Highland Avenue: Difference between revisions

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* Intersection with [[32nd Street South]]
* Intersection with [[32nd Street South]]
* Intersection with [[33rd Street South]]/[[12th Avenue South]]/[[Highland Drive]]
* Intersection with [[33rd Street South]]/[[12th Avenue South]]/[[Highland Drive]]
* [[Highland Golf Club]] (former site of [[Lakeview Park]])
* [[Highland Park Golf Course]] (former site of [[Lakeview Park]])
* Intersection with [[Clairmont Avenue]]
* Intersection with [[Clairmont Avenue]]


Revision as of 14:46, 6 August 2008

Highland Avenue is an east-west street that winds for about two miles along the northern slope of Red Mountain in Birmingham's South Highlands.

History

Highland Avenue was constructed by the Elyton Land Company in order to provide access to its 1,500-acre wooded property on South Highlands, which it wished to develop as residential estates. In 1884, with the company celebrating the payment of its first issue of bonds, secretary-treasurer and chief engineer Willis Milner suggested that the time was ripe to turn attention to the property, which was still "unbroken primeval forest", protected from timber poaching by agents of the company.

Given charge of the project, Milner planned a mule-drawn passenger railway beginning at 1st Avenue North and 19th Street and turning south along 22nd Street and branching east and west at 5th Avenue South. The two end-points, after extension, were at Five Points South and the intersection of 29th Street and 3rd Avenue South. Milner then planned, with a detailed topographic survey, the winding thoroughfare that would complete the loop.

The right of way was set at 100 feet, with no more than 3% slope to accommodate horse-drawn carriages and trolleys. Care was taken to maximize attractive lot frontages wherever possible, and to provide parks in low areas where building would be impractical. Henry M. Caldwell, president of the Elyton Company, suggested the name "Highland Avenue". Milner's plan was located on the ground by his cousin, John A. Milner by April 1, 1884.

Immediately grading and construction was begun on a 25-foot wide roadbed in the center of the right-of-way. When that was completed, during the summer, the artificial lake at Lakeview was created by piping three springs into an excavated basin within the park's boundaries. Lakeview Park was planned as a resort to attract Birmingham residents up into the hillside for pleasure, and to inspect the prospective home sites along the way.

The construction of the rail line itself had to wait for the Alabama Legislature's approval of a change in the company charter. In the mean time, the unpaved roadbed was opened to traffic. With the approval of the legislature, construction of the Highland Avenue Railroad began in earnest in 1885.

Soon later it was decided to replace the horse-drawn carriages with heavier, steam-powered dummies. The old 16-pound rails were pulled up and replaced with 40-pound rails to accommodate them. The result, which opened on June 26, 1886 was the first dummy line in the South, with trains leaving every 15 minutes, alternating directions on the one-hour round-trip loop.

Part of Highland Avenue was incorporated into the town of Highland in 1887. That section was regraded and curbed by the town. When the City of Birmingham annexed the entire area in 1893, the city graded and curbed the remainder of the avenue.

Route

The western end of Highland Avenue begins at the intersection of 12th Avenue and 20th Street South in Five Points South. It follows roughly the path of 12th Avenue with the exception of the areas of Rhodes Park and Caldwell Park. Highland Avenue is home to many apartments, condominiums, office buildings, restaurants and bars as it winds it way approximately 14 blocks to the Highland Golf Course, where it takes a sharp northward turn. Its eastern end is at the intersection of Clairmont Avenue in the Lakeview District.

Highland Avenue hosts numerous events, the largest of which is the annual Do Dah Day parade and festival.

Locations

References

  • Milner, Willis J. (1911) "History of Highland Avenue". typescript. Birmingham Public Library Archives., rpt. in Johns-1979
  • Johns, Lyn (July 1979) "Early Highland Avenue and the Magic City, 1884-1893 Including Willis J. Milner's 'History of Highland Avenue'." Journal of the Birmingham Historical Society. Vol. VI, No. 2, pp. 33-43

External links

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