Hoover 50th Anniversary Magazine

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Neighborhoods 42-51 Looking Ahead 52-54 Directory 55-58

From the beginning: Hoover spreads its wings

By JON ANDERSON When the city of Hoover first tried to incorporate in 1964, the effort failed by a vote of 119 to 87.

But tenacity won out. A second vote taken in 1967 with a smaller tract of land just west of U.S. 31 in the Green Valley area proved successful, and with a vote of 100 to 45, the town of Hoover was born with 406 residents.

Now in its 50th year, the city has blossomed through annexations and aggressive home building to a population estimated to exceed 87,000. Hoover has grown into the second largest city in the Birmingham metro area and the sixth largest in the state. It has developed into a destination for jobs, retail shopping and recreation.

The city began as the dream of William Hoover Sr., an insurance man who started buying property along U.S. 31 in the 1950s when he learned the state was going to widen the highway to four lanes.

He helped establish the Green Valley Country Club in 1959, and more homes and businesses followed.

Frank Skinner Jr., who moved to Hoover in 1963 and later became the city’s longest-serving

Hoover in its early years. Key points of interest include the Green Valley Shopping Center (now Hoover Court), Green Valley residential community, Green Valley Country Club (now Hoover Country Club) and Green Valley Elementary School. Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society.

mayor, said some of the early homes built in the Green Valley area sat empty for quite a while until South Central Bell split off from Southern Bell and moved to Birmingham.

A lot of those families chose to locate in the Green Valley area, creating a demand for new homes, Skinner said.

Once the city incorporated, city fathers

sought to keep property values high and property taxes low and to pay for city services with sales taxes from a growing retail base, Skinner said.

AGGRESSIVE ANNEXATIONS In the 1970s, more shopping centers, car dealerships and other businesses popped up

along U.S. 31, but perhaps the biggest shot in the arm came to Hoover in 1980 with the annexation of the 3,000-acre Riverchase community, which former city attorney Jack Harrison called “a gnat swallowing an elephant.”

Current Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said the city owes a great deal of gratitude to businessman John Harbert for having the vision for the Riverchase community and bringing it into Hoover.

The Riverchase development had more than 4,800 home sites but also nearly 900 acres of commercial property. That included land for a corporate office park that has attracted thousands of jobs and the Riverchase Galleria campus, which made Hoover a retail shopping mecca for visitors throughout the Southeast.

The Galleria opened in 1986 with four anchor stores, a 17-story office tower and a 339-room hotel. Within 10 months, the mall increased the city of Hoover’s sales tax revenues by 61 percent. The city in 2016 received about $12.7 million in sales tax revenues from the Galleria, which accounts for about 18 percent of the city’s total sales tax revenues, records show.

Total annual sales volume on the mall campus has grown from $195 million in 1987 to more than $423 million in 2016.

Hoover also grew significantly with the annexation of the Bluff Park and Shades Mountain communities in 1985. Those annexations

The Galleria opened in 1986 with four anchor stores, a 17-story office tower and a 339room hotel.

Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society.

were not as financially rewarding as some others, but they put Hoover’s population at a point where it could operate under the same annexation rules as Birmingham, Skinner said.

Hoover spread its wings to the east and the west. To the east, Hoover snatched up about 1,000 acres of prime commercial land in Inverness, plus 4,000 acres in Meadow Brook and Greystone. To the west, the city annexed thousands of acres off Alabama 150 and South Shades Crest Road, with most of it owned by U.S. Steel.

That included Trace Crossings, which started out with 1,200 acres and now has more than 2,200 acres, and the 1,600-acre Ross Bridge development, for which land was annexed in 2002.

U.S. Steel still has an annexation agreement that will allow more than 2,000 additional houses south of Shelby County 52.

Home building has flourished in Hoover.

During the past 20 years, the city has approved 9,906 single-family building permits, with an average of 495 per year, city records show.

The peak year during that 20-year period was 2005, when 823 single-family permits were approved. Home building slowed when the Great Recession hit in 2008, but Hoover was not hit as hard as other areas. There were between 310 and 380 single-family building permits issued every year but one since 2010, including 358 permits in 2016.

The city has also added 481 townhomes and

1,562 apartments since the beginning of 1999, records show.

GROWTH PHILOSOPHY Skinner, who oversaw much of Hoover’s expansion, insists U.S. Steel didn’t get sweetheart deals. He only favored annexations when they made business sense, he said.

