Sloss Furnaces facts for kids
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Sloss Blast Furnace Site
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Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, in July 2016
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 Location in Birmingham, Alabama
Location in Alabama
Location in the United States
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| Location | 1st Ave. at 32nd St. Birmingham, Alabama |
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| Built | 1881 |
| Architect | James W. Sloss; Et al. |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000162 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | June 22, 1972 |
| Designated NHL | May 29, 1981 |
Sloss Furnaces is a very important historical place in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. It's called a National Historic Landmark. For almost 90 years, from 1882 to 1971, it was a huge factory. This factory made "pig iron" using a special machine called a blast furnace.
After it closed, Sloss Furnaces became one of the first factories in the U.S. to be saved and opened to the public. It's the only blast furnace ever preserved this way! In 1981, the U.S. government officially named it a National Historic Landmark.
Today, Sloss Furnaces is a museum where you can learn about industry. It also has a famous program for metal art. People even use it for concerts and festivals! A new visitor center opened in 2016. Thousands of students visit each year for educational programs. You can visit the museum for free from Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Contents
How Sloss Furnaces Started
Colonel James Withers Sloss was one of the people who helped create the city of Birmingham. He worked to build railroads and was part of the Pratt Coke and Coal Company. This was one of the first big factories in the new city.
In 1881, James Sloss started his own company, the Sloss Furnace Company. He began building Birmingham's first blast furnace. The land for the factory was given by the Elyton Land Company.
Building the First Furnaces
The engineer in charge of building the furnaces was Harry Hargreaves. He had studied with a famous English inventor named Thomas Whitwell. The two furnaces they built were 60 feet (18 meters) tall. They were also 18 feet (5.4 meters) wide.
The first furnace started working in April 1882. In its first year, the factory made 24,000 tons of high-quality iron! The iron from Sloss Furnaces even won a bronze medal in 1883. This was at a big event called the Southern Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky.
In 1886, James Sloss retired. He sold his company to a group of investors. They changed the company's name in 1899 to the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company.
Modernizing the Furnaces
The Sloss Furnaces kept getting updated over the years. New blowers were added in 1902. New boilers, which make steam, were installed in 1906 and 1914. The furnaces were completely rebuilt with modern equipment between 1927 and 1929.
James Dovel's Inventions
In 1909, James Pickering Dovel became the superintendent of construction. For the next 21 years, Sloss was his workshop for new ideas. He invented equipment to clean gas. He also changed how the furnaces were designed. He even made the inside linings of the furnaces better.
Dovel was given credit for about 17 inventions in total! Sloss's No. 2 Furnace, rebuilt in 1927, used many of his new ideas. This made Dovel and Sloss famous across the country for being innovative.
Because of all these improvements, Sloss-Sheffield became very successful. They were the second-largest seller of pig iron in their area. They were also one of the largest in the world. During this time, the company built 48 small houses for workers. These houses were near the downtown furnace and were called "Sloss Quarters."
Closing and Saving Sloss Furnaces
In 1952, the U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company bought Sloss Furnaces. Then, in 1969, they sold it to the Jim Walter Corp. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Birmingham area had a big problem with air pollution. This was caused by the iron and steel factories. New laws, like the United States Clean Air Act, encouraged older factories to close. Also, by the early 1960s, other regions had better iron ore.
The Jim Walter company closed the furnaces two years later. They then gave the property to the Alabama State Fair Authority. The idea was to turn it into a museum. However, the authority thought it was too difficult to fix up. They planned to tear down the furnaces.
Saving a Landmark
Local people who cared about history formed a group called the Sloss Furnace Association. They wanted to save this important site. It was a key part of Birmingham's history. In 1976, the site was studied for its historical importance.
In 1977, people in Birmingham voted to approve $3.3 million to save the site. This money helped make the main buildings stable. It also paid for a visitor center and a metal arts program. Sloss Furnaces became a National Historic Landmark in 1981. It opened to the public as a museum on Labor Day weekend in 1983. It was the first and only 20th-century blast furnace site saved as a museum!
In February 2009, a steam train called the SLSF 4018 moved to Sloss. It came from Birmingham's Fair Park.
What Sloss Furnaces is Used For Today
In June 2012, work began on a new visitor and education center. This new building is 16,000 square feet. It was paid for by the City of Birmingham and the Sloss Foundation.
The new center has exhibits about the site's history. It also has offices and space for public events. Sloss Furnaces now hosts many activities. These include metal arts classes, food festivals, fun runs, and educational programs. People also have weddings and concerts there. You can even go on historic night tours!
These improvements are part of a city project to create new "greenway" spaces downtown. These greenways might connect different popular places in the city. A TV show called Sloss: Industry to Art told the story of how Sloss was saved and what it's used for now.
In 2022, Sloss Furnaces was a competition venue for the 2022 World Games. Sports like sport climbing, breaking, parkour, and beach handball were held there.
Gallery
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Water tower
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Cowper stoves
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See also
- Birmingham District
- Sloss Mines
- Lawang Sewu
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Alabama
- Reportedly haunted locations in Alabama
