Reflections on History: Looking back as Vestavia Hills turns 70

Seventy years ago, the only way up the mountain just south of Birmingham was up the winding, curving trail of Old Montgomery Highway.

At the time, there wasn’t much to see on top of that mountain, said Pat Boone, the longtime attorney for the city of Vestavia Hills and its school board.

“It was wilderness,” Boone said.

Before too long, developer Charles Byrd and his company decided to build a residential community on top of the mountain, calling it “A Place Apart,” Boone said.

Soon after, residents, by a vote of 88 for and only eight against, voted to incorporate and form a new city, with the southern boundary near where Bob’s Power Equipment now stands and lined with 30 city streets.

There were 607 residents in the new city, which took the name Vestavia Hills, named after the estate of former Birmingham Mayor George Ward, which featured a “Temple of Vesta,” akin to the original Temple of Vesta in Italy. The estate, built in the 1920s, was one of, if not the first, properties in the city and was known for hosting large, glamorous parties.

Fast-forward 70 years, and the city of Vestavia Hills now has almost 35,000 residents. Running 19 miles wide, the city now includes the older part of the city along U.S. 31, the Cahaba Heights area and Liberty Park, which continues to grow at a rapid pace.

This year, though any official celebration may have to be scaled back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city is celebrating its 70th birthday while improving public spaces and amenities through the Community Spaces Plan. Those seven decades have seen the city grow from a small bedroom community to a city that boasts one of the top school systems in the state.

In honor of the city’s 70th birthday, the Vestavia Voice spoke with city leaders and longtime residents about how the city has changed over time and what makes it such a special place to live.

‘ALL OF US OWN THIS CITY’

Boone takes pride in the fact that the residents of Vestavia Hills have never voted against a tax increase to help the city’s school system.

They have the attitude of “all of us own this city” and are dedicated to create a successful school system to help teach young Vestavians and prepare them for the future, he said.

As the city celebrates its 70th birthday, the Vestavia Hills school system is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Formed in 1970, the school system grew quickly, and with the support of city residents, became one of the most well-regarded school systems in the state.

While Vestavia Hills Elementary School East existed prior to the city’s incorporation as a Jefferson County school, and Vestavia Hills Junior High, later known as Pizitz Middle School, began in the 1960s, the city wanted to form its own school system in order to have smaller classes and offer advanced courses, Boone said.

Just before the school system was formed, there were 1,542 students in the city, and with 777 East students, the student to teacher ratio was 45 to 1, Boone said.

So, in 1970, Vestavia Hills City Schools was formed after voters agreed to pay a 7.5-mill tax to fund the school system.

But the early days of the school system weren’t easy, Boone said. “We struggled.”

Land for school buildings wasn’t easy to come by, but the city benefited from the donations of several key families, including the Pizitz and Wald families, Boone said.

By 1976, school system leaders realized they needed another grammar school, Boone said. Voters approved a 2.25-mill tax increase and built Vestavia Hills Elementary West on land donated by the Wald family that was originally set to be part of Wald Park. The family agreed to remove the restrictions from the land in order to allow Vestavia Hills Elementary West to be built.

Over the years, the school system would add several more campuses, bringing in the elementary school in Cahaba Heights and building schools in Liberty Park, all of which feed into Vestavia Hills High School.

Mark Richardson has been principal at East since 1999 and taught for seven years there prior to being named principal.

“It’s been remarkably consistent as far as how parents elevate their schools,” Richardson said.

Richardson said while many things have changed over the years, the school’s commitment to great teaching, great relationships and helping students discover truth remains the same.

With such great community support, Richardson said it helps school leaders and teachers to know there will be opportunities for grants and donations, and to know they can rely on the PTO and others in the community. But the community also holds school employees to a high standard, he said.

“They’re put in a place of honor, but much is expected of them,” Richardson said.

A GROWING COMMUNITY

Boone said one of the key factors in growing the city’s population was the construction of U.S. 31, which made its way through the city in 1954, four years after the city was formed.

In those four years from incorporation to the building of U.S. 31, the city’s population went from 607 to 2,995, pushing the city from town status to a full-blown city (with at least 2,000 residents), Boone said.

Councilman George Pierce, who has served on the council since 2008, said the city has changed a lot since he and his family moved here in 1986.

“In 1986, it was still a bedroom community,” Pierce said. “The odds are you worked somewhere else.”

But as the city continued to grow and leaders such as former Mayor Scotty McCallum saw the need for economic development, the city slowly but surely added businesses to the area. Pierce remembered the old Parisian and Yeilding’s department stores, along with Sears and other stores, that were in the original City Center.

Over time, city businesses continued to grow, bringing in restaurants, Starbucks, the movie theater, as well as the addition of the Publix and the shops surrounding the grocery store.

Shelia Bruce, head of the Vestavia Hills Historical Society, has lived in Vestavia since 1976 and said she has seen the city become more spread out.

She remembered spending time at the Shades Mountain Drive-In theater and how residents would have to drive around for a parking spot at the City Center.

Current Mayor Ashley Curry moved to Birmingham in 1980 when the FBI transferred him and later moved to Vestavia Hills the same year as Pierce in 1986. “It was just a blessing,” Curry said.

The city was much smaller, probably half of the population today, he said. At that time, there were no Liberty Park or Cahaba Heights communities in the city limits. They were annexed in 1992 and 2002, respectively.

Boone said Liberty Park started as 3,500 acres and was built by the Drummond Co. and a marketing company that collectively became Liberty Park Joint Venture. The leaders of the private community said while they weren’t contiguous with the city, they wanted to be part of the city.

