78 Photo Essay: Alan Clark, Advanced Locksmith

Words by Justin Hunter | Images by Al Blanton 

If you’re searching for a locksmith, it’s easy to overlook the small cinderblock building nestled between local television station TV16HD and Southern Tire Mart on 5th Avenue in downtown Jasper. For Advance Locksmith owner Alan Clark, who also serves as Chief of Jasper Fire and Rescue Department, the shop is his time capsule. 

On a day-to-day basis, Clark is preserving a way of locksmithing that is fading away during the technological age—an arena ruled by electronic key fobs, smartphone home security systems, and biometric vaults. 

“Technology is making locksmithing a different kind of trade. I still do it the hands-on way,” Clark says. “This generation doesn’t care about keys like older generations. They might have one key for the whole house instead of a different key for each room in the house.”

For Clark, the cutting of a key is a tangible metaphor of a boy or girl coming of age and discovering their purpose in this life. Every human life, like every key crafted by the hands of this master locksmith, is unique.

Clark and his siblings were raised by a single mother in Walker County. His father wasn’t around, but God brought a handful of men to help shape and mold him into the person he is today. One of those men was Larry Earnest, the man who founded Advanced Locksmith.

In 1985, Clark was working as summer help for Drummond Coal Company when Earnest’s wife, Mary, asked if he was interested in helping with her husband’s startup locksmith shop, then located inside the old D’s Barbeque downtown.

The shop reflects Clark’s journey into adulthood. Inside, the walls are decorated with posters of Dale Earnhardt Jr. A glass cabinet is filled with NASCAR memorabilia and racing trophies sit on top of filing cabinets. The décor also includes four white stadium seats from the old Talladega Super Speedway, an anniversary gift that Clark’s wife bought for $100. 

After working for a number of years, Clark purchased the company from the Earnest family about ten years ago. “Locksmithing has just been a way of life,” reflects Clark. “I started here when I was 17 years old, and I’ll be 54 this year. I’ve been opening the same door since 1989.” 78