Enon Ridge

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This article is about the Birmingham neighborhood. For the geological feature, see Enon Ridge (geology).
Enon Ridge
Seal of birmingham.jpg
Birmingham neighborhoods
District(s) 5
Community Smithfield community
Population 581
Area 180 acres
President Adrienne Reynolds
Meeting site New Salem Baptist Church, (map)
Meeting day 4th Tuesday
Website
Neighborhood map Enon Ridge

Enon Ridge is a neighborhood in the Smithfield Community, on approximately 180 acres immediately northwest of "Malfunction Junction" and south of Village Creek and east of 1st Street North. The neighborhood includes the geographical "Enon Ridge" which divides central Jones Valley on the south from Opossum Valley on the north.

The Dorothy Spears Greenway, running along a former railroad bed parallel to Bankhead Highway, forms the southwestern edge of the neighborhood. It and the Enon Ridge Trail were among the first segments of the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System's Village Creek Blueway to be developed. The trails also connect to the Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail.

Originally inhabited by black laborers, it became one of the prime residential neighborhoods for African-American professionals in the first half of the 20th century. Notable residents of Enon Ridge have included bandleader Erskine Hawkins, social worker and educator Carrie Tuggle, Birmingham World editor Emory Jackson, and undertaker C. M. Harris. The home for orphans which Tuggle founded in 1903 became Tuggle Institute, now an elementary school in the Birmingham City Schools system. Enon Ridge is also the former home of Enon Methodist Episcopal Church, Sardis Missionary Baptist Church (now Old Sardis Baptist Church), and to the historic Enon Ridge Cemetery and Knesseth-Israel Cemetery.

In 1956 Samuel Walker developed a 50-car drive-in theater for Black patrons at the corner of 3rd Place Alley and 17th Avenue North in Enon Ridge.

The Enon Ridge Neighborhood Association meets on the 4th Tuesday of each month at New Salem Baptist Church on 6th Street North. Neighborhood president Adrienne Reynolds also heads the Enon Ridge Community Development Corporation which has undertaken projects to improve neighborhood green spaces.

Neighborhood presidents

Demographics

  • 2010: 688 (92.3% Black)
  • 2020: 581 (83.3% Black)

References