36 comments

  1. Heather D Merchant

    Taylor Merchant

  2. Justin Seales

    There is a future to this, in time when technology is so advanced

  3. Heidi Cotton

    Halley Cotton Sara Lartigue Jackson thought of you!

  4. Tom Hagood

    Hate to be picky, but a blimp is basically an oblong balloon without much internal structure; what you are talking about there is a ‘rigid-airship’ or zeppelin, much bigger, lots of internal structure and huge, just saying!

    1. Donna R Causey

      Thanks for the clarification.

    2. Alabama Pioneers

      Thanks for the clarification. I removed the word blimp.

    3. Webb Adams

      A zeppelin also had the passenger areas inside of the shell. The gondola underneath was mainly the bridge or control booth with an observation area.

  5. Tim Suggs

    It was used, there are pictures with 2 Zeps moored there.

    1. Alabama Pioneers

      I’d love to see the pictures. Most articles state that mooring masts on buildings were never used and pictures of zeppelins were faked. There is a lot of confusing statements written about skyscraper mooring masts. This article about the Empire State building reveals the failure of the mooring masts. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/realestate/26scapes.html

    2. Tim Suggs

      I’ll be very happy to see if I can find the photo I was referring to. I snagged it from Google so it should still be hiding there somewhere.

    3. Alabama Pioneers

      Great! You can email it to [email protected]

  6. Gerald Snyder

    I always wondered what that thing was.

  7. John H. Allen

    This was sooo interesting. Thanks for posting. I noted in the two photos that a ballroom was built on the second floor beside the hotel some years after the original construction. I did not know that “the Bear” kept an apartment on the top floor. Or that two presidents stayed there. My mom stayed here for several days in the 1950s while attending a training school.

  8. Chris Pickett

    I think they removed it

  9. Claudetta Walker Morgan

    My great grandfather was a chef there back in the 20’s and 30’s.

  10. Rick Hughes

    No ,what do you think that big tower on the Empire state building is?

  11. Halley Cotton

    Chris Pickett leer cut half the mast off. Don’t worry it’s being refurbished to original historic condition.

    1. Chris Pickett

      Haha I was looking at the wrong building! I was wondering if they were going to restore it. Do you know what is going in the leer tower?

    2. Halley Cotton

      Yup. Apartments and then I believe they are using the first two floors as a venue space and maybe a restaurant.

  12. Scott

    There are several buildings in the U.S. that have zeppelin moorings.

    The dome on top the Intercontinental Chicago Hotel is one I can think of off the top of my head.

    1. Donna R Causey

      Thanks Scott. The original statement came from Wikipedia but I could not validate it so I changed the story title and included a note in the story.

  13. Elliene Jackson

    My mother and father spent their wedding night there in 1933, since they couldn’t afford a honeymoon.

  14. Jimmy A Pruitt

    Christopher Flansburg

  15. Kenneth Haughton

    The US Navy put us new recruits at the TJ overnight in route to San Diego Bootcamp March 1952. I was very favorably impressed…such grand accommodation was highly unusual to me even though we bunked dormitory style about 15 of us to a room….

  16. George Sides

    You know, I was just thinking the other day, “Man, I really wish I could find some place to park my zeppelin.” Thanks guys!

  17. Angelo Denison Roberson

    I think the Empire State building still has the mast as well.

    1. William Boot

      The tower on the Empire State building was a stunt.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/realestate/26scapes.html

  18. Julia Beasley

    Thank you so much for this story……..very interesting. I love history and especially of Alabama. I am really going to daily be looking forward to articles from “Alabama Pioneers”!!
    Please keep up this wonderful work!

  19. Mike Estes

    I am totally astonished that Alabama has something completely useless from the last century still hanging around.

  20. Norma Elmore

    It’s a grand old building.

  21. Andrew Smith

    Nichole Bentley Kathleen Engledow-Cooper

  22. David Schneider

    I would love it if someone could find any contemporary (1926-1935) mention of it. The earliest I could ever find was quite recent. Old postcards and other sources always referred to it as a beacon. But it is such a strong urban legend that there should be some basis for it. My suspicion is that it is a good story that has been repeated often but with no particular documentation. It would be interesting to see some.

  23. Michael Snowden

    Not a true mooring mast, but a publicity stunt.
    http://www.airships.net/blog/alabama-pretends-dirigible-tower-hotel-didnt/

  24. Donna Bass Baird

    Edna McWilliams. I had the info wrong, but this is what i was talking about.

  25. Edna McWilliams

    Very interesting! I had no idea of this history. Thanks!

  26. Joseph Santangini

    I was too upish==I stayed at the old Redmont

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