Skinner said he wanted to see Hoover get bigger for economic growth, strength and vitality.

“We could have had a very small, little city with 500 people and control of U.S. 31,” he said.

But the purpose of a city is to support the neighborhoods around it as much as possible and increase the quality of life for people, Skinner said. Developers wanted their homes to be in Hoover because of the amenities the city offers, and the city has gained by having quality housing developments and commercial developments that support them, he said.

And sometimes, it’s good to annex property to keep it from harming the city, Skinner said.

People don’t want to be next to something undesirable, he said.

“I always thought if you can see it, hear it or smell it, you need to annex it and try to control it,” Skinner said.

Harrison, who was Hoover’s city attorney

The first half of the Hoover Public Library’s current building and the Hoover Recreation Center were built in the early 1990s. Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.

from 1967-98, wanted to annex a 10-foot-wide strip of land 30 to 35 miles through the woods to land near the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance to take advantage of spinoff business from the auto plant. But Skinner said he felt it was too far away from the city’s base.

Some people have criticized the city’s fast growth, but Skinner said sometimes when the door of opportunity opens, you either go through it or lose it.

“Sometimes it’s not always when you’d like to do something; it’s when you can do something,” he said.

Numerous people have complained that Hoover has too many apartments and rental properties (61 percent of the housing is owner-occupied). Skinner said much of the

apartment land in Hoover was already zoned for apartments before it came into the city.

NUMEROUS AMENITIES So what’s drawing all these people to Hoover?

Brocato said it’s a combination of a lot of things, including a great school system, low crime rate, strong public safety and other city services, housing availability and affordability, and access to great parks and natural resources such as the Cahaba River, 350-acre Moss Rock Preserve nature park and Veterans Park off Valleydale Road.

Mary Milton, a Realtor who moved to Hoover in 1970 at age 12 and who does at least 30 percent of her business in the city, agreed.

The school system is the No. 1 reason she hears people give for moving to Hoover, but it’s also affordable, she said.

“You find a lot of different price ranges,” Milton said.

A lot of people love the schools in Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills, but homes there tend to be more expensive, she said. A firsttime homebuyer in Hoover can find something under $150,000 and still get quality schools, she said. Homewood has good schools, too, but homes there are overpriced, she said. “You can’t go to Homewood now and buy anything.

It’s ridiculous.”

There are affordable homes in Shelby County communities such as Helena, Pelham and Alabaster, but they’re farther away from downtown Birmingham, where many people work, Milton said. Hoover also is convenient to shopping and a variety of churches and has a diverse population in terms of age and race, she said.

In 1980, U.S. Census data showed Hoover was 97 white, 2 percent black and less than 1 percent Asian. By 2016, the city had changed to 73 percent white, 17 percent black and 6 percent Asian, according to estimates by the Environmental Systems Research Institute.

Hoover’s Hispanic population has grown from less than 1 percent in 1990 to an estimated 5.7 percent in 2016, according to ESRI. Brocato said he and many others consider

HOOVER’S POPULATION GROWTH 10,0000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0

* SOURCES: FORMER HOOVER CITY ATTORNEY JACK HARRISON, U.S. CENSUS BUREAU *2016 POPULATION ESTIMATED BY ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

that diversity to be a strength.

“We’re doing it right. We look like America,” he said. “We live next door to each other, attend school with each other.”

Hoover home values also have held up, Milton said. She now lives in the same home her parents bought for about $40,000 in the 1970s, and it’s now worth about $300,000, she said.

The median home value in 2016 was $267,330, and the median household income was $74,717, according to ESRI. Charles Ball, executive director for the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, said he grew up in Birmingham and remembers taking Sunday drives to Hoover with his parents as a child in the 1970s and working at the Galleria for three years right after it opened.

“It’s been pretty phenomenal,” he said of the city’s growth over the decades.

Numerous larger cities such as Birmingham have seen cities similar to Hoover spring up next to them that serve as large employment bases and more than just a suburb, Ball said. Hoover’s strong school system and available land and jobs have all been a part of that growth, and the highway network that includes Interstate 459, Interstate 65 and U.S. 31 doesn’t hurt at all, he said. “It’s just an extremely convenient location.”

Hoover’s growth has allowed it to gain influence on decision-making bodies for the metro area, including the Metropolitan Planning Organization (which decides how federal highway dollars are spent), the Birmingham Water Works Board and the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, Ball said. “I just see that influence in the region continuing to grow.”

