Memory Of The Week: AmSouth Building's Electronic Message Board

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TUSCALOOSA, AL — For this installment of Historic Tuscaloosa's Memory of the Week we remember a Tuscaloosa landmark that many of you will fondly remember.

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On April 16, 1970, the Tuscaloosa News under the headline "TALL STORY INDEED" reported on the scene as a 200-foot crane lifted 15 tons of metal to the roof of the former AmSouth building for its new electric temperature and time marquee, which would be visible for miles — even the northern bank of the Black Warrior River.

As a historic side note: The week the sign was installed was also the same week that the nation held its collective breath during the endangered Apollo 13 moon mission.

Ahead of structures like Denny Chimes and DCH Regional Medical Center, the downtown skyscraper remains the tallest building in the city and, as Patch previously reported in a prior Memory of the Week, construction of the 10-story bank building at the corner of what is now University Boulevard and Greensboro Avenue in Tuscaloosa was completed in 1925.

The skyscraper was first known as the Merchant's Bank and Trust Building and was designed by architect D. O. Whilldin — one of the state's most notable architects. Merchant's Bank failed during the Great Depression and was later purchased by First National Bank, which later became AmSouth.

The AmSouth had the sign was installed, University Boulevard was blocked off for several hours as the massive crane hoisted the structure to the building's roof.

Historic Tuscaloosa's Event & Digital Media Coordinator Sarah-Katherine Helms told Patch the sign measured 50 feet long by 30 feet wide, providing both the time and temperature at any given minute.

Helms then said the sign's largest numeral "I" glowed green unless there was a traffic death, in which case it turned red.

At the time, AmSouth insisted the sign was the largest of its kind in the southeast, with one newspaper account saying the marquee used 2,200 53-watt flood lights to display its messages.

Every spring and fall, it was reported that an average of 450 bulbs were changed to maintain its ever-visible glow.

The sign would continue in operation until around 2006 when the building changed hands after being purchased by RBC Centura Bank. This left the future of the expensive sign in limbo until the decision was made to take it down in March 2008.

Given current events, it's at least worth mentioning in a brief aside that the same day the digital sign came down in downtown Tuscaloosa, a pair of Associated Press wire stories print in the Tuscaloosa News documented Russians taking to the polls to vote for the successor of President Vladimir Putin.

"It's been inactive for so long, I really don't care anymore," Deja Vu Consignment Shop owner Debbie Fulgham told the Tuscaloosa News when the sign was taken down. "I use to use it, but if the sign's not going to do anything. It's an eyesore and needs to be taken down."

RBC Centura did initially enter into negotiations with the sign's owner — Trans-Lux Co. — following requests from some Tuscaloosa residents who wished to see the sign reactivated.

"We understand the community's connection to the clock sign and worked hard to be able to keep it," RBC Centura spokeswoman Jamie Mitchell told the Tuscaloosa News in 2008. "However, after months of negotiations we were not able to reach mutually agreeable terms to keep it. Like the community, we too are disappointed to see it go away."

Tuscaloosa's Hardin Construction was tasked with removing the sign, with owner Brion Hardin telling the newspaper that he couldn't remember a time in his life when the sign wasn't lit up above the city.

"The sign weighs about 12,000 pounds," Hardin told the Tuscaloosa News. "It's been there so long, its bolts are rusted. It'll take about three to four hours to get it loose."

The day the sign was taken down, Cottondale resident Sebrenia Clancy told Jamon Smith of the Tuscaloosa News that she would miss the longtime fixture of Tuscaloosa's skyline.

"Oh well, I guess someone decided it was an eyesore," she said "I didn't think so, though. I think it's a part of downtown. I know downtown's being revitalized, but you don't need to take away all the old things that define the identity of this town."

A look at Tuscaloosa's skyline today ...

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