The Long-Lewis Story. . .

Long-Lewis is the same age as the City of Bessemer, Alabama.  In 1887, a group of investors who had come to this area as soldiers during the Civil War, formed Debardelaben Coal, Iron and Land Company.  Acreage was divided into building lots, streets and avenues.  The city was named Bessemer to honor the Bessemer process of making steel.

Mr. William J. Long started Bessemer Cornice Works on his new property and made metal cornices and other architectural decorations that are visible on older buildings in Bessemer today.  As he became more successful he started Long-Hardware and later bought out his competitor, Lewis Hardware.  The sign over both stores read... Long-Lewis Hardware.

In 1911, the Bessemer merchants had a promotion in which customers received a drawing ticket for each ten cents they spent in Bessemer.  The grand prize was a Model-T Ford the merchants had bought.

The way Mr. Long told this story was that, "The winner lived down below McAdory and when we drove the car into his yard, he ordered us off his property.    Said all that popping and backfiring from the car would scare his chickens so bad they'd never lay eggs again!"

Mr. Long was a great one to recognize opportunity when he saw it, so he bought the new car from the winner, took it back to the wagon and buggy department of his 2nd Avenue & 20th Street hardware store, and sold it for a profit.  He ordered more Model-T's.  They would be shipped into Ensley in box cars.  Chassis were stacked vertically in one end of the car, bodies in the other.  Six men would drive over to the rail yards and assemble the bodies on the frames and parade back to Bessemer with the new cars and trucks for sale.

In 1915 Mr. Henry Ford began granting franchises to dealers and Long-Lewis Hardware became one of the first Ford dealerships in the U.S.A.

The wholesale hardware division moved to it's downtown Birmingham location in 1929.  It's Ford dealership is now located at 2551 Highway 150 in Hoover, Alabama.