Fire department serves as start for Hoover mayors

By JON ANDERSON The city of Hoover has had 10 mayors in its 50-year existence, and half of them have been associated with the Hoover Fire Department.

The first mayor was Don Watts, who was an active member of the Hoover Civic Club when the city incorporated in 1967, according to a book on the city’s early history by Bluff Park resident Heather Jones Skaggs.

Watts and the first town council served only one year so that the town could get on the same election cycle as other municipalities.

The next three mayors all were members of the original town council, and all were members of the Hoover Volunteer Fire Department as well.

Councilman Ed Ernst ran against Watts in 1968 and beat him to become Hoover’s second mayor, but Ernst stayed in office only about a year before he resigned. Ernst had health issues and “didn’t feel like he was qualified, and he would rather step down,” said John Hodnett, who was on the council at the time, according to interview transcripts for another book on Hoover’s history put together by the Hoover Historical Society.

O.E. “Brad” Braddock was council president and stepped in to serve the rest of Ernst’s term.

Some of Hoover’s first mayors included, from left, Don Watts, O.E. “Brad” Braddock and John Hodnett. Photos courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society.

It was during Braddock’s term that the first freestanding city hall (separate from the first fire station) was built in 1971 on land along U.S. 31 donated by insurance man William Hoover, according to “A History of Hoover, Alabama and Its People,” by Marilyn Davis Barefield.

Braddock won the mayor’s election in 1972 but later died of a heart attack in 1975.

He was replaced by Hodnett, who was council president and Braddock’s next-door neighbor.

Hodnett, in interview transcripts, said it was Braddock who made the initial contact with businessman John Harbert about annexing

the 3,000-acre Riverchase development into Hoover, including land that now holds the Riverchase Galleria.

Hodnett, with assistance from then-Council President Frank Skinner and then-City Attorney Jack Harrison, completed the Riverchase negotiations.

Some residents “thought that we were going way out on a limb and we were going to bankrupt the city by taking in Riverchase,” Hodnett said in an interview for the book. “Now [in 1990], I think it provides two-thirds of the income to the city.”

Skinner was the only Hoover official to run

for office again in 1980, and he won the mayor’s seat. He kept that job for more than 18 years and is the city’s longest-serving mayor.

Skinner, who once served as assistant fire chief, is widely credited as the architect of much Frank Skinner Brian Skelton of Hoover’s growth. He oversaw massive annexations, including the Bluff Park and Shades Mountain communities, thousands of undeveloped acres owned

by U.S. Steel in what is now central and western Hoover, and the Greystone community and key commercial sections of Inverness to the east.

Barbara McCollum Tony Petelos People criticized the city for going that far east, but “we made money on it,” Skinner said. “It made business sense.”

Skinner’s administration also oversaw construction of the current Municipal Center, Public Library, Recreation Center and Hoover Metropolitan Gary Ivey Frank Brocato Stadium, and it pushed heavily for the widening brought Hoover through a downof Alabama 150 and construction turn in the economy by keeping of the “Galleria flyover” exit on a rein on spending and cutting Interstate 459. contributions to Hoover schools Investigations into city affairs when the school system received by the FBI and state attorney a large chunk of money from Jefgeneral’s office cast a shadow on ferson County.

Hoover City Hall for more than Petelos also fought off lawsuits two years and resulted in Skinner claiming that police and elected resigning in February 1999 and officials were trying to drive Hispleading guilty to a misdemeanor panics out of the city. campaign finance violation.

When Petelos became JefferThen-Council President Brian son County’s manager in 2011, Skelton was appointed mayor for the City Council appointed its the final 20 months of Skinner’s president, Gary Ivey, to take over fifth term. as mayor. Ivey pushed through Councilwoman Barbara McCol- tax incentives to help with renlum beat Skelton in the next elec- ovations of the Riverchase Galtion, becoming Hoover’s first female leria and touted the recruitment mayor. She oversaw the annexation of new retail businesses and two of 1,700 acres for the Ross Bridge free-standing emergency rooms. development and the purchase of a Ivey last year was challenged former 380,000-square-foot Bell- and beaten by Frank Brocato, South warehouse on Valleydale the city’s first paramedic and fire Road for use as the Hoover Public marshal who spent 42 years with Safety Center. the department before retiring in Tony Petelos, a former state leg- 2015. islator, defeated McCollum in the Two other key city leaders, new 2004 election. Supporters said he City Administrator Allan Rice and brought peace to a quarrelsome Council President Gene Smith, city government and successfully also are Fire Department alumni.

