Cabana Hotel

Cabana Hotel
The Cabana Hotel(Or Leer Tower) is a currently vacant building in the downtown "Fountain Heights" area of Downtown Birmingham,Al. It has been abandoned since 1983 but has received large amount of interest.

Somewhat Of A Heyday (1928- 1960)
The Thomas Jefferson Hotel (As it was originally named) was built and finished in 1928 and became the premier hotel of Birmingham. Only the highest of class could afford to stay there. To impress high-class guests, the management got an elite orchestra from New York City to play in the grand ballroom for the first few weeks after opening. Many stars stayed there, including Mickey Rooney, and George Wallace had a penthouse type suite where he stayed during his trips to Birmingham. In the 1940's the bottom floor (Which originally had retail space for around 5 stores) was renovated, which expanded the lobby through retail space to give it a grand feel, many retail stores where moved to the basement. It was renovated numerous times between then and the 1960's, with small aesthetic changes, including adding state-of-the-art Stainless-Steel appliances in the restaurant kitchen, an expensive and modern move for the time.

Bad Times in Birmingham(1960s-1979)
During the 1960's the side of Birmingham that the Hotel rested on had become a haven for criminals and the homeless, leaving the hotel without any high-class visitors. By the late 1970's the Thomas Jefferson had been taken over by a cheaper chain of hotels called "Cabana". The hotel was "silently", or piece-by-piece, renovated at multiple different times to keep up with the 70s hippie style. Dark red shag carpeting replaced the ornamented flooring that was originally in the lobby, drop-ceilings were added in retail spaces, and funky wallpaper was added throughout to make the hotel not seem so desolate. By the time mismanagement and the new "Motels" had taken all business away, they only had one choice... shut it down.

Conversion to residential spaces (1980-1983)
In late 1979 it was decided that closing the hotel would actually lose more money than by keeping it open, so the owners thought of something easy to do with the hotel... "Why not turn it into residential apartments!". So by 1980, it was a pretty standard place. It contained red carpeting, some wood paneling, and around everything an apartment complex would need to be standard... but that was just from the outside. The mostly elderly residents would soon learn that the hotel was not fitted with the proper safety equipment to keep them alive. It was November 26, 1980, it was a normal day on the ninth floor until... someone caught a mattress on fire. The fire gutted the hallway, and left many residents emotionally-scarred, though no one was actually injured. One woman even had to climb down a drain pipe to make it to safety. There was no specific reason for the fire to be started, no suicide... Maybe it was just a resident mad at their noisy neighbor, but whatever the cause... it would not help the Cabana. This fire would be one of 3 that would strike the Cabana within the next 3 years, one took place on the 14th floor in 1983 and not much is currently available about the other fire. Most of the elderly living in the hotel would speak up in a local newspaper about their fears, the fact the fire sprinklers weren't all working, how some lights were to dim, and how the air-conditioning constantly went out in the hotel. Finally yet sadly, the hotel was inspected and did not meet health standards. The Cabana Closed its doors at the end of May in 1983.

Seeking Help (Mid-1983-1989)
The 80s were an odd time and didn't help the many dying businesses around the Birmingham retail district. The Cabana Hotel became a "gangsta" artists paradise, the exterior walls and glass being used as a mural for a large graffitti farm during the first 2 years. Though the Hotel was closed, part of the bottom floor remained open for retail use, a night-club and computer store would stay open into the mid-90s.Finally the hotel was put up for a large auction in 1987, though no one bid as high as imagined. The owners Sammy and Norman Ceravolo kept watch on the building by once-a-month walks from floor 1-20, which took around 1 to 2 hours. They tried to tidy up the hotel from time-to-time but nothing seemed to help. The homeless hadn't seemed to break in by this time, and the hotels presence still had a freshness to it as it loomed over the gloomy and melting city. By the time the 80s had ended, the hotel was decaying, but oddly... the graffitti stopped... but the homeless broke in.

Deterioration (1990-2004)
By 1990, the building had started seriously falling apart on the inside. The Homeless had moved in and started opening up windows and scattering furniture everywhere, ripping up wallpaper, and sleeping on the beds that where left when the buildings tenants where all evicted. One heathen even decided to scratch off the george wallace sign in his suite. Surprisingly the terra-cotta facing has not fallen off that badly, leaving it un-needed to put a fence/wooden inclosure up(as seen in the Brown-Marx Building, and the City Federal Building before it's renovation). The building also once housed a radio station on it's top floor.

Bright Future for the tower... or so it seemed(2005-2008)
In 2005 Leer Corp. owner David Leer bought the tower and sought out to start a $20 million renovation to convert the buildings into upscale condos, ranging in price from around $260,000-$530,000. By then that side of Birmingham was the most booming part of town, and the safest, leaving much hope for the building. Delays kept close to any work from being done, including when some vagrants stole the generators for the building, leaving the building powerless. Leer still claimed that the building would be finished by early 2009, it never happened. In July 2008 the building went in to foreclosure and once again is empty.

Hope again?!?!(2009-)
In August 2009 Watts Realty, a Birmingham based real estate company, got ahold of the building and posted signs in the under-lying annex. The Building is currently for-sale for around $2,000,000, though it would cost around $7,000,000 to remove asbestos and mold. The mold has come from condensation coming from the buildings basement, which flooded around 2004 from and underground stream, which has brought thousands of mosquitos to the building. Hopefully the building will be bought and redone, but until then, all people can do is watch it deteriorate.m