FOLEY — What used to be a co-op and warehouse in the 1900s, known as Hamburg & Sons, is now an unused, empty building that holds a piece of Foley history.

The red-wooden building, located on East Rose Avenue, was a staple for the local farming community. In 1918, the building was used by local farmers in the Farmers Mutual Cooperative. In 1949, H.M. Hamburg purchased the building, providing local families with their seasonal farming needs.

The company operated until 2004 when Hamburg’s grandson retired.

In 2017, Helen Hamburg Williams, a member of the Hamburg family, approached Foley City Council expressing a desire to donate the building for potential use as a museum after necessary repairs.

Currently, the building remains unused, and a grandson of H.M. Hamburg said this building not only shows the history of Foley but has memories of community togetherness.

“They were very well liked, and the store was well received,” Hamburg’s grandson said. “I would have people stop me on the street and talk to me about the store and say that they really enjoyed going into the store to do their business because of my family being so knowledgeable and friendly.”
Since the building is currently unused, Hamburg’s grandson said he hopes to see this building come back to life.

“When I heard about it (the building being donated to the City of Foley), I was sort of pleased and I am glad that they are doing it. If I knew that they would have waited and done what they have done so far on it, I would have bought the store myself to keep it up. I would not want for it to deteriorate like it has.”

Mayor Ralph Hellmich said the city recognizes the historical value of this building and emphasized the importance of preserving it for cultural value as well as the potential for revitalization of the community.

“In 2017, we were approached by the Hamburgs, and they realized that the building was falling apart, and they needed somebody to try to preserve it,” Hellmich said. “They came to us, and we accepted it. They really wanted to repurpose the building so it would showcase the farming community and the Hamburg involvement.”

Hellmich added that DesignAlabama, a citizen-led-not-for-profit operating in partnership with the Alabama State Council on the Arts that advocates for enhancing places in Alabama, traveled to Foley to create new ideas for the Hamburg building and ways to reuse the architecture.

“The only problem is that it would have been probably somewhere between $1 million and $1.5 million to refurbish the building,” Hellmich said. “It is in really bad shape. The problem that the city has is that we don’t want to invest the money unless we have an ultimate purpose for it.”

The city has replaced the roof, replaced 52 piling piers to stabilize and level the floor and worked with the Public Works Department to haul 10 dump trucks of debris.

Close to $150,000 has been put into preserving the H.M. Hamburg & Sons building.

To help save the structure, the City of Foley requested that the building was placed on the list of Alabama Places in Peril, a program identifying at-risk historic sites, in 2018.

Previously, a restaurant operator voiced their desire to invest in the building and convert it to a restaurant, but the restaurant group was not able to see their way to move forward with obtaining the property.

“We are still trying to clean the outside up a little bit and make it as secure as possible from any vandalism are anything like that,” he said. “From time to time we do get individuals coming in with proposals. We vet them very carefully to make sure it meets the guidelines of what the family was hoping to see, it is within Foley and it is something that is workable that places this building back into community involvement. A lot of that is going unseen to people.”

The city is still seeking an opportunity to receive another grant to go toward the building to save and preserve the history of the building.