Hoover commerce explodes with highways’ expansion HOOVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY In the summer of 1969, Alabama Department of Public Safety agents drove north on Interstate 65 to a dark and secluded lane leading off Old Montgomery Highway to a building near the Cahaba River.

Their destination was known as the Kid McCoy Place. It was a popular spot where visitors from Birmingham and other areas came to eat, drink and, to the Department of Public Safety’s dismay, gamble.

On this particular Saturday night, the agents intended to shut down the speakeasy, but the raid failed. The agents arrived to find the Kid McCoy Place closed and as dark as the road leading to it. Someone, they suspected, had tipped off the operators.

Today, the site of the Kid McCoy Place is in the city of Hoover. But on that night in 1969, municipal limits of the 2-year-old town lay several miles to the north. Hoover was, at that time, nothing more than a small cluster of homes and a few early businesses.

To the north were the bright lights of Vestavia Hills, Homewood and Birmingham. But to the east, west and south to Pelham lay dark roads and

Hoover grew from a small cluster of homes and businesses in the 1960s to Alabama’s sixth-largest municipality today. Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society.

William’s Store was one of Hoover’s earliest businesses. Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society. forest — the kind of place patrons of the Kid McCoy Place appreciated.

Its days in the secluded darkness were numbered, however, just as were Hoover’s days as an inconsequential dot of light in that darkness.

In only a half century — an exceedingly brief period for the life of a city — Hoover grew to become Alabama’s sixth-largest municipality and a center of economic growth and strength — a place that today generates roughly $4 billion in retail sales a year, according to Mayor Frank Brocato.

The beginnings were inauspicious. However, the vision of a city on this undeveloped edge of south Jefferson and north Shelby counties burned bright in the mind of William Hoover Sr., who moved his insurance company, Employers Mutual of Alabama, to a site facing the recently four-laned U.S. 31 in 1958.

He donated land for a school and sold lots at a discount to encourage community growth. He had long dreamed of launching a new city, and he did not intend to be denied.

A motel came, a drugstore, then a few other stores to serve the growing number of families.

For early business owners, locating on the south side of Shades Mountain was as much a gamble as the Kid McCoy Place, which today is nothing more than a novel memory that was not wanted and not able to survive in the brightening lights of city expansion.

The bets by those early Hoover businesses paid off in bigger ways than anyone, except perhaps Hoover himself, could have imagined.

The graph of Hoover’s commercial growth is one of sharp upward spikes separated by periods of steady upswings. Few, if any, dips show up on the timeline of commercial growth.

Hoover incorporated in 1967 on a few square blocks of land immediately east of U.S. 31, and early growth followed along that stretch of highway from the northern Lorna Road intersection southward to the Patton Chapel Road intersection.

A number of automobile dealers found that grouping their businesses along the highway to be advantageous, earning the nickname “Motor Mile” for one segment. In less than a decade, Hoover’s section of U.S. 31 was crowded with businesses and even more crowded with vehicle traffic. Some described the highway as a parking lot.

I-65 ended at the U.S. 31 intersection, dumping a heavy load of tractor-trailer trucks and out-of-area travelers into the mix of local traffic.

Still, more and more businesses sought land to become a part of the growing city.

In the two decades following Hoover’s incorporation, two events accelerated commercial growth and changed the face of Hoover’s business community.

First, in 1980, Hoover annexed the sprawling Riverchase planned development that included a large commerce park on the east side of U.S. 31. That annexation forever changed Hoover from a bedroom community to a freestanding city with a mix of residential and commercial areas.

Second, in 1984, the completion of the I-65/I-459 interchange relieved traffic pressure from U.S. 31 and opened traffic corridors from all directions. The event was “probably the biggest economic event in city history,” Hoover planning consultant Bob House said.

The intersection of two interstate highways, plus a major federal highway (U.S. 31), was a commerce magnet.

Two years after the interchange completion, the Riverchase Galleria opened immediately west of the interchange, and businesses flocked to its shopping sphere.

Hoover was instantly a regional shopping destination and growing larger by the day as businesses spread outward from the 3.3 million-square-foot center. U.S. 31, Lorna Road and Alabama 150 all saw rapid retail growth.

Alabama 150 began as a two-lane route to Bessemer, but construction of the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, development of Trace Crossings around the stadium and commercial development along the route pushed its widening to five lanes and quickened growth west of the Galleria.

