A forested cathedral, start to finish
In 1926, Warren Manning found himself in a barely accessible mountain wilderness.
Today, these forested 4,500 acres south of Birmingham don’t look much different from an aerial view — thanks in part to Manning.
Robert Jemison of Jemison & Company real estate had invited Manning down from Massachusetts for his expertise in city planning architecture to develop what would become Mountain Brook.
Back then, only Montevallo, Cahaba, Leeds and Overton roads went through the area, so the duo set out on foot, walking terrain with up to 500-foot changes in elevation, to map out creeks, trees, mines and other landmarks before starting their design.
With a vision to integrate residential planning into natural environment, Manning laid out recreational areas in the flood plains of Shades Creek and Watkins Creek, roads along ridges and slopes, and residential lots on hills and ridges to offer optimal views.
Over the next three years, more than 28 miles of roads, model homes including a Mount Vernon replica on Mountain Brook Parkway, a riding academy, 29 miles of bridle trails and other landmarks would be built, along with plans, sketches and maps for countless other details that distinguish the community today.
As early promotional literature billed it, it was “a forested cathedral.”
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 brought many of the proposals for grand estates to a halt, but when a boom in home construction came in the late 1950s, the plans for development were already in place.
“When my husband’s family bought their lot on Old Leeds Road, the plans said exactly where they would locate the house and where the driveway would go,” said Marjorie White, Birmingham Historical Society (BHS) director.
Today, after nearly a decade of research, BHS has chronicled Manning and Jemison’s plans for Mountain Brook from 1926-29 in a new book and historical exhibit.
Mountain Brook — A Historic American Landscape, an 11- by 17-inch, 80-page volume, paints a picture of how today’s Mountain Brook reflects its visionaries’ plans by pairing drawings and photographs from the 1920s with contemporary topographical documentation and aerial photographs. The project, originally prepared for the National Park Service’s Historic American Landscape Survey’s (HALS) documentation of the planning of Mountain Brook, is now accessible to anyone in the community.
Along with the book, an exhibit focusing on the roads, “Perfectly Planned: Mountain Brook Roads and Scenic Views,” will run April 13-May 14 in the Community Meeting Room of the Emmet O’Neal Library. An opening event on April 13 will feature remarks by Marjorie White, who headed the book project, and landscape architect Birgit Kibelka. In the exhibition, aerial and eye-level studies, plus archival documentation, will illustrate the development of Mountain Brook Parkway, Overbrook and Beechwood Roads (including Mountain Brook Village), Dell Road, Cherokee Road, Canterbury and Surrey Roads and Southwood Road.
White, who rode in the plane with the aerial photographer last spring, emphasized how little of the residential community you can see under the forest cover.
“You see road systems and major amenities, and the houses are all part of this gorgeously woven-together fabric, which is a major piece of land planning,” she said. “[The photos] present something you think you know in a new way and help you conceive how remarkable it is.”
Mountain Brook — A Historic American Landscape, will be available at the library event, on amazon.com, or by mail from the Birmingham Historical Society ($35 postpaid), One Sloss Quarters, Birmingham, AL 35222.