Celebrating 100 Years of Homewood

From its beginnings as a small rural settlement in the shadow of Red Mountain to its development into a vibrant, modern community, Homewood has always been a great place to live. With Homewood’s legal incorporation in 1926, it became the first “over-the-mountain” city, and since that time it has continued to lead the area in educational quality, business success, and civic pride.

The Beginning

The area’s first settlers ventured over Red Mountain from Elyton (now Birmingham) into the heavily wooded and largely uninhabited valley in the mid-1820s. The 1850s brought mining and the railroad, and with them, increased population. Soon the largely unorganized populace began to come together into several autonomous communities: historic Rosedale, which was championed by florist Theodore Smith, became a thriving African-American community; Grove Park; Edgewood, which was developed by Stephen Smith and Troupe Brazelton and incorporated in 1920; and finally, Hollywood, which was the brainchild of Clarence Lloyd and incorporated in 1926. Always educationally focused, citizens immediately set about founding schools to educate the area’s children.

Population continued to grow with Edgewood’s introduction of an electric rail line that greatly improved transportation in the area and the creation of Edgewood Lake. In 1926, Rosedale, Grove Park, and Edgewood voted to merge and become the city of Homewood. The state legislature legally incorporated Homewood, and Hollywood was annexed by Homewood in 1929.

The decade between 1940 and 1950 saw a 74 percent surge in Homewood’s population as people fled the heavily industrial city of Birmingham on the other side of the mountain. The next several decades saw an increase in city services, residential development, and economic growth.

Hometown Homewood

In 1970, Homewood decided to leave the Jefferson County school system and establish a system of its own. Existing schools were now Homewood City Schools, and in 1972, the new Homewood High School opened to acclaim as one of the state’s most high-tech (the high school underwent a major renovation that was completed in 2020, adding 100,000 square feet, new classrooms, a new fine arts and athletics wing, and reorienting the school to face Lakeshore Drive). By the 1980s, with the construction of the Red Mountain Expressway and Homewood’s annexation of over 500 acres of land in West Homewood, the city’s economic base grew exponentially. Homewood continued annexation until it expanded its borders to its current 8.3 square mile area.

Today Homewood is a bustling city of nearly 28,000 citizens, making it one the state’s most densely populated cities. It’s home to a thriving business community, a nationally recognized school system, highly desirable neighborhoods, and friendly citizens. From its humble beginnings to the sophisticated city it is today, Homewood is a hometown hit!