The Molton Apartments, Birmingham, Alabama, Year 1913

The Molton Hotel (originally called the Molton Apartments) was a grand hotel located on the northeast corner of 5th Avenue North and 20th Street in Birmingham, Alabama, from 1914 to 1979. Thomas Hunter Molton, president of the Molton Realty Company planned the new hotel on a piece of property given to his wife by her father, Charles Linn. The 200-room, eight story, 106-foot building was designed in a modified Italian Renaissance Revival style by architects Wheelock, Joy and Wheelock. The facade was clad in light-brown brick with terra-cotta detailing. The bracketed cornice was broken by a raised parapet and open arcade atop the center of the longer 20th Street side. Though the hotel's terra-cotta nameplate bore the date "1913", the building was actually completed in early 1914. The opening was further delayed until after that of the Tutwiler Hotel down the street so that Molton could claim that his was the newest grand hotel in the city. The Blossom Shop florist operated from the lobby. In the late 1950s the hotel sued the Birmingham Elevator Appeals Board for their decision that the hotel would have to replace its original open-style elevators with modern fully-enclosed models. The hotel lost money for its last several years. The building was demolished in 1979 to make way for the construction of the Financial Center Building.