History in the walls

Many historic homes line the streets of Mountain Brook. The homes, some of which are more than 100 years old, tell the story of Mountain Brook, from a large, English-style home near English Village to the home of the city’s first mayor, Charles Zukoski.

Zukoski House

While Louise McPhillips and her husband, Frank, have lived in the historic Zukoski home on Old Leeds Road since 1992, she said the story of the home’s builders and original tenants, Charles and Bernadine Zukoski, is what makes the home unique.

“It’s the Zukoskis’ house,” McPhillips said. “We’re just living here.”

Charles Zukoski was the first mayor of Mountain Brook and was heavily involved in social and civic issues in the city of Birmingham and surrounding areas. Zukoski bought the lot the home sits on for $3,000, and the home itself cost about $13,000 when it was built in 1938, Louise McPhillips said.

While working at First National Bank of Birmingham, Zukoski published the Button Gwinnett columns in the Shades Valley Sun in the 1940s and ’50s, speaking out against racism and McCarthyism. The move cost him his job at the bank, McPhillips said.

Zukoski was also a founding member of the Birmingham Committee on Foreign Relations, as well as the Community Affairs Committee (now REV Birmingham). Before he died, the McPhillipses had him over to the house to see the changes they had made.

While some people expressed concern that Zukoski wouldn’t like the changes that were made, McPhillips said he loved it. After he passed away, his family also saw the renovations and appreciated how the McPhillipses made the home their own while preserving much of its history.

The front of the house was unchanged, but the family had greatly expanded the kitchen, which was originally designed as more utilitarian, and converted the attic to three bedrooms and a bathroom for their sons, McPhillips said. Zukoski thought the changes were great, she said, especially since his sons also grew up in the home.

“It is a lot of fun to know he had his two sons living here,” McPhillips said.

The dining room is almost exactly the same, and McPhillips, an architect, said she and her husband have maintained and respected the original architecture.

Other than the changes made to the attic, the family added a half bath and turned the original bedroom into a family room.

One of McPhillips’ favorite features is the magic lilies that have been on the property since the Zukoskis lived there. 

The home isn’t ostentatious, but is more akin to a cottage than a grandiose home, McPhillips said. Favorite spaces in the home include the sunroom, where McPhillips keeps her art studio, and a study room filled with books.

Similarities between the McPhillipses and the Zukoskis aren’t hard to find. Aside from their shared love for Mountain Brook, both husbands went to Harvard, and both families are made up of history buffs.

“We feel very much as if we’re stewards of their [the Zukoskis’] legacy,” McPhillips said. “I think we feel very civically engaged as well.”

The Zukoski House isn’t the first historic home the McPhillipses have lived in, staying in a 1919 home in Forest Park before moving to Old Leeds Road.

“We tend to gravitate toward more historic houses,” McPhillips said.

The couple bought the home from Frank McPhillips’ parents, who downsized in order to give their son and daughter-in-law much-needed space for their family.

“It was mutually beneficial,” McPhillips said.

McPhillips said in the almost 30 years they’ve lived in the home, they’ve enjoyed memories made during the holiday season, when grandparents and children come back home to spend time together.

They’ve also seen much change come to the community, including sidewalks, something Zukoski often pushed for. Now that sidewalks connect nearby neighborhoods, the area is greatly enhanced, though there is more traffic, McPhillips said.

Living in such an old home does present challenges, specifically with maintenance issues, but not enough to make the McPhillipses want to move.

“There can be some headaches, especially in this climate,” McPhillips said. “... [But] the charm far outweighs any shortcoming.”

DeBardeleben House

When Cathy Adams’ mother-in-law died, she came across a photo of the old DeBardeleben house on Aberdeen Road in her collection. Adams preserved the photo, and her husband, Tom, noticed it was on his running route.

In exchange for the photo, the couple was given a tour of the home.

“I felt like I’d come home,” Adams said.

It would be another two years before that feeling would become reality. When Tom noticed a “For Sale” sign in the yard, Cathy asked him what he was going to do.

Adams said her husband told her, “I guess I’m going to have to buy the house.”

At the time, the couple had no intention to move, comfortable in their home on Sterling Road. But living in the historic home was an opportunity too good to pass up, Adams said.

“It was pretty much as-built,” Adams said of the home when they bought it.

The home was built in the early 1920s and was in the DeBardeleben family for two generations, Adams said.

The Redmont district itself is also historic, and Adams, a writer, wrote a book called “Worthy of Remembrance,” a history of the area. Homes built there are “built to last,” she said. The homes also follow a strict code of restrictive covenants, ensuring they’re all built correctly.

“This was a very carefully planned suburban development,” Adams said. “... This is a real neighborhood in the best sense of the word. Everybody cares about each other; we have street parties up here. We’re a very cohesive neighborhood.”

The DeBardeleben house appeals to Adams’ enjoyment of English-style homes which can be seen throughout Mountain Brook, with historic Tudor architecture and large, open spaces, illuminated by natural light, streaming in from large windows. It’s a great space for entertainment as well, Adams said.

Not much inside the home has changed since the house was originally designed, Adams said. Windows and doors have been changed out, bathrooms have been upgraded, but the original design remains, including a guest home in the backyard.

The most notable change Adams made is the restoration of the garden.

“I had never done any gardening at all,” Adams said. “Tom said, ‘Do we really want to do this?’ … It took a few years to reclaim it.”

After restoring the garden, a large, private area in the backyard, Adams now volunteers with the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Some of the flowers in the backyard were left by the previous owner, and in planting new seeds, Adams said she tried to only plant flowers that were around when the home was built.

“I really treasure the plants that some woman, more or less, left to me,” Adams said.

In addition to flowers, there are several trees on the property. Adams told the story of Tee Dee Johnson, whose grandparents built the home. Her earliest memory is planting a tree that still remains in the backyard.

“It’ll give shade to somebody that comes along later,” Johnson had said to Adams. Both of Adams’ granddaughters have also planted Japanese maple trees.

Adams said the garden is her favorite part of the house, while Tom enjoys the sunroom. The home, perched atop a hill, overlooks Birmingham, a view the couple never get used to.

“You don’t ever get tired of it,” Adams said.

While Cathy enjoys watching the sunrise, Tom’s more of a sunset person, she said. Often, she’ll look out and see that Tom’s invited a stranger up on the deck to watch the sunset.

Maintenance of a home as old as the DeBardeleben house is never easy, something the Adamses discovered when they moved in.

“An old house is always a challenge,” Adams said. “When we moved in, really all we had to do, other than the bathroom, was paint. The painters left, and I said to my husband, ‘Well now we’re through.’

“When I went to open the back door, the door knob came off in my hand, and I said, ‘I don’t think we’ll ever be through,’” Adams said.

Despite the upkeep, Adams said the house she saw in that photograph years ago is worth it.

“We enjoy it as much as the people who came before us and I hope the people who come after us will feel the same way,” Adams said.