Did you know?

After the editor of Over The Mountain Journal asked for some more information on the history of Hollywood and the home featured on the tour, I’ve been sending messages to Garden Club members and discovering the interesting tidbits of history- about the neighborhood and the homes itself.

Hollywood began in the 1920’s as a city.  Hollywood/Homewood is considered the first community “Over The Mountain”- outside of Birmingham. Hollywood neighborhood and homes were marketed as “Out of the Smoke Zone and into the Ozone”. 

It had one mayor- who resided at 109 Bonita- before the town joined Homewood. The first streets to be developed- Hollywood Boulevard, Bonita, Gran- had homes in the Spanish Mission and Spanish Eclectic style construction. When new homes were finished and put on the market for sale, the neighbors would do a light show and have chorus shows to feature the new home.

The Salie House (11 Bonita, and named for the resident architect of many of the early Hollywood homes), has beam work and elements replicated in the home from the Hollywood Country Club.  The Spanish Mission style home has been beautifully restored and has it’s own blog- check it out at 11bonita.com. And that spectacular turret in the middle of the home?  It's constructed from one tree.

Spanish Mission style homes are constructed to promote airflow through the house. The owners only needed to open the windows to get an east-west or north-south draft and the home cooled itself.  Can you imagine living in the deep south during the oppressive summers and being in a cool home- nearly 100 years ago? 

The Crais House (300 Yorkshire, owned by Charles and Ali Goodrich) was built around 1925 and is positioned at the top of a hill. At the time, you could stand on the front porch and see the Hollywood Country Club.  The current garden at the home contains plants from Mr. Crais’ green house- which is now the porch on the right side of the house.

The Hollywood Country Club was a sight to behold back in the day!  Most of the families in this historic district had live in maids and cooks during the 1920’s. On Thursday, however, it was cook’s night off- so everyone went to the Country Club for dinner.  The club had a sandy beach at the pool and was a wonderful gathering place. It burned down in the mid 1980’s and there is now a hotel on the former property along Shades Creek Parkway.

Have you noticed that Birmingham seems to get a large amount of lightning strikes?  It has to do with the amount of iron ore in Red Mountain- the backbone of the steel industry and Sloss Furnace- which gave rise to The Magic City.