Save the Finley Roundhouse

I am the leader of a nonprofit group based on Birmingham. My name is Khari Marquette. I am the president of the Save The Finley Roundhouse organization and leader of the effort to rescue the most forgotten historic landmark in town: The Finley Roundhouse, which is located in the Acipco-Finley neighborhood. The Finley Roundhouse is among 3 of the last remaining railroad roundhouses in the State of Alabama, with just two remaining here in Birmingham, and it is also the largest remaining of its type anywhere in Alabama. It is the Holy Grail of grails of forgotten historic relics in Alabama. The Finley Roundhouse is over 100 years old and is a remaining vestige of what was one and important railroad and commerce hub in the area: the Southern Railway's Finley Yard. It has overseen stationary rest and repair of steam locomotives and its conversion into a cold storage warehouse made it a distribution point for the major grocery store chains in the Southeast. It is a testament to the city's heritage. Very few of Birmingham's denizens are not aware of it existence and not so much of the residents living there, because of its very remote location. The Finley Roundhouse was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Herirage last year and was recognized as an endangered "Place In Peril" by the AL Historical Commission and the Trust For Historic Preservation in 2017. I have spearheded the mission since I was 13 years old and discovered the Roundhouse. I brought it to the attention of local history groups and the Acipco-Finley neighborhood, and then I created social media pages on Facebook and Twitter. They have gained a significant following of people interested in moving the city forward. Currently we are moving to acquire the Roundhouse and fund its restoration, and all of this takes a great deal of income and people have to get involved in my project. My nonprofit organization is an alliance of well-rounded and brilliant-minded individuals from the history groups.

Funded by Birmingham, AL (March 2018)