Reviewed by: Nathan Watson
How Sloss Furnaces was saved by the National Register of Historic Places
Reading time: 2 minutes
In the Summer of 1972—one year after it was shuttered—Sloss Furnaces was listed on the newly established National Register of Historic Places.
That one seemingly simple action helped save one of Birmingham’s most famous landmarks.
National Register gave Sloss Furnaces gravitas
Historic preservationists will tell you that making the National Register list doesn’t protect a historic place from major unrecognizable changes or demolition.
But what the National Register does is give a place gravitas. It is the U.S. government officially saying that this place is historic. It matters.
Maintained by the National Park Service, the National Register of Historic Places is the official list of historic places deemed worthy of preservation.
Sloss Furnaces: Greatest potential in country
Perhaps that’s why Majorie White, the Director at the Birmingham Historical Society said:
“We should thank the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission (the group that led the National Register efforts) for its foresight in making this first great step towards the opportunity to preserve Sloss.”
Three years later—on the basis of Sloss Furnaces making it onto the National Register—the National Park Service’s Acting Chief of Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) Eric Delony stated in a letter to the city of Birmingham:
“…Birmingham possesses perhaps the greatest potential of any area in the country for developing a comprehensive museum to the industry.”
In 1976, Delony then headed up HAER’s documentation of the site.
By 1977, based on the research, Birmingham voters approved a $3.3 million bond to preserve the site.
In 1981, Sloss Furnaces, which first started making iron 99 years earlier, was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of Interior.
Why Sloss Matters today
Today, Sloss Furnaces is the site of several of Birmingham’s largest gatherings, from the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration to Magic City Art Connection. The historic ironmaking facility is also renowned for its metal arts programs and industrial history education.
And it all started 53 years ago when Sloss Furnaces was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
