The Finley Roundhouse is a historic railway landmark located in Birmingham’s Acipco-Finley neighborhood and was constructed by the Southern Railway in 1915 as part of the new Finley Yard complex. Built from reinforced concrete, it is the largest reinforced concrete railway roundhouse in Alabama and one of only three surviving railway roundhouses in the state. Designed to service steam locomotives, the massive structure originally featured 25 engine stalls surrounding a 90-foot open-air turntable, with clerestory windows providing natural light to mechanics working inside. During the early 20th century, the Finley Yard became one of the Southern Railway’s most important maintenance hubs, supporting Birmingham’s booming steel and iron industries. The facility expanded in 1924 with new machine shops and repair buildings capable of overhauling steam locomotives from across Alabama. In 1928, workers at the Finley Shops even constructed a replica of the historic Best Friend of Charleston locomotive to celebrate the centennial of one of the railway’s predecessor companies, highlighting the site’s significance in American railroad history. Rail operations were relocated to the Ernest E. Norris Yard in 1952, leaving much of the original Finley Yard to be dismantled or redeveloped. Over the following decades, the roundhouse served as a warehouse and cold storage facility before being abandoned in 2003. Although parts of the attached warehouse were damaged by an F1 tornado in 2013, the historic roundhouse itself still stands. Today, preservation advocates continue working to save the structure, which was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 2017 and recognized as one of Alabama’s endangered historic sites through the Places in Peril program. #alabama #usa🇺🇸 - @dreelegend