Pittman Smith authors pictorial history of Mountain Brook
Imagine you are standing in front of City Hall in Crestline. Close your eyes, and visualize an old farmhouse and pasture land.
Not long ago, this is what the land in Crestline looked like, Catherine Pittman Smith told Crestline Elementary first-graders on a recent visit. She wants kids to know what was here before they were, but that’s just one of the inspirations behind her new book from Arcadia Publishing, Images of America: Mountain Brook.
It’s far from being a history textbook, Smith said. Its 254 photos and captions give it heart, soul and personality.
Smith doesn’t remember the pasture land herself, but she grew up on Dexter Avenue and has vivid memories of going to Ariail’s Drug Store, the A&P, and Mitzi’s 2nd Place, as well as seeing Santa at the Canterbury Shop.
“I have learned so much [writing this book], and I want to share that,” Smith said. “I hope this book shares a love and a passion for this community.”
The book begins with early years in Mountain Brook’s history with a chapter on the years through the end of World War II and one on the 1950s to the present, but it was the third one on “leisurely living” that Smith found the most fun to compile and the fourth on “visionary leadership” that she found the most meaningful.
The last follows a plethora of residents, from Zipp Newman, who started the Crippled Children’s Clinic, which became Children’s Hospital, to Drayton Nabers’ founding of Cornerstone School, to Helene Elkus’ championing the sidewalk initiative in Mountain Brook.
Traditions including the Junior League, Red Cross, scouts, high school sororities and fraternities and Alabama and Auburn football all find a place in the book, as well as highlights of the countless individuals whom Smith said “stepped up and did things that took true courage.”
Before starting the book project in January, Smith only knew Robert Jemison as the founder of Mountain Brook, but she discovered the depth of his legacy in her research. In fact, she opens the book by discussing Jemison and closes it with a photo of his three great-granddaughters who still live in the area.
“It’s important to know Jemison’s vision and that he didn’t compromise on quality,” she said. “He hired the best of the best to design, plan and lay out this city.”
For Smith, meeting with the parents, aunts and uncles of her childhood peers to compile their photos and stories was a meaningful journey in itself. She said it was thrilling to get to know them and what their lives were like.
“I think it’s honoring them to share their stories,” she said. “People have told me, ‘You don’t know what it has meant for my mother or father to talk with you.’”
In fact, Smith kept the photos she collected under such close care that she carried them with her when tornado warnings sent her to seek shelter last spring.
After giving birth to the book she refers to as her second child, Smith’s wealth of local history knowledge bubbles over. As she and her daughter walk around the villages, she points out where landmarks of bygone days like a riding academy once were, and she can’t help but tell those around her how she learned that Wayne Rogers went by William to those who knew him growing up and how they once tried to put a theater where the library is now in Crestline.
Images of America: Mountain Brook, $21.99, will be available at Smith’s Variety and other local retailers, as well as at upcoming book signing events.
Book Signing Events
Launch Party
Gallery 1930
Friday, Nov. 7, 5:30-8 p.m.
Smith’s Variety Holiday Market
Thursday, Nov. 13, 5:30-8 p.m.
Alabama Booksmith
Monday, Nov. 10, 4 p.m.
Barnes & Noble at The Summit
Sunday, Nov. 23, 1-3 p.m.
Brown Bag Lunch Series
Emmet O’Neal Library
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 12:30 p.m.
Pepper Place Market
Saturday, Dec. 6, 7 a.m.-noon