In 1990, only four years after the Galleria’s opening, Hoover began annexing residential and commercial property along U.S. 280, another major federal highway to the east of I-65 and intersected by I-459. It was an area

The Riverchase Galleria under construction in the 1980s. Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society. growing at least as rapidly as Hoover, and the expanding business community along U.S. 280 provided Hoover another center of commerce.

As Hoover Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Powell observed: “Give me two interstates and two major U.S. highways” and a city will almost certainly sprout from those transportation arteries.

“One thing about it, [Hoover’s government

leadership] sure didn’t mess it up,” Powell said.

Indeed, Hoover’s government leaders proved visionary and let it be known that “Hoover is open for business,” House said. They sought to encourage commercial growth and to sustain it.

House said an important reason for the sustained growth is that city leaders didn’t “allow just anything to come in here.”

In the city’s earliest days, U.S. 31 had an

HOOVER’S LARGEST EMPLOYERS DST Health Solutions (629)

Cahaba Government Benefit Admin. (544) Publix (517)

City of Hoover (725) Regions Bank (3,486)

WalMart (1,019)

BellSouth Telecommunications (1,110)

BCBS of Alabama (2,627)

Southern Company Services/ Southern Nuclear (1,413)

Hoover Board of Education (1,870)

The largest sales and use tax paying businesses, in order of size: • • • • •

Costco Walmart (U.S. 280) Walmart (Alabama 150) Sam’s Club Belk

• • • • •

Target Regions Bank Publix (U.S. 280) Home Depot (Galleria) Publix (Alabama 150)

SOURCE: CITY OF HOOVER 2015 COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT

eclectic and cluttered appearance with a wide variety of signs and building styles. The annexation of Riverchase and its planned development style revealed a new way of looking at growth and development, which city leaders used as a guide for the city’s future. City leaders, House said, demanded a certain “quality of development” related to landscaping, parking, tree conservation and other safety and amenity standards.

That demand, he added, continues to pay dividends.

Today, Hoover boasts more than a dozen commercial centers, including Chace Corporate Center along Data Drive, the Southlake area along Valleydale Road, Inverness on U.S. 280 and along Stadium Trace Parkway. Retail centers include Patton Creek, the Alabama 150 corridor, The Village at Lee Branch on U.S. 280, Inverness Corners and Plaza, Lorna Road, Bluff Park, Southlake and The Grove.

Some choice retail land remains to be developed, but much already is developed. Looking forward, one next step is to develop a strategic city plan.

Additionally, according to Mayor Brocato, the city is looking to diversify its economy by recruiting science, technology, engineering and mathematics businesses.

As it is, the last published city financial report listed 9,849 individual business licenses issued, representing the smallest mom-andpop stores to the city’s largest commercial concern. That number has increased every year since the Great Recession of 2008-09.

Information for this article by the Hoover Historical Society came from the society’s book, “A History of Hoover, Alabama and Its People,” by Marilyn Davis Bareϔield; “The History of the Hoover Fire Department 1962-2012,”

by Frank Brocato, now Hoover’s mayor; the City of Hoover 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report; and from interviews with Hoover Planning Consultant Bob House, Hoover Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Powell and City of Hoover Public Information Ofϔicer Lori Salter-Schommer.

Longtime business owners reflect on years in city

By SYDNEY CROMWELL The city of Hoover sprang up around Green Valley Drug.

Bill Box, whose father, Joe Box, opened the pharmacy and diner in 1961, recalls the early years of the store when Green Valley Drug neighbored William Hoover Sr.’s business, Employers Mutual Insurance of Alabama, and the first traffic light was installed at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Columbiana Road.

“Other than that, there were two trailer parks, a few streets of houses and a lot of pine trees,” Box said.

While many businesses have come and gone in Hoover, Green Valley Drug is among a handful that opened around the time of Hoover’s incorporation — or even earlier — and continue to operate. Bluff Park Hardware is another of these early businesses. Original owner William Green opened the store in 1956 in Vestavia Hills, then named Vestavia Home Center, and moved to Bluff Park in 1968.

“A lot of it’s still the same,” current owner Donald Byron said. “We’re a community-based store.”

Box said his father chose to open a business

Bill Box’s father, Joe Box, opened Green Valley Drug in 1961. Photo by Sydney Cromwell. in Hoover because he saw the growth of suburbs “spreading this way.” The first few years were slow, Box said, and his father operated the pharmacy alone until business began to pick up in the mid-1960s. Over the coming

decades, Box said Green Valley Drug would carry cosmetics, gifts and other merchandise depending on customers’ interests.

