Quilan Castle

This has been demolished

Settled on the northwest corner of 9th Avenue South and 21st Street South, the castle was built in 1927. According to Bhamwiki, Quinlan’s remarkable theme was inspired by two investors who were greatly impressed by the French castles they came across while serving abroad during World War I. Wanting to bring this one-of-a-kind style to the great city of Birmingham, they teamed up with architects William Weston and H.P. Hanna who completed the project.

An advertisement in 1929 made the doubtful, yet very striking claim that its design was based on “the actual plans of a medieval English castle”–I think I’m going to pretend this is true because wow.