Postcard Birmingham
Vulcan 1904 - ?
From 1946 -1999 Vulcan played a traffic safety role.  A neon torch glowed green when no traffic fatality had occurred.  A fatality turned it red for 24 hours.
Vulcan's arm with a recast of the lost original spear on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art , November, 2001
 spear


The end of 1999 saw Vulcan laying in pieces  at Vulcan Park, removed by crane before rust, deterioration, and gravity could bring him down from his tower perch occupied since 1938.  Vulcan, sculpted in iron by Giuseppe Moretti,  was cast for display at The St. Louis World's Fair of 1904.  He was an ambitious, appropriate symbol for representing Birmingham's "Magic City" growth as the iron and steel capital of the south.

Vulcan at Fairgrounds

On returning from St. Louis, Vulcan  was placed at the Fairgrounds. Residents did not want the big guy displayed in  Capitol Park. Now, was that due to his ugliness or nakedness? Both. Actually, he would have been greatly out of scale in that downtown setting.  Capitol Park, renamed Woodrow Wilson, was surrounded by homes at that time.




Vulcan Cards
1930's - 1971
Vulcan Poems
and Prophecy
 

 
Vulcan Lent
Himself to a Vertical Format 

1971
Modernization
 		Brother Bryan
 		  
Return

Vulcan is the likely answer to a Birmingham trivia question.
What Birmingham scene is the subject of the most different postcards ?
 

Postcard Birmingham is a random look at Birmingham, Alabama history
through old picture postcards and is a work always in progress by Warren Reed esywlkr@aol.com