Owenton

Owenton is the former name for the community roughly coinciding with Birmingham's current Bush Hills neighborhood. It, along with Earle Place was situated on the land granted by the United States to the American Asylum for the Instruction and Education of the Deaf and Dumb in Hartford, Connecticut in 1816, and sold by its agent, William Ely for cash.

The community was named for Rose Wellington Owen (1848-1912), a farmer, merchant and real estate dealer who lived in the vicinity. He donated a parcel of land on which was constructed a college for the North Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church in 1898. The "North Alabama Conference College" commonly called "Owenton College", was renamed "Birmingham College" in 1906 and later became Birmingham-Southern College.

Owenton was reached by the Owenton-Wylam streetcar line beginning in 1900. Other area landmarks included Owenton Technical School (now Bush Hills Academy) and Owenton Methodist Church (now McCoy United Methodist Church).

References

• Armes, Ethel (1910) The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama. Birmingham: Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
• Owen, Thomas McAdory and Marie Bankhead Owen (1921) History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. 4 volumes. Chicago, Illinois: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.