Visitors to a certain brick building on an Ensley corner open the door to smooth melodies of old-school R&B and the smell of freshly baked cookies.

Framed photos of smiling snaggletooth children in shotgun houses, proud young adults in grad caps and neighborhood faces line the walls, guiding visitors into a cozy living room, where they can sit in a worn, velvet armchair. Beside a vintage TV, a record player perches on a wooden shelf, a rotary phone nearby.

The space feels like walking through your grandmother’s home.

Timothy Quarshie, curator of the Ensley Childhood Project gallery, said he wanted to create a timeline of Ensley’s past and present through the eyes of its residents.

While Ensley has faced disinvestment, blight and violence over the years, Quarshie said the gallery is an account of the community’s beauty and resilience.

“It’s just been a blessing to get a chance to meet these people and to learn more about the story of Ensley, and really about the beautiful aspects of it. People just focus on the negative things, but there’s so much going for Enlsey, it’s just a matter of it being unlocked and shown,” Quarshie said.

What is the Ensley Childhood Project?

Quarshie was born and raised in Trussville. He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he participated in a film festival for Black students.

He said he was inspired to continue creating.

One day, while watching old cartoons with his little brother, it hit him: he wanted to create a space that made its visitors feel like they were looking through the eyes of a child.

And so he got to work, searching for the right space, renovating the building, interviewing residents, learning the history of the neighborhood and sourcing authentic, old-school decor.

He partnered with organizations working to make Ensley better, including Renew Birmingham, a blight removal nonprofit, the Flourish Alabama, an arts program, the Alabama Humanities Alliance and the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

“At first it was kind of daunting. There’s those preconceived notions of what Ensley is, that it’s violent and that you have to watch your back…But one thing I’ve noticed about Ensley’s people is that they’re so welcoming. And they’re really about their city and their community,” Quarshie said.

The Ensley Childhood Project opened its doors on May 5 and will close on May 31.

Lining the walls are donated photos. One shows Ensley Works, the steel plant, dating back to the 1940’s. Another depicts a child who had just been baptized and bundled in white towels. Another features two girls posing in a photobooth at the Alabama State Fair.

Quarshie said residents told him that Ensley was thriving before the devastating effects of disinvestment, gangs and drugs.

“The late seventies were a pivotal moment in Ensley: Ensley Works had closed its final furnace, marking the end of the industrial era. The removal of Ensley’s heart, in combination with factors such as limited job opportunities, white flight and affluent flight started the decline of Ensley’s population,” a gallery plaque reads.

But above all, Quarshie said, the residents reflected on the community’s resilience.

Each wall showcases that with photos of residents who have shaped Ensley, such as Annetta Nunn, the first Black woman chief of the Birmingham Police Department, A.G. Callins, a longtime Ensley business owner and Nichole Davis Williams, the former principal at Jackson-Olin High School.

“Nichole describes those who grew up in Ensley as products of their own environment, those who made the most of where they were and did what they needed to survive,” reads a plaque next to a 1987 photo of 12-year-old Williams.

‘An important piece to the story of Ensley’

Williams was raised in Ensley with her six siblings.

A photo of her and her cousins posing in front of their home, the former Tuxedo Court public housing community known as “The Brickyard,” hangs on the wall.

Her smile is large, though her front teeth are missing.

“When I was little, downtown Ensley was filled with churches and businesses. It was just bustling with people, and life and just people trying to make it…It was a community. We took care of each other.”

But the tides in Ensley began to shift.

“Now it’s just abandoned. The houses are run down. They got trash everywhere. There’s fighting, gangs, selling drugs. They’re shooting each other,” Williams said.

In seventh grade, Williams was jumped into a West End gang.

In ninth grade, Williams said she remembers the gang members shooting outside her home during her birthday party.

Williams said her mother forbade her from crossing the train tracks to West End, in fear of her daughter being killed.

That event, Williams said, helped her find who she really was: a hard worker.

She joined the Jackson Olin band, cheer team, Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, drill team, basketball and track team.

Williams smiles proudly in a gallery photo, her white, green and yellow cheer uniform pristine.

Despite the hardships she faced, Williams was as resilient as the community she grew up in.

“Back then, we did what we had to do to survive…You couldn’t wait on anybody. You had to go out there and make it happen for yourself,” Williams said.

And so she did. Williams earned a track scholarship to the University of Alabama, became a campus ambassador, pledged to Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and earned her doctorate. She also started a business.

“It was a big deal, especially being a little dark skinned girl from Ensley,” Williams said.

In 2024, she became principal at Jackson Olin High School, where her parents and siblings also attended. Today, she teaches at Dupuy Alternative School.

And her story is making a difference.

“While I was at the gallery, a young man came up to me. He was a former Jackson Olin student and he said, ‘I want you to know that I didn’t know this about you. You came from the Brickyard and you got your doctorate, and came back to be the principal, Dr. Williams, that’s motivational.’ And that touched my heart,” Williams said.

“I didn’t realize that my journey was important to anybody…Growing up, I saw the dynamics changing. I had to get out of Ensley because it was no longer safe. But when I came back, I came back to help other people. But I didn’t realize that I was an important piece to the story of Ensley.”

Williams said she hopes her story will continue to inspire other Ensley residents who visit the gallery.

“I realized that I’m a tool that’s being used to help other people. I’m helping other people realize that they can make it, that they can do great things, that great things come out of Ensley, and they will continue to,” Williams said.

What’s next for Ensley

Brian K. Rice, owner of the building housing the gallery and five other Ensley properties on the same block, has big dreams for Ensley despite the barriers the community faces.

“I’ve always been committed to doing work in underserved communities…My aspirations are to bring positive spaces to Ensley with the arts, workforce and entrepreneurial development and eventually living spaces,” Rice said.

“Ensley is probably the largest underdeveloped historic commercial district in Birmingham. And I believe it has all the potential to be the next best business district…I hope the gallery gives people ideas for what can be next.”

Jahmon Hill, executive director of the Flourish Alabama, next door to the gallery, said he is working with other artists like Quarshie to create a Black arts district in Ensley, a hub for creatives.

“The gallery is amazing. I love how you really get to experience Ensley through time…It allows everyday people to see themselves being revered,” Hill said.

“They can see what this space can be. They can see what could happen if we continue to invest in the community. We can build these sorts of spaces for ourselves.”

The gallery is a part of that vision, but it does not stop there.

“Explore more than this in Ensley. Explore the entertainment district, go see the murals. There’s so many local businesses. Take the time to see the community that we’re talking about here…I’m hoping that people will see this and say, ‘investing in our community is really important,’” Quarshie said.

He said he hopes the gallery is a reminder to Ensley residents of the beauty in themselves and their community.

“It’s not just a case study on the past, but it’s also a hope for the future,” Quarshie said.

“It’s important for the people, especially with this being a predominantly Black area, to see themselves in a positive light…To see yourself as art, it allows for you to gain a certain respect for yourself, a certain pride for your community.”

He said that he hopes that people visit, and when they do, “that they not only reminisce, but that they feel that sense of pride in themselves and where they come from.”