Heaviest Corner on Earth

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = Heaviest Corner on Earth

| nrhp_type = hd

| image = Heaviest Corner on Earth, 1916.jpg

| caption =

| nearest_city= Birmingham, Alabama

| coordinates = {{coord|33.514437|-86.80565|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin = USA Alabama Birmingham#Alabama#USA

| area =

| built = 1906

| architect = William C. Weston

| architecture = Chicago, The Commercial Style

| added = July 11, 1985

| refnum=85001502{{NRISref|2009a}}

| nocat = yes

}}

The Heaviest Corner on Earth is a promotional name given to the corner of 20th Street and 1st Avenue North in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, in the early 20th century. The name reflected the nearly simultaneous appearance of four of the tallest buildings in the South, the 10-story Woodward Building (1902), 16-story Brown Marx Building (1906), 16-story Empire Building (1909), and the 21-story American Trust and Savings Bank Building (1912).

File:Woodward Building Nov 2011 02.jpg

File:Empire building.jpg

The announcement of the last building was made in the Jemison Magazine in a January 1911 article titled "Birmingham to Have the Heaviest Corner in the South". Over the years, that claim was inflated to the improbable "Heaviest Corner on Earth", which remains a popular name for the grouping.{{cite web|last=Mertins|first=Ellen|author2=Pam King|author3=Alice Bowsher|title=The Heaviest Corner on Earth|url={{NRHP url|id=85001502}}|work=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=March 17, 2014|date=April 19, 1984|archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/6O9gQXMfo?url=http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/85001502.pdf |archivedate=March 17, 2014|url-status=live}} See also: {{cite web|title=Accompanying photos|url={{NRHP url|id=85001502|photos=y}}|accessdate=March 17, 2014|archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/6O9gReXTY?url=http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/85001502.pdf |archivedate=March 17, 2014|url-status=live}}

A marker, erected on May 23, 1985 by the Birmingham Historical Society, with cooperation from Operation New Birmingham, stands on the sidewalk outside the Empire Building describing the group. The buildings have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places: three were listed individually in 1982 and 1983, and the group of four was listed as a historic district on July 11, 1985.