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A step back in time: Book chronicles Mountain Brook development, 1926-1930

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Historic photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Image courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

Image courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.

A new book on Jemison and Company’s magazines transports us to the community we know so well in its infancy.

It was a time when the Old Mill House’s tearoom hosted lunches and dinners, native craft shows and holiday parties. Twenty- five miles of bridle trails were opened for the children who competed at the new Riding Academy to ride. Mountain Brook Village was to be “the only shopping center in this fine home section,” and soon the Martha Washington Candy Shop opened, then later Mountain Brook Pharmacy and Margaret Pekor’s interior decoration studio, among other businesses. A contract was signed to build Mountain Brook School, now Mountain Brook Elementary. Mountain Brook Country Club was being planned to resemble a big country house. Cahaba Road was first paved.

The Jemison Magazine: Birmingham and Mountain Brook, 1926-1930, a softbound volume released in May, contains 168 original pages from The Jemison Magazine. The monthly publication was published by real estate company Jemison and Company, led by Robert Jemison Jr., and chronicles the development of the “country estates” of Mountain Brook.

“This book is a fun read,” said Marjorie White, Birmingham Historical Society Director and one of the book’s editors. “It’s a story about a company that did everything right. The magazines were promotional, actually sales pieces to sell a new lifestyle and physical lots. Mountain Brook, at that time, was far out of town. Roads had to be built to get to homes that also needed to be built.”

In the book, more than 200 artists’ renderings and early photographs depict buildings and natural areas anyone familiar with the area will recognize, only with far fewer trees surrounding the buildings.

The introduction sets the context of careful planning for Mountain Brook’s more than 4000 acres as Birmingham’s emerging city center was growing and developers were setting the tone and character for the city to assume. The magazine pages also tell of Jemison’s corporate growth and the development in other parts of the city.

“In the end, Mountain Brook emerged as an exceptional residential community that remains so today due to the good infrastructure of the Jemison company’s investment,” White said. “They talked about retaining natural beauty—and when you drive through Mountain Brook, that’s what you see.”

The Jemison Magazine: Birmingham and Mountain Brook, 1926-1930, is available for $30 at Pappagallo and Gilchrist in Mountain Brook Village and at Little Professor in Homewood. Books can also be purchased at www.bhistorical.org. A previous volume on Jemison Magazine, The Jemison Magazine and the Selling of Birmingham, 1910-1914 (2011), is also available. The cost for both volumes is $50. For more information on the books, contact Marjorie White at mslwhite@aol. com.

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