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Historic photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
0612 JM Jemison Magazine Then Now Art
Jemison & Company created buildings and a community to be permanent, as evidenced by the similarity in this “typical” Mountain Brook Village store photo from 1929 (back) where Pappagallo and Gilchrist are located today (front).
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Mountain Brook Pharmacy
The interior of the Mountain Brook Pharmacy in April 1929 where Gilchrist is located today. Original caption: “The recently opened Mountain Brook Pharmacy in Mountain Brook Village is truly an example of excellence in furnishings, equipment, and arrangement of its complete stock.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
English Country Home
An English country home on Dell Road, November 1929. Original caption: “Charming Old English Home adds Manor Touch to Dell Road Sector."
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Inside the Old Mill
The Old Mill house on Mountain Brook Parkway served as a tea room when this photo was taken in January 1930. Original caption: “Any resident of Birmingham may enjoy Breakfast, Luncheon, Tea or Diner but the Old Mill’s cheery fireside.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Mountain Brook Village Stores
A Mountain Brook Village storefront in November 1929 where Pappagallo and Gilchrist are located today. Original caption: “Here is a typical Mountain Brook Village Store. Notice its graceful lines and beautiful appointments, as well as ample parking space.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Larkin Residence
The Larkin Residence set in the trees on Southwood Road. Original caption: “A study in sunlight and shadow—the beautiful residence of Jas. S. Larkin on Southwood Road, Mountain Brook Estates.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Brook and Bridge
A Mountain Brook brook and a parkway bridge in April 1927. Original caption: “…high hills and rounded knolls, deep bluffs and meadowland, sloping gently to the brook’s tree fringed edge; clear springs, sparkling streams; quiet pools beloved by fishermen; undulating uplands; endless vistas which appeal to every instinct for the beautiful in nature, the peace and all pervading beauty in the country at its best—this is Mountain Brook Estates, the new country home development.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Riding Academy
The audience at the Riding Academy in Mountain Brook Village in July 1929. Original caption: “View of audience assembled on terrace, sloping from Club House, in background, to rail of track. Band Enclosure and Umbrella Refreshment Stand may be noted in background.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Hill's Grocery Store
The interior of Hill's Grocery Store in April 1929 where Pappagallo is located today. Original caption: “White as snow ad immaculately clean is the new, strictly modern, well stocked and efficiently arranged Hill‘s Grocery store in Mountain Brook Village.”
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Image courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Mountain Brook School
A rendering for the Mountain Brook School, today's Mountain Brook Elementary, from August 1928. Original caption: “Contract signed for Mountain Brook School.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Mountain Brook Club
A rendering for Mountain Brook Club, July 1929. Original Caption: “From Beechwood Road you approach the North Façade of the Club House. Its harmony with the surrounding terrain is particularly pleasing, being well back from the highway, and screened with trees and shrubbery to give the sense of seclusion and repose.”
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Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
Jemison Offices
Jemison & Co.'s offices were new in 1929: a Renaissance Revival Building at 3rd and 21st Street North in the Birmingham City Center. At the time, the firm had 100 employees and claimed to be the largest firm of its kind in the South.
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Image courtesy of the Birmingham Historical Society.
The Jemison Magazine Book
The Jemison Magazine: Birmingham and Mountain Brook, 1926-1930 is available from the Birmingham Historical Society.
A new book on Jemison and Company’s magazines transports us to the community we know so well in its infancy.
It was a time when the Old Mill House’s tearoom hosted lunches and dinners, native craft shows and holiday parties. Twenty- five miles of bridle trails were opened for the children who competed at the new Riding Academy to ride. Mountain Brook Village was to be “the only shopping center in this fine home section,” and soon the Martha Washington Candy Shop opened, then later Mountain Brook Pharmacy and Margaret Pekor’s interior decoration studio, among other businesses. A contract was signed to build Mountain Brook School, now Mountain Brook Elementary. Mountain Brook Country Club was being planned to resemble a big country house. Cahaba Road was first paved.
The Jemison Magazine: Birmingham and Mountain Brook, 1926-1930, a softbound volume released in May, contains 168 original pages from The Jemison Magazine. The monthly publication was published by real estate company Jemison and Company, led by Robert Jemison Jr., and chronicles the development of the “country estates” of Mountain Brook.
“This book is a fun read,” said Marjorie White, Birmingham Historical Society Director and one of the book’s editors. “It’s a story about a company that did everything right. The magazines were promotional, actually sales pieces to sell a new lifestyle and physical lots. Mountain Brook, at that time, was far out of town. Roads had to be built to get to homes that also needed to be built.”
In the book, more than 200 artists’ renderings and early photographs depict buildings and natural areas anyone familiar with the area will recognize, only with far fewer trees surrounding the buildings.
The introduction sets the context of careful planning for Mountain Brook’s more than 4000 acres as Birmingham’s emerging city center was growing and developers were setting the tone and character for the city to assume. The magazine pages also tell of Jemison’s corporate growth and the development in other parts of the city.
“In the end, Mountain Brook emerged as an exceptional residential community that remains so today due to the good infrastructure of the Jemison company’s investment,” White said. “They talked about retaining natural beauty—and when you drive through Mountain Brook, that’s what you see.”
The Jemison Magazine: Birmingham and Mountain Brook, 1926-1930, is available for $30 at Pappagallo and Gilchrist in Mountain Brook Village and at Little Professor in Homewood. Books can also be purchased at www.bhistorical.org. A previous volume on Jemison Magazine, The Jemison Magazine and the Selling of Birmingham, 1910-1914 (2011), is also available. The cost for both volumes is $50. For more information on the books, contact Marjorie White at mslwhite@aol. com.
