Alabama’s abandoned places list has thinned out badly since 2023. Of the 10 sites this page used to cover, 4 have been demolished, 2 are now open to the public as a museum and a hotel, and only 1 is a standing ruin. Here is what is actually there.
Powell School, Birmingham
Standing, and the only real ruin left on this list. The 1888 building is the oldest surviving Birmingham City Schools building and has been boarded up since a fire gutted it on 7 January 2011. The city owns it. It has been on the National Register since 1976. Entry is trespass on city property. Look at it from 6th Avenue North. Photographs and history.
Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham
Not abandoned, despite showing up on every Alabama urbex list. Sloss is a National Historic Landmark and a City of Birmingham museum, free Tuesday to Saturday 10 to 4 and Sunday 12 to 4, with guided tours for a small fee. The furnaces were rebuilt in 1927 to 1929 and ran until 1971. Unrestored areas stay closed to visitors. Off-hours entry is trespass. Directions and hours.
Hilltop Arms Apartments, Montgomery
Also no longer abandoned. The 8-storey block at 600 Montgomery Street opened in 1950 with 106 apartments, sat derelict for years, and was bought in 2021 for $1.4 million. The Equal Justice Initiative renovated it and reopened it in October 2025 as Elevation, a hotel and convening center. You can walk in: there is an art gallery and two public restaurants. What it looked like before.
Carraway Hospital, Birmingham
Demolished. The hospital buildings are down and the city council set an end-of-May 2026 deadline for clearing the rubble. The 52-acre campus is being rebuilt as The Star Uptown, and the Coca-Cola Amphitheater opened on the western portion in June 2025. The rest is a fenced construction site with no lawful access. Interior photographs from 2018.
Ensley High School, Birmingham
Demolished, not a burned shell. It caught fire in July 2018 and came down between November 2021 and early 2022. The 10-acre lot reverted to the City of Birmingham in February 2026 when a $55 million redevelopment deal was terminated. It is open ground. Photographs from before demolition.
The Governor’s House Hotel, Montgomery
Demolished. Montgomery bought it from the state for $100 in 2022 and knocked it down starting 12 February 2025 at a cost of about $279,000, the first job in a $6 million blight programme. The Alabama-shaped pool was filled in. The last photographs of it.
One honest note on condition: Powell School has collapsed upper floors and more than a decade of water damage behind the boards, and asbestos and lead paint should be assumed in any Alabama building of this vintage.
For the full Alabama list with the date each site was last checked, see Abandoned Places Near Me: Alabama.