One hundred years ago, Alabama was a bustling state. Its economy was largely based on agriculture but the steel industry was booming and coal mines and textile mills were plentiful.

Alabama was in its 106th year of statehood, with its capital in Montgomery, and had 2.5 million people within its borders.

Nationally, Calvin Coolidge was president, Mount Rushmore was dedicated and the Scopes Monkey Trial made waves from a Tennessee courthouse.

In Birmingham, an April fire destroyed the second floor of City Hall, including the library.

In September, a heat wave washed over the state and Centreville, registered a high of 112 degrees on Sept. 5, 1925.

Huntsville, which had only 8,000 residents, was a cotton farming town with four textile mills – Merrimack, Dallas, Lowe and Lincoln – that employed a large number of residents … and their children.

In Mobile, people went bananas for bananas that came in on ships from far-flung places, creating jobs for the Port of Mobile.

We gathered 50 photos of Alabama people and places that were taken about 100 years ago, in the mid-1920s.

The photos show that Birmingham had the tallest skyscraper in the southeast ay the time, that Kilby Prison and the infamous Yellow Mama electric chair were in the news, Wilson Dam was a brand-new marvel of engineering, and reunions of Civil War veterans were popular.

Click the gallery at the top of this story to scroll through all 50 photos.