, after the direct intervention of Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The Greyhound terminal in Montgomery was eventually made into the Freedom Rides Museum 10 years ago.
Birmingham’s Greyhound Bus Depot was renovated in the 1970s.
Mouron, who bought the station for around $2 million, said renovation work began more than a year ago. Greyhound gave the redevelopment team access to the original plans for the depot. Williams Blackstock Architects handled the redevelopment project. Rusty Boylan was construction manager.
“Like a lot of these projects, you start with an old building that’s run down, and you bring it back to life,” Boylan said.
The exterior, of cream-colored brick with limestone trim, resurrects the original signage from its surviving framework. Above the main bank of windows out front is a large 3-D fiberglass reproduction of the chrome colored Greyhound figure.
The interior features plastered walls and terrazzo floors, along with refurbished and, in some cases, recreated ceiling tiles. Original signs adorn walls, pointing the way to the old cafeteria, barber shop and rest room areas.
The large open main lobby extends down toward the rear exit areas. The former baggage handling areas, and side entrance area, offers space for several uses.
The biggest change is the addition of a stair well and skylight in the main foyer of the lobby, which allows a shaft of clear light down onto the curving staircase. A decorative set of hanging lights extends down from the skylight. A raised curb at the foot of the stairs duplicates the original tile look.
The downstairs area, which encompasses about 7,000 square feet, remains to be redeveloped. The redevelopment preserved certain touches through the building, such as “push” and “pull” plates on rest rooms doors, the tile work on stairwells, and colors throughout.
In the rear, two restored 60s era Greyhound buses are permanently parked, but with a slight change - the interiors have been converted into meeting spaces, with chairs, work areas, electrical and work tables. Crawford Burton, development associate, said the buses were found in Minnesota and restored using the period company insignia and decals.
“We think of it as a cool, hangout spot,” Burton said.
Mouron said the depot could be divided into several uses, but he would like to see the whole used together by one tenant.
“There’s so many potential uses,” he said. “There’s room for meeting, storage, supplies, fitness center, conference room. There’s all kinds of firms that could use this space - accounting, law, engineering. Having a unique, vibrant office space can aid in reaching new clients and workers, and retaining them.”