Elyton
Elyton or Ely's Town was a prominent crossroads trading center in southwestern Jones Valley near the head of Valley Creek, and the county seat of Jefferson County from its founding in 1821 until the courthouse moved to Birmingham in 1873.
The location where Elyton developed was previously known as Frog Level, a spring-fed flat land used for horse races. A 2,560-acre parcel around Frog Level was granted by the U.S. Congress to the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in Hartford, Connecticut. Their agent, William Ely, traveled to Jones Valley to view the property. Finding it "broken, poor, and barren", he recommended that the Asylum sell it for cash. He underestimated its value on the market, thinking it would bring no more than $1.50 per acre. When it went on sale in February 1820, prices climbed to between $15 and $100 per acre. Ely proceeded to make a donation of 160 acres to the county on the condition that a courthouse and jail be constructed there within four years, and residents of the new town named it in Ely's honor.
The town was incorporated on December 20, 1820 and by the following year boasted a population of 300. A number of pioneer-era coach roads crossed at Elyton, including Huntsville Road, Georgia Road, Montevallo Road, and Arkadelphia Road.
Elyton was centered on Broad Street (now Center Street) where it crossed Tuscaloosa Road (also known as "Main Street") and Cotton Street, a block south. Church Street was platted another block south, running into the Stephen Hall plantation, now known as Arlington. The Elyton Courthouse was located in the center of Broad Street, north of Main, near Elyton School. Elyton Methodist Church, first organized in 1818, was located north of Tuscaloosa Avenue. Elyton Cemetery was developed a few blocks east of Broad.
During the Civil War, Wilson's Raiders swept through central Alabama on the way to Selma, dismantling furnaces and foundries along the way. The Hall plantation, expanded and ennobled in Greek Revival style bu Judge William Mudd, served as Wilson's headquarters and was spared from the torch.
In the late 1860s Elyton was reached by the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad running through Jones Valley. During the planning of the North & South Railroad, Elyton was considered the most likely crossing, and was set to become the principal railroad connection for the mineral resources of the Birmingham District's expected industrial development. The officers of the Elyton Land Company, however, had plans for a new industrial city to be called "Birmingham", and schemed to move the crossing to a parcel of farmland they purchased from William F. Nabers and Elizabeth Nabers. In 1873 the company arranged for a referendum to move the county seat and enticed voters with free rail excursions to the polls, music and barbecue.
Most of Elyton's more than 1,000 townsfolk moved with the courthouse, leaving Elyton as a depopulated suburb. Plantations in the vicinity were subdivided in the 1880s. Joseph Riley Smith redeveloped his family's 600 acre farm just north of Elyton into Smithfield and initiated a horse-drawn street railway as a convenience to commuters from Birmingham and also serving the Pratt Mines. The district continued growing as an important suburb through the early 1900s, with the emergence of West End beyond Elyton. The Earle-Greene plantation in Elyton was redeveloped as Elyton Village public housing project in the late 1930s.
The community was re-incorporated as a municipality in 1907. Frank W. Smith served as its first and only mayor. The Board of Aldermen was composed of Ollis Brown, Van Smith, C. M. Bitz, T. T. Alley, and W. M. Marriner. The small city was annexed into Birmingham as part of the Greater Birmingham legislation which took effect on January 1, 1910. It is now within the Arlington-West End neighborhood of Birmingham's West End community. The area is dominated by Princeton Baptist Medical Center, constructed at the intersection of Tuscaloosa Avenue and Lomb Avenue in 1922
| Preceded by: Carrollsville |
Jefferson County seat 1821–1873 |
Succeeded by: Birmingham |
References
- Moss, Florence Hawkins Wood (1947) Building Birmingham and Jefferson County. Birmingham: Birmingham Printing Company
- White, Marjorie Longenecker (1981) The Birmingham District: An Industrial History and Guide. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society ISBN 9990230099