Louise Wooster's Fourth Avenue Buildings

The buildings in this image occupied by the Alabama Barber College (left center) and Alabama Supply Company (right center) on Birmingham's Fourth Avenue North housed the brothel owned by madam Louise Wooster during the 1880s. She gained renown for remaining in the city during the cholera epidemic of 1873 and caring for the sick.

Long line of bicyclists and pedestrians gathered along a downtown street lined with multi-story commercial buildings and storefronts.
Courtesy of the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Long line of bicyclists and pedestrians gathered along a downtown street lined with multi-story commercial buildings and storefronts.