In the name of progress, Montevallo sacrificed the landmark George Kroell house in order to make way for a futuristic new structure that not only said to the world that Montevallo was “up-to-date” but also held out the hope that it might play a significant role in the development of new forms and sources of energy to power the needs of tomorrow. As is so often the case, this starry-eyed idealism didn’t quite pan out. But Montevallo has made the best of the situation and has turned what might have been a pink elephant in the center of town into something that today we can all be proud of. This article from that time captures the spirit of those heady days of optimism and high hopes for unproven technology.
During our trek along Main Street in the last year, we have previously encountered Alabama Power Company’s Montevallo District Office. It’s office at the corner of Main and Shelby Streets was one of the initial businesses dealt with in the ”Throwback Thursday” series. With the coming of the Whaley Shopping Center on Main and Middle Streets in the early 1960’s, Alabama Power moved into new quarters next door to the Food Center supermarket, where it remained until 1977 when its remarkable new building on Main Street was completed on the old “Owl’s Cove” property.
At the time, Alabama Power garnered tremendous public relations benefits from their planning for the building to function as an experimental Solar Energy project. It was sited for year-round exposure to the sun and equipped with a large array of solar panels on its roof. These were the early days of president Jimmy Carter’s administration. Energy conservation had become an important topic nationwide and was a major plank in Carter’s platform.
However, the experiment did not go well and Alabama Power was not able to generate the amount of energy it had hoped for in order to provide power to vital operations of the solar building. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1981, shifted the nation’s focus away from alternative energy sources and Alabama Power essentially dropped its noble experiment in Montevallo.
As often happens in the corporate world, management at Alabama Power Co. evolved into the stewardship of new leaders and the company began a program of consolidation and realignment. This involved simplifying it’s statewide system of local districts, and the long-standing Montevallo district was gradually dissolved and merged into a larger one. With this decision, the company’s showcase major investment on Main Street was essentially abandoned.
After a number of years without a major tenant coming forward to occupy the building, the Montevallo Development Cooperative District bought the building and, after some retrofitting, made it available to the University of Montevallo in 2013 for classrooms and faculty offices. Thus was born The University of Montevallo on Main (UMOM for short). UMOM was renamed Dr. Wilson Fallin Jr. Hall in 2022.
Since then, the city has established “Owl’s Cove Park” in the open plaza area and uses it for community-based events and entertainment. As part of this beautification and public involvement effort, a handsome Montevallo history-based mural was installed on the brick side-wall of the old Montevallo Mercantile building that overlooks the property. It would be hard to imagine a better example of adaptive re-use than the beautiful and highly functional educational and civic center that Owl’s Cove has become.
Thank you Clay Nordan, Vice President of Montevallo Historical Society, for this information!
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