Early inspiration for residential developments, parks, urban streetscapes, and innovation are captured in these fascinating promotional pieces by developer Robert Jemison, Jr. More than 200 period photographs and drawings are included in each of these entertaining histories of Birmingham’s growth. There was so much vision, much of which came to pass! “Build it and they will come!”
“This book is all about the optimism of the time,” says Marjorie White, Director of the Birmingham Historical Society. “They believed that they were creating a world-class industrial region. There was so much building, so much progress. It’s the Golden Era in many ways–and what they created paved the way for the Birmingham we know today.”
Who were some of the original merchants? Where was the all-electric house? What was the 1909 plan for Fairfield? These and lots of other questions are answered in these captivating volumes! Birmingham Historical Society meticulously gathered all the information from the original Jemison & Company magazine articles at the Birmingham Public Library archives, then digitized and reprinted them to form these easy to read publications. They are available for purchase via the links below.
It is HOT today, and there is another heat alert advising people to be cautious, but it IS July. So thought we’d take a look at some of Birmingham’s weather extremes throughout its weather history.
The hottest recorded temperature in Birmingham, Alabama history was a scorching 107 degrees Fahrenheit which occurred on July 29th, 1930. But it reached:
106 on July 13, 1980
106 on July 29, 1952
106 on July 25, 1952 and
106 on July 12, 1930.
Take a look at some more Birmingham extremes HERE. A special thanks to the Hostetler brothers. They created this site using U.S. government aggregate data in response to anecdotal stories from their parents about the extremely cold weather while students at the University of Michigan.
Maybe the upper 90’s in July are not so extreme after all! Stay cool…
Birmingham Historical Society invites you to An Evening in Honor of George B. Ward Monday, November 1, 2021 7:00 p.m. Strange Auditorium at Birmingham Botanical Gardens PROGRAM By Marjorie White SIGNING OF THE NEWLY RELEASED Birmingham: The City Beautiful, Compliments of G. Ward Published by the Society with the financial support of The Sterne-Agee Foundation Members paid for 2021 may pick up their copy of the new release. Books not picked up will be mailed following the meeting. Additional copies will be available for purchase for $30 (cash or check), both at the meeting and from Birmingham Historical Society, One Sloss Quarters, Birmingham, AL 35222.
INVITATION FRONT: Left, top to bottom: George Ward, Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, 1907; Birmingham City Hall (1901-1950); George Ward Park, 1901 Greensprings Avenue, Birmingham. Center, top to bottom: The Relay House, the city’s first hotel and home to the Ward family, its proprietors (1871-1886); Cover, Birmingham: The City Beautiful booklet prepared and signed by Mayor G. Ward, 1908; View of Birmingham at the Red Mountain Gap, the city’s first protected viewshed, enacted 1929. Right, top to bottom: George Ward, investment banker, builder of Vestavia, 1926; Ward’s Vestavia temple residence (1926-1971); Ward’s Temple of Sibyl (1929), as relocated to its park site on U.S. 31 at the entrance to today’s City of Vestavia Hills. Historic photographs courtesy Birmingham, Alabama Public Library Department of Archives and Manuscripts; color photographs courtesy Abraham Odrezin, 2020.
“George Ward was a most unusual and an unusually accomplished man with a significant legacy. Ward was alderman, mayor, and city commission president, an investment banker, a civic and community leader, a student and a reader, a writer, a lover of classics, a gentleman farmer, an idealist, sentimentalist, natu- ralist, conservationist, birder, and floriculturist, in short, a many-sided man of extraordinary ability.” — Marjorie L. White, Author, Birmingham: The City Beautiful, Compliments of G. Ward
“Birmingham: The City Beautiful, Compliments of G. Ward is a fundamentally important contribution to the material available on our community. It places Birmingham in the City Beautiful Movement in the context of urban America. The document can also serve as a guide for citizens interested in becoming en- gaged in their community. It is a manual of civic participation. Three cheers.” — Edward S. Lamonte, Retired Professor of History, Birmingham-Southern College, Former Chief of Staff to Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington Jr.
“Every man, woman, and child in Birmingham seems to be imbued with the city beautiful idea. I have never observed in any other city universal interest as is being manifested by the people in this city.” — Warren Manning in “Manning Tells of Progress of Work-Talks to Commission of City Beautiful Plan,” Birmingham Ledger, November 19, 1914
Birmingham Historical Society 