Historic sites of Mountain Brook
The remnants of nearly two centuries of history lie beneath Mountain Brook’s homes and shopping centers. Every day, residents walk and drive over a Revolutionary War veteran’s farm and the foundations of the original city, among other historic locations. Many of these sites are no longer visible, but roadside markers have been placed throughout the city to preserve their memory. Use these historic markers as a starting point to explore Mountain Brook’s rich past.
Early Mountain Brook Village
Intersection of Cahaba Road and Petticoat Lane (in front of RealtySouth)
The land that would eventually become Mountain Brook has been inhabited since the first settlers arrived in the 1820s. However, it was originally known as Watkins Branch and would take another century for Mountain Brook to become a reality.
Real estate developers Robert Jemison Jr. and Will Franke bought 400 acres of land in the 1920s to create “Mountain Brook Estates.” This development included homes, shopping centers, a grammar school and riding trails, but it maintained the natural beauty of the area. Jemison is now called the “Father of Mountain Brook.”
“Jemison was very foresighted, he was really a visionary,” said Jim Baggett, director of the Birmingham Public Library department of archives and manuscripts.
Today, the style of Mountain Brook’s villages can be traced back to Jemison’s original development plans. Many of Jemison’s building concepts can also be seen in the storefronts around Mountain Brook.
“When Robert Jemison,\ Jr. designed Mountain Brook, he wasn’t just designing a subdivision, he was creating a kind of community,” Baggett said. “It’s significant because we’ve come back to that.”
The Old Mill
2780 Mountain Brook Parkway
The Old Mill may be most recognizable as part of the official logo of Mountain Brook, but the mill actually predates the city by more than 50 years.
From 1867 to 1887, John Perryman operated a gristmill on the site, grinding local farmers’ corn. When Robert Jemison, Jr. began his development of Mountain Brook Estates, the gristmill became part of his plan. In 1927, he constructed a new building and named it the Old Mill tearoom. Operated by Frances Bomer, the Old Mill became a popular place to eat for many years.
“It was really a showplace, you know, to introduce people to Mountain Brook, which was a new thing back then,” said Jim Bennett, the newsletter editor at the Jefferson County Historical Association.
The 1927 building still stands today, but the Old Mill has been a private residence for decades. Though visitors can no longer take tea at the Old Mill, the building and nearby Jemison Park are dedicated to preserving the memory of the man who built Mountain Brook.
First Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Fairway Drive (across from Tonya Jones SalonSpa)
Very little is known about this tuberculosis sanatorium, the first of its kind in northern Alabama. In May of 1910, the Anti-Tuberculosis Association of Jefferson County set up a cluster of tents near present-day Cahaba Road and Fairway Drive to treat victims of tuberculosis. George R. Eaves, originally from Stratford-upon-Avon, England, started the association after his own struggle with the disease.
The sanatorium was moved to a larger site on Red Mountain sometime in 1912. Today, the shops and restaurants of English Village have replaced the sanatorium’s original site.
Oldest house in Shades Valley/Irondale Furnace Commissary
4150 Montevallo Road South
The Cummings-Eastis-Beaumont House is believed to be the oldest house in Shades Valley and was built sometime between 1820 and 1830. The original owner, William Cummings, sold the house to Wallace McElwain, the owner of Irondale Furnace, in 1863 to serve as the company store. The store provided residents of Shades Valley with supplies.
Although Union General Wilson and his armies destroyed Irondale Furnace, the commissary store remained unharmed. In the 1870s, the Eastis family moved into the house and lived there for 80 years until the Edward Beaumont family purchased the home in 1951.
Canterbury United Methodist Church
350 Overbrook Road
Canterbury United Methodist is the oldest existing church in Mountain Brook. It began in 1867 as Irondale Methodist, named after the nearby furnace that employed many of the residents, then moved to Hollywood Boulevard as Union Hill Methodist Episcopal Church in 1874. The church was renamed Canterbury Methodist Episcopal Church in 1928 after it was renovated as part of Mountain Brook’s development.
After a few more name and location changes, Canterbury United Methodist Church arrived at its present location in 1952. At its first service, the church hosted around 900 people. Today, the church has expanded and several thousand people from the Mountain Brook area flow through Canterbury’s doors each week.
Lane Park
2630 Cahaba Road (across from Birmingham Zoo)
Lane Park is currently home to the apartments, Birmingham Zoo and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, but it was first a war veteran’s farm and a pauper’s cemetery.
William Pullen, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, received the land from the federal government in 1822. It was a farm until 1889, when Pullen’s heirs sold the land to the City of Birmingham. The New Southside pauper’s cemetery, later renamed Red Mountain Cemetery, was located there until 1909. Baggett said that while many of the 4,700 graves were unmarked, a few gravestones are still standing in the woods near Hermosa Drive, the former site of Shades Valley High School.
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded a project to build a park on the cemetery site. The project was called Lane Park in honor of Birmingham mayor A.O. Lane. The park was home to a fishery, a stone quarry, a baseball diamond and a golf driving range at various times.
The Birmingham Zoo and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens along with the new Evson Inc. Lane Parke development were built on top of the cemetery’s graves. Today, new roads and buildings cover almost all of the cemetery and Pullen’s original farm.