Birmingham rides the rich wooded foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, a series of ridges running northeast to southwest, giving the area dramatic topography. Though the city is situated in the heart of the Deep South, it is not an Old South city. Founded in 1871 at the crossing of two railroad lines, the city blossomed through the early 1900s as it rapidly became the South’s foremost industrial center. After World War II, a profound movement toward diversification took hold. The huffing and puffing of Birmingham’s legendary iron and steel mills gradually was replaced by a work force of medical and engineering professionals. Today, one in ten jobs in the area is in a healthcare-related field.
Birmingham is a Southern city that is---all at once---young, classy, vibrant, friendly and some say even exotic. The interesting eccentricities of the South and Southerners have been widely noted in literature and film. We don’t deny them; rather, Southerners embrace them.
Birmingham is a distinctive and comfortable place for meeting delegates. While the city continues to grow more sophisticated, its people treasure many of the ways of the small-town South. Diners can enjoy asparagus salad with roasted pecan dressing at an elegant dining room for lunch, and look forward to supper at a café serving country-fried steak and butter beans. The audience at the symphony concert will discuss college football games coming up the next day. And the highbrow patrons of the charity ball will be elbow-to-elbow the next morning with workers on a Habitat for Humanity® home. It is diversity that is Birmingham’s greatest strength and strongest appeal. We are a spectrum of attitudes and cultures, all a part of the charm and exoticism that is the South.
