By Danny Crownover [The Vagabond]
In 1947, Gadsden’s principal business throughfare was without a single framed business house for the first time in 100 years.
The last of the old wooden structures disappeared when the shack which housed the Mexican Chili Parlor on the north side of the 500 block was torn down to give room for a brick substitute.
The old building was not a landmark but had been there for many years. It was erected prior to World War I and was always used as a restaurant. The site was also once part of tunnel block, a string of wooden business houses over a deep ravine that cut through Chestnut, Broad and Locust Streets. A part of that deep ditch is still seen in rear of Jefferson’s.
Up until the late 1870s, all of the business houses in Gadsden were constructed of wood, most of them had high pitched roofs with false fronts.
The first ones clustered around the river bluff, the center of the town bound by the river, Chestnut Street, Third Street and Locust Street. That was because steamboats, which began to operate on the Coosa River in 1845, provided the best means of transportation and the only means of reaching the outside world, except by stage coach and wagon.
The business section began to extend westward along Broad Street because it was wide and stretched far out into the county.
A few stores were built down near the river, and then some were built on the south side of Broad between Second and Third. Two long buildings occupied the corner where Merrill Lynch is presently located; they were destroyed by fire in 1883.
This same blaze destroyed 19 other small wooden stores on the south side of Broad from Third to near Fifth. They were replaced by brick structures, most of which are still standing.
All of the wooden stores on the south side of Broad from Fifth to Sixth Street were destroyed by fire in the late 1880s, and similarly, they were replaced with brick stores, many of which are still standing as well.
The tunnel block shacks stood for many years before they were erased by fire.
On the north side of Broad Street between Court and Fifth Streets, there was a solid block of one-story wooden buildings that were used by some of the leading merchants of the city. They were gradually torn down and replaced by brick buildings that are still there today.
In the good old days, Gadsden was a sleepy village.
The first brick business house built in Gadsden was the two-story structure once occupied by the Ike Saks Store. It was erected in 1878.
The first brick building of any sort was the first courthouse, which was completed in 1870, and the second one was the old county jail on Chestnut between Second and Third Streets. That was completed in 1874.
Many old residences that were landmarks in the city have been torn down to give room for modern business houses, and the business section is spreading out in every direction. It has crossed the river to East Gadsden, which has become one of the finest business and industrial areas in the state.
