Catherine Pittman Smith

Mountain Brook (Images of America) Catherine Pittman Smith

Nestled in the over-the-mountain suburbia of Birmingham, Mountain Brook was originally hunting grounds for Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chickasaw Indians. First settled in the 1820s in the area called Shades Valley, it was not until 1926 that Robert Jemison Jr. began developing Mountain Brook Estates into its present form. Jemison had enormous vision honoring its natural beauty, and he hired regional planner and landscape architect Warren H. Manning of Boston to design a secluded residential community of handsome homes and amenities. Mountain Brook was incorporated in 1942 and experienced a resurgence of growth and expansion after World War II. The neighborhoods were designed to be anchored by villages as community centers for residents within walking distance. Still in touch with the vision and principles on which Robert Jemison founded Mountain Brook, its citizens enjoy the avant-garde villages full of restaurants, specialty gift shops, groceries, and parks, as well as its scenic natural landscape.