Warren Manning and Jemison & Co. designed and developed Mountain Brook Estates from 1926 – 1929. (pgs. 114-115 of Birmingham by the Book) The main avenue in the newly developed Mountain Brook Estates was Mountain Brook Parkway, which parallels Jemison Park, designed as a linear parkway in the floodplain of Shades Creek.
The Tutwiler-McDonald Estate was built on the parkway as a replica of George Washington’s Mt. Vernon to showcase standards for Jemison & Co.’s new subdivision. The Old Mill facing the estate, was designed in 1927 as a promotional landmark for the new community, and was never a functioning mill. Other improvements included stone gates, bridges, bridle trails, and Mountain Brook Village, intended to mimic an English countryside village.
View of Shades Creek Valley from Mountain Brook Estates
Shades Creek: Flowing through Time tells the story of waters and tributaries touching the shores of Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Homewood, Hoover, Bessemer and other stretches of Jefferson, Bibb and Shelby County, Alabama. Far more than a trickling stream on a slow mosey, Shades Creek has shaped, supported and influenced life on its journey to today. Learn of explorers and Native Americans; Civil War iron-making; the water’s nurturing of native plants and wildlife; and how Shades Creek shaped modern times by providing inspiration to regional planners like Warren Manning and the Olmsted Brothers. Read too of problems in this paradise, brought on by bad judgments or good intentions gone wrong; and of the environmental groups rallying to rescue and protect the treasure. 216 pages, lavishly illustrated with more than 50 maps and 250 photographs
