F.D. McArthur Elementary was a former Birmingham city school located in the Druid Hills neighborhood. Originally called Seventeenth Avenue School, the building was constructed in 1910. The school mascot was the Hornets, and the school colors were green and white. The school was later renamed after a local attorney and Birmingham Board of Education president F.D. McArthur.
An eight-room addition was added in 1941 after a neighboring school was destroyed by fire. F.D. McArthur Elementary was closed in May 1997 due to budget cuts and dwindling enrollment. The City of Birmingham tried to sell it in 2003 to a church but the deal fell through.
In 2008, former Mayor Larry Langford announced a South Korean-owned firm, which was interested in the adjacent medical center, would also purchase the school. They would also invest $3 million to renovate it into a nursing school for Korean students who wanted to work in the United States. The project was never realized. Today, like many closed Birmingham city schools, F.D. McArthur Elementary continues to rot away. The property is currently for sale by the city.
Really good article!!
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I’m not sure if you got permission to go in there, but if so who do you contact for that? I would like to do this for my photography class final, so I figured I should at least try going through the legal channels. Either way, thanks for all the information! I had a hard time finding anything for places like this in my area of the country before I found your page.
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Excellent article. Sad to see that the school was closed and the building is deteriorating so badly. F.D. McArthur was my husband’s great-grandfather.
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Does anyone know of a plan to change the school into a place to house women for a work release program?
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I am a former student of McArthur. I attended in the late 50’s and early 60’s. I have started a Facebook page for the school and have about 90 members.
We are having a reunion on May 2, 2019. If you are a former student/teacher, please do a search on Facebook and join the page.
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I attended McArthur 55-58, lived on 22nd Street
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I started school (1st grade) at the Seventeenth Avenue School in 1948 and moved to the beautiful new F. D. MacArthur school at mid term 2nd grade. I only got to attend one year because we moved to Tennessee at mid term 3rd grade. When I returned about 2005 to show my late wife where I started elementary school I was appalled at the condition of the building. What a shame that we in this country can’t maintain and utilize such wonderful facilities.
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