After Liberty Park Joint Venture agreed to pay up to $15 million for schools and donated 35 acres for facilities, the land was annexed in 1992. Liberty Park Elementary and Liberty Park Middle School have since been added to the school system, and businesses and homes continue to be added.

Michelle Creamer, an associate broker with ARC Realty, has lived and worked in Liberty Park for 18 years and said while it’s common to see families move within Liberty Park, they rarely move out of the “fantastic community.”

Creamer said she’s had an amazing experience and wouldn’t live anywhere else. Creamer said while there is more development now than when she first moved there, Liberty Park has not lost its community feel.

Vestavia Hills Councilwoman Kimberly Cook has lived in Liberty Park for 18 years as well and said the area was “very quiet and remote” at first, almost like living in the country. But over the years, the community evolved into a prime spot for commercial development, she said.

As Liberty Park has grown, Cook said residents have become much more involved in city affairs, being more active in government and in city events.

Ten years after Liberty Park was annexed, Cahaba Heights officially became part of Vestavia.

In 2002, McCallum wanted to annex Cahaba Heights, which was about 2,100 acres with about 5,000 people, Boone said. Two schools were in the area, the elementary school now known as Vestavia Hills Elementary Cahaba Heights and Gresham, which is now Vestavia Hills Elementary Dolly Ridge.

Voters approved the annexation with about 1,600 voting for it and about 800 against, Boone said.

Cahaba Heights has continued to grow, bringing in businesses and restaurants. Heights Village, which existed long before the area was annexed into Vestavia, has also grown, said Katherine McRee, owner of Gigi’s and The Lili Pad, which have been at the popular shopping center since 2004. McRee has been in Vestavia since 1996, when Cahaba Heights was still in an unincorporated part of Jefferson County.

McRee said when she signed her first lease for her shop, the only stores in Heights Village that are still there today were State Farm, Regions Bank and Sexton’s Seafood Birmingham. Businesses such as Starbucks, Learning Express and Little Soles have since joined.

“They saw what the future of Cahaba Heights was going to be,” McRee said.

Raymond Gotlieb, owner of Heights Village, said the shopping center has been around, as best he can tell, since the late 1940s or early 1950s. At that time, it included a Western Supermarket and grew to include other local stores, as well as the Regions and State Farm which still stand today.

The shopping center began to flourish after Cahaba Heights was annexed in 2002, Gotlieb said. McCallum called Gotlieb and asked for his thoughts on the annexation, and Gotlieb told him the success would be akin to that of Crestline in Mountain Brook.

On the day of the election in 2002, Gotlieb remembered eating at Heights Café when McCallum, along with local media, showed up to talk to patrons.

Over time, Heights Village reinvented itself, choosing businesses that would not compete with existing tenants and bringing in “good, quality tenants,” Gotlieb said. The city has worked with businesses to help them get what they need, he said.

“They just have a great atmosphere for business,” Gotlieb said.

McRee said almost immediately after annexation, the positive impact of having access to the city’s fire and police departments, as well as trash services, was obvious.

Curry said Cahaba Heights has grown a lot. During his time on the city’s Parks and Recreation Board, Vestavia was able to add a senior lodge and athletic fields there.

MAKING SPACE FOR THE FUTURE

In 2008, Pierce’s first year on the City Council, he said the city could not afford the Community Spaces Plan.

But after about four years of planning and community meetings, the $58 million project broke ground in fall 2018, with a goal to improve the city’s infrastructure and recreational facilities, along with other public amenities, including a new community building, a new New Merkel House, major renovations to Wald Park and Cahaba Heights Park, and improvements to public roads and stormwater infrastructure, along with the installation and improvement of sidewalks.

The plan is well underway and should see completion by the end of 2021.

“Hopefully 50 years from now, my grandkids will remember the Community Spaces Plan,” Pierce said.

Pierce said city leadership is “finally able to do the things we wanted to do.”

“It’s an exciting time,” he said. “Our citizens have been patient for a long time, and I think it’s paying off now.”

Another major change took place in 2010, when a citywide referendum was passed by voters, transitioning Vestavia to a mayor-city manager form of government. Randy Robertson was the first to hold the job in 2012 before resigning in March 2013 to take care of his father-in-law. Later in 2013, current City Manager Jeff Downes came on board.

Curry said hiring Downes was a fantastic move.

“The city manager-council form of government is far better than mayor-council,” Curry said. “You’ve got a professional running the system.”

Curry said having someone like Downes leading the day-to-day aspects of the city, as well as recruiting businesses to the city, helps make it more efficient, and also gets rid of the political patronage. Downes works for the council and is not a politician, he said.

Downes said his tenure in Vestavia has “gone extremely well.”

“I really enjoy working for all of the elected officials I’ve worked for,” Downes said.

‘A FAMILY-ORIENTED COMMUNITY’

Vestavia Hills may be much larger than it was 70 years ago, but Bruce said it still feels like a “family-oriented community,” a “good place for your family to live” and grow up.

Curry said it is a combination of things that makes Vestavia such a great place, including the school system, first responders, the overall safety of the city, new amenities and home values.

“All of those things add up to make us what we want to be,” Curry said.

Pierce said it isn’t uncommon to go to a softball game in the city and run into someone you know, and even their children and grandchildren. It’s a “three-generation” city because people stay and because people are involved and committed to their city, he said.

“They [the residents] love this city; they care about this city,” Pierce said. “It’s a neat place to live.”