Birmingham

In Birmingham, we treasure our historic character and neighborhoods. One such beautiful urban neighborhood is Forest Park, with its mix of stately homes and 1950s ranch-style houses close to downtown. Today we assume it always was how it is. But it, too, faced a threat.  

In the 1970s, Forest Park and most of the City of Birmingham’s neighborhoods were considered to be in decline. The state of the situation cannot be better described than by Catherine Greene Browne in her book “The History of Forest Park”: 

“As the 1970s dawned, Forest Park was a community of lovely older homes and picturesque, tree-lined winding roads, and it was facing a crisis that threatened to destroy the very essence of the neighborhood.  Many of the older homes around the perimeter of the community had been sold to developers who leveled them and built multi-story apartments on the sites. 

“Also believing the area to be a “blighted and dying neighborhood,” the City of Birmingham had plans to build a freeway through Forest Park, resulting in the destruction of many of the residences, thus, changing the very façade of the entire area.  

“A group of Forest Park residents who had lived there for many years as well as more recent home buyers, met and organized the Forest Park Community Association (FPCA).  Their first priority was to convince City officials that Forest Park was not a “dying” area, but rather a thriving community desiring nothing less than to be allowed to continue to survive undisturbed by unwanted intrusions.” 

The community leaders Browne references were people like Bill Crocker, Catherin Browne, Sam Frazier, Chervis Isom, Hank McCarl, Robert MacLeod, Ron Council, and many others. Together, they were successful in stopping the freeway that would have carved up Clairmont Avenue, Essex Road and Cliff Road. Leaders also established a National Register Historic District and Design Review to help mitigate potentially bad development decisions by the government and the private sector. The result is one of the most stable and highly valued neighborhoods in Jefferson County.  

Places in peril

There are many stories like these across the country, past and present. Places are still in peril despite newer tools like the historic tax credit to help keep historic buildings in use. Recent losses like the Quinlan Castle and current threats of loss like the Powell School prove that community-led preservation leadership is still needed to convince governments, developers, and big institutions to do the right thing by our built environment. And it takes a commitment from everyone, the public sector and the private sector, to prioritize preservation even when it is not easy.   

Regrettably, many leaders who pioneered preservation efforts in Birmingham are passing from the scene. So my call to action is this: It is time for new leadership to emerge from all communities. We need a new unified, and intentional effort to save our historic places.  

Do you like walking past Downtown Birmingham buildings from 1880 or 1920, or 1950? Do you treasure places like the Alabama Theatre and Carver Theatre? Do you enjoy showing off Birmingham to folks from out of town who do not have high expectations before they come?  

We cannot assume that the places we love will be saved. We cannot assume that the government will automatically take care of our historic buildings or that preservation is given in public policy, the economic development community, or the real estate community. What we do know is that once a place is demolished, we cannot get it back.