Eastwood

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This article is about the current Birmingham neighborhood. For the former Eastwood subdivision, see La Quemada.
Eastwood
Seal of birmingham.jpg
Birmingham neighborhoods
District(s) 2, 5
Community Crestline
Population 2,345
Area N/A
President Leigh LaChine
Meeting site Eastwood Library, (map)
Meeting day First Thursday
Website none
Neighborhood map Eastwood

Eastwood (formerly East McElwain) is a neighborhood in the Crestline community of eastern Birmingham. It is centered around the Eastwood Village shopping center (the former site of Eastwood Mall) between Montevallo Road, Oporto-Madrid Boulevard and U.S. Highway 78 (Crestwood Boulevard). It extends north across Georgia Road to the southern end of the Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve at Red Gap, and south across Shades Creek to Scenic View Drive. Eastwood is bordered by Irondale to the east, Mountain Brook to the south, Crestline and Oak Ridge Park to the west, and Gate City and Brown Springs to the north.

Much of the center of the Eastwood neighborhood is commercial, formerly anchored by Eastwood Mall and Century Plaza, as well as the Eastwood Shopping Plaza and, later, big box stores on Ludington Lane. The retail area also extended along Crestwood Boulevard to the west with the Village East Shopping Center in Crestline and the Eastwood Festival Center in Crestwood South. Other nearby retail strips were developed along Montclair Road and Montevallo Road.

The neighborhood's residential areas are discontinuous, with apartments on Sunrise Drive and a subdivision extending across the Irondale city limits north of I-20 off Montevallo Road. To the south, numerous residential streets cluster around Putnam Middle School and St Martin's in the Pines retirement community. Across Shades Creek, the neighborhood also includes houses on Scenic View Drive and other streets tucked into Irondale on the southeast.

Most of Eastwood is in Birmingham City Council District 2, with the Sunrise Drive apartment in District 5. School-age children in Eastwood attend Avondale Elementary School, Putnam Middle School and Woodlawn High School. Birmingham Fire Station No. 26 is located in the neighborhood. Lawson Field on Oporto-Madrid and Flora Johnston Nature Park (Elder Street Park) along the Shades Creek flood zone are located in Eastwood.

The former Birmingham Public Library Eastwood Branch was located in Eastwood Mall and later at The Shops on Montevallo in Crestline before it closed in 2020.

Since the library's closing, the Eastwood Neighborhood Association meets on the 1st Thursday of each month online. The association was a finalist in the "Social Revitalization" category in the 2015 Neighborhoods USA "Neighborhood of the Year" competition.

Neighborhood presidents

Demographics

  • 2010: 2,610 (36.9% Black)
  • 2020: 2,345 (25.8% Black)