2/20/2024 0 Comments Highland nails birmingham alThe Jefferson County Historical Commission was beginning a campaign to preserve the historic character of the street. A report created in 1964 by Harold Bartholomew and Associates recommended street and landscape improvements. The issue of preserving accommodations for parking proved to be the key dispute in proceeding with improvements to the avenue. The committee invited property owners along the avenue to attend a meeting to select between the two options.īy the 1960s, with the streetcar gone, the wide avenue's center median was frequently used for automobile parking. One bidder proposed using bituminous macadam and another priced creosoted wooden block pavers. The Birmingham Board of Aldermen's street committee received bids for paving the roadway from 20th Street to Lake View Park at the eastern limit of the city. Highland Avenue remained unpaved until 1904. When the City of Birmingham annexed the entire area in 1893, the city graded and curbed the remainder of the avenue. That section was regraded and curbed by the town. Part of Highland Avenue was incorporated into the town of Highland in 1887. The result, which opened on Jwas the first dummy line in the South, with trains leaving every 15 minutes, alternating directions on the one-hour round-trip loop. The old 16-pound rails were pulled up and replaced with 40-pound rails to accommodate them. Later it was decided to replace the horse-drawn carriages with heavier, steam-powered dummies. With the approval of the legislature, construction of the Highland Avenue Railroad began in earnest in 1885. In the mean time, the unpaved roadbed was opened to traffic. The construction of the rail line itself had to wait for the Alabama Legislature's approval of a change in the company charter. ![]() 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. 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. Immediately grading and construction was begun on a 25-foot wide roadbed in the center of the right-of-way. Milner's plan was located on the ground by his cousin, John A. Caldwell, president of the Elyton Company, suggested the name "Highland Avenue". Care was taken to maximize attractive lot frontages wherever possible, and to provide parks in low areas where building would be impractical. The right of way was set at 100 feet, with no more than 3% slope to accommodate horse-drawn carriages and trolleys. Milner then planned, with a detailed topographic survey, the winding thoroughfare that would complete the loop. The two end-points, after extension, were at Five Points South and the intersection of 29th Street and 3rd Avenue South. 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. 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. ![]() ![]() 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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |