William Brown
William S. Brown (born 1840; died 1919) was the owner of the W. S. Brown Mercantile Company.
Brown served in the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He also worked as a clerk in the mercantile business operated by William Mudd and J. B. Earle. In 1873 he and fellow clerk William Hood opened a dry goods business in Arkadelphia, and moved the business to 20th Street North in Birmingham in March 1876. The partnership was dissolved in September 1882
Brown served on the Birmingham Board of Aldermen under Mayors A. O. Lane and B. A. Thompson in the 1880s.
In 1910 commissioned the design of a large mansion on Highland Avenue. After his death in 1919 house passed to his daughter, Bessie and remained in the family until it was sold in 1947 to the American Federated Women's Club as the "Women's Club House".