Friday, September 28, 2012

Camelot Where You Are, #13

From Virginia Jones we present Quinlan Castle, Birmingham.

Alabama, that is.

Birmingham has its own wiki and of course there's an article about this slightly notorious building, which was built in 1927 and has had its ups and downs preservation-wise.

Virginia has two blogs, both of them daily! Check out Birmingham, Alabama Daily Photo and Paris Through My Lens. Ooh! La! La!

Thank you for your entry, Missy!

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Are you ready? The weekend approaches and it's time to vote. The poll will appear at upper left late tonight or early tomorrow, depending on how late I can stay up. Be sure to vote over the weekend for your favorite of this week's entries. Each weekly winner receives a free copy of Camelot & Vine upon publication in October. Publication day, whatever day it turns out to be, will be the final day for entries.

Then enter the Camelot Where You Are photo contest by sending in a picture of your interpretation of Camelot where you are. It can be anything--a sign, a symbol, a plaything--whatever your imagination sees.

It's easy to enter and anyone can do it. 
Entry details are here. Enter! We're having fun!

21 comments:

Shell Sherree said...

What a find from Virginia! It's a shame it has apartments {and "efficiency-size apartments" at that - I wonder if I qualify as efficiency-size...} yet is uninhabited due to red tape. Goode olde ye rede tapee. {Sorry, having a Friday afternoon glass of pink bubbly. Does it show?}

Kalei's Best Friend said...

What unusual history behind that gorgeous building!. To renovate it into apts. What a cool idea and I envy the ones lucky enough to live there!.

Katie said...

Gorgeous castle Virginia! Very Camelot indeed. I think this would be a cool place to live.

Petrea Burchard said...

Shell, I love that your Friday afternoon is my Thursday midnight. Bubbly, 24-7!

KBF and Katie, I wonder if every town, or at least every area, has an old place like this that's ripe for rethinking and adaptive reuse, so it doesn't have to be torn down. England and France do this so well. Pasadena's pretty good at it. I wish the entire U.S. of A. did it better.

Bellis said...

It could draw tourists from all over the Camelot-starved USA if it was restored. I have visions of jousting tournaments, round table conferences, ladies in distress.... Much better than visiting the Largest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.

Of all the mock castle entries so far , this one's the most authentic looking, at least on the exterior. The decay adds a certain historical accuracy as well, doesn't it?

-K- said...

Virgina is everywhere, all the time.

Kalei's Best Friend said...

@Petrea: Doesn't Solvang (tourist area) have castle-like theme as well? Somehow that place popped into my head.

Kalei's Best Friend said...

oops, my bad, just checked and they have some turrets...

Ms M said...

That's a great castle -- and the history makes it even more colorful. I hope they figure out a way to preserve it.

TheChieftess said...

Well Dayam!!! Leave it to Virginia to find the perfect Camelot!!! And in Birmingham...not Paris!!! Well done V!!! I hope the future for this fabulous building has successful renovation in the forefront!!!

Susan Campisi said...

When I first saw the photo I thought, "No fair. The Brits are surrounded by castles!" Who knew this was Birmingham?! It would be so cool to live in one of the apartments.

LOLfromPasa said...

Who would have thought that you could find a castle in downtown Birmingham. Super! Wow, very interesting history too.

Gerald (SK14) said...

Well I knew immediately it the Birmingham was likely to be the one in Alabama - it has an interesting history and it seems your planning laws are as inept as ours - which is not so surprising.

LONDONLULU said...

What a find! A lovely castle right here on the New World side of the pond :) Off to check out the history and her blog!

Petrea Burchard said...

Bellis and I just got back from taking the dogs to the beach. No sand castles at the dog beach today!

Thanks, all of you, for your comments. This Camelot stuff is everywhere. This morning I noticed my cream rinse bottle is Avalon brand. That bottle has been sitting in the shower rack for months.

Adele said...

I checked out all the links this morning, and ran out of time before I could comment. But, wowee!! How amazing is this place. Sad that it is just sitting there, as if it had red tape wrapped all around it. I hope good things happen soon.

Ann Erdman said...

From Reds to raids to redevelopment -- this modern-day castle has quite a history.

Petrea Burchard said...

The poll is up. Let the voting begin! I hope I've finally got the thing figured out so it'll stay up all weekend!

Anonymous said...

I can't vote against my friends. But I might have a half-baked castle idea.

Petrea Burchard said...

I can't speak for everyone else, Karin, but half-baked is just how we like 'em around here. Remember, the first week's winner was flour.

Virginia said...

Kevin, I know, who'd a thunk it. I was out of town and thought I could comment via iphone. I'm a dork.

I am so flattered to be part of the festivities. Please forgive my late arrival.

And for the record, we have some neat stuff in B'ham. Just ask Bob Crowe at Saint Louis Daily Photo!
V