UPDATE! Design Review tables decision to demolish the “Little Villa”
WBRC video with comments by BHS Director Marjorie White
A little history about the “Little Villa” scheduled for demolition on Highland Avenue. The demolition request comes before Birmingham City Council on February 28th. Please also see the petition and @BhamNow article.
This historic home in Highland Park on Highland Avenue near Rojo is scheduled to soon be demolished to make way for more apartments. A public hearing on the issue has been postponed until January 10. Please help show your support for saving this historic home by signing this petition.
Please read and sign this petition if you’d like your voice to be included. Thank you @bhamnow for bringing this to the attention of the neighborhood!
It’s been almost a year since Birmingham Historical Society moved from a free-standing shotgun house at Sloss Quarters with a period garden to a mid-rise residential building in the historic urban neighborhood of Southside. While we love the new space and especially our new neighbors, it’s no longer possible to keep Grandmother’s Garden. But we have preserved some of the best parts of that 15 year experience.
A popular medicinal herb book, Pretty Posies Powerful Healing – an Herbal Primer, featured watercolor illustrations of plants grown in what was called Grandmother’s Garden.
And the Facebook page is archived with photos and information gathered over the 15 year period by both master gardeners and volunteers. Both sources are a wealth of information for those interested in heirloom plants, organic herbs, fruits, and vegetables, as well as decorative period plants and the way in which they were historically used.
There are lots of reasons to rediscover heirloom plants including their disease resistance, flavor, pollination without pesticides, and even the memories that they evoke. Be sure to take a look at the links above and if you’d like to try this yourself, here are a few useful tips!
After vacating 37 years at the Duncan House at Sloss Quarters, we celebrated the move to our new home at the historic Altamont Apartments on Highland Avenue this afternoon. Our well-attended Open House today featured book signings of this year’s publication, Birmingham’s Dynamite Hill, signed by Barbara Shores and Jeff Hunt ((with whom Martin Luther King stayed) as well as a history hunt, book sales, membership information, historical marker guidelines by Jefferson County Historical Commission historian, Linda Nelson, and light refreshments. Thank you to all who joined us!
Guests were also invited to tour the lobby of the historic Greenbriar at Altamont next door.
Photo credits: Louise McPhillips & Rebecca Moody
You’re invited to the official opening of our new location, 2827 Highland Avenue, on Birmingham’s Southside, in the historic Altamont Apartments, now called the Greenbriar at Altamont. Read more about it HERE!
FREE and open to the public
When: Sunday afternoon, November 13 from 2-4 P.M.
What: We will have punch and cookies and lots of books to sell, including a preview of the soon to be released Birmingham’s Dynamite Hill. (expected mid-November)
Where: The courtyard and historic lobby of The Altamont will also be open to the public at this time.
An historic 1924 apartment building on Highland Avenue is our NEW/OLD location! Birmingham Historical Society members and volunteers have been slowly moving 37 years of research documents and publications from The Duncan House at Sloss Quarters to 2827 Highland Avenue on Birmingham’s Southside.
Many thanks in particular to Pat & Ehney Camp, The Camp Foundation, John Lauriello with SouthPace Properties, BHS President Wayne Hester, Regina & Blue Ammon, Gerry Waters, Carol Slaughter, Carol Ogle and Marjorie White for making this vision a reality.
Read more about the interesting history of our new location in September’s newsletter HERE. Our mailing address remains P.O. Box 321474/Birmingham, AL 35232.
Please note our change of location to: 2827 Highland Avenue/Birmingham, AL 35205. At this time, the BHS business office is open ONLY for scheduled meetings and appointments, and our mailing address remains unchanged at P.O. Box 321474/Birmingham, AL 35232. When our ongoing renovations are completed, a formal opening will be announced. (UPDATE: OPEN HOUSE November 13th, 2-4PM)
We LOVE our historic Highland Avenue neighborhood!
A big thanks to all those who made this move possible including John Lauriello of Southpace Properties, architect and BHS Trustee Wayne Hester, and The Ehney Camp Foundation.
