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All the United States Alabama Montgomery Casket on the Steiner-Lobman Building

Casket on the Steiner-Lobman Building

The whimsical construction on the roof has given rise to many a Montgomery myth about its contents.

Montgomery, Alabama

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Detail of the Steiner-Lobman and Teague Hardware Buildings in Montgomery, Alabama   Chris Pruitt/CC BY-SA 3.0
The Steiner-Lobman building with the casket, statue, and anvil on its roof.   David Brossard/CC BY-SA 2.0)
Northwest side of the Steiner-Lobman and Teague Hardware Buildings in Montgomery, Alabama.   Chris Pruitt/CC BY-SA 3.0
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
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Southwest side of the Steiner-Lobman and Teague Hardware Buildings in Montgomery, Alabama   Chris Pruitt/CC BY-SA 3.0
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An anvil and a solemn stone statue of the goddess Athena add to the general graveyard feel, but no body resides in the looming casket perched atop the historic Steiner-Lobman building in Montgomery, Alabama—as far as anyone knows.

Dry food wholesalers Louis Steiner and Nathan Lobman first built the structure in 1891. The partners wanted their building to stand out among competing Montgomery businesses, so they chose Victorian-Italianate architecture, complete with rosettes, symmetrically spaced windows, and rope molding. The anvil was probably added as a homage to the goods sold by Teague Hardware, to whom half the building was sold. But why a casket?

For now, it's a mystery, though some like to think the builders wanted an eternal view of Montgomery, in order to keep a continual watch on their business. While it's certain that both Steiner and Lobman are buried elsewhere, someone else may very well be buried up there. The tamer explanation might be that the casket surrounds a water tower. That is the explanation listed in the National Register of Historic Places, to which the building was added nearly a century after it was built.

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Death Architectural Oddities History Architecture

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A parking lot is nearby, but you have to pay to get in. The ticket machine doesn't work half the time.

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planan

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Mom0ja, Meg, Kavya Ram Mohan, Collector of Experiences...

  • Mom0ja
  • Meg
  • Kavya Ram Mohan
  • Collector of Experiences
  • tmcc784
  • michellemobarrett

Published

March 15, 2017

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Casket on the Steiner-Lobman Building
184 Commerce St
Montgomery, Alabama
United States
32.380163, -86.311783
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