But two things were institutions at Green Valley Drug: the pharmacy and the breakfast

and lunch diner. In the ’60s, Box said diners inside pharmacies were a common sight. Now, it’s a rarity, and Box said it makes Green Valley Drug distinctive.

“We’ve kept it over the years just because it’s fun,” he said. “It’s sort of a fixture here in Hoover.”

As he grew up, Box spent time working in his father’s store. In watching Joe Box practice pharmacology and develop friendships with regular customers, Bill Box decided on his own career path. He graduated from Samford University’s pharmacy school in 1983 and began working with his father until he passed away in 1995. Box said quite a few things have changed from his childhood and teen years in Green Valley Drug.

“My first job as an intern here was to computerize the pharmacy,” Box said, adding that they were the first pharmacy south of Birmingham to do so.

Like Green Valley, Bluff Park was one of the earliest communities to develop in what is now Hoover. However, its geographic location made Bluff Park a little more insular, and Byron said he still hears from customers who are glad they don’t have to drive “down the mountain” for supplies for their home projects.

Byron began working at Bluff Park Hardware while in high school, and he recalls many Hoover neighborhoods were just beginning to

Donald Byron, owner of Bluff Park Hardware. Photo by Sydney Cromwell. be built at the time. He eventually purchased the store in 1998, becoming its third owner.

Bluff Park Hardware has grown bigger and added small engine repair to its services, but one employee said the store is still part of the “heart of Bluff Park.” Byron said customers come back to him each time they have a new project because he doesn’t just sell equipment;

he offers advice based on years of experience.

“A lot of people come in with what they think they need and walk out with what they really need,” Byron said.

Many of their customers have been coming to Bluff Park Hardware since the 1970s and make a habit of dropping by even if they’re there to chat rather than shop. It’s the kind of place that inspires longevity in its staff as well, as one 10-year employee called himself the “newbie” of the bunch.

As more businesses, roads and homes have appeared in Hoover, what seems to bring customers back to stores like Green Valley Drug and Bluff Park Hardware is a sense of consistency and community.

At Green Valley Drug, regulars come in once a day or once a week to eat the same breakfast they’ve had for decades, served by diner staff who know their name and order as they walk through the door. Bluff Park Hardware’s usual customers head to the back of the store for a cup of coffee and talk about home projects, family or the news of the day.

Box, who is now a Hoover resident, attributes Green Valley Drug’s 55 years of success to “the grace of God” and “having the best customers and employees in the world.”

“It’s still a small community,” Byron said of Bluff Park. “Our customers up here are loyal to us, and we try to be loyal to them.”

Businesses, residents drawn to Hoover

By ERICA TECHO

Darren and Elizabeth Pruitt moved to Hoover with their two kids, 5-yearold Zachary and 3-yearold Penny.

Photo by Erica Techo.

The city of Hoover’s population and business community have grown significantly over the last 50 years. To get an idea of what attracts families and businesses to the area, we sat down with individuals who recently moved to Hoover and asked why they chose this city.

THE PRUITT FAMILY Elizabeth and Darren Pruitt started looking for a new home out of necessity. With two kids, 5-year-old Zachary and 3-year-old Penny, they needed more space.

“Our house in Pelham was getting kind of small,” Elizabeth Pruitt said. “It was a fourbedroom, but the rooms were very small, and my daughter’s room didn’t have the space for anything bigger than a crib.”

Zachary had not yet started kindergarten when they started looking for a new home, so as they looked, they kept school options high on the priority list. As parishioners at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, Elizabeth Pruitt said they chose to use that as a center point in their search.

“We looked at a lot of different areas and finally said we were just going to stick with the

church as our home base and just kind of radiate out from there,” she said. “And our son got accepted to Prince of Peace school, so that was an extra thing that made us want to move to Hoover. We stumbled upon the house of our dreams, and it’s just a perfect fit.”

The family moved into the Shades Run subdivision near Alabama 150, and since moving in May, Elizabeth Pruitt said they continue to find new things to like about the Hoover

community. She works at UAB, and Darren Pruitt works in Helena, so their new home is a good central point. It is also in close proximity to several shopping options and is well-connected, Elizabeth Pruitt said.

“It seems like there’s a lot more options for wherever we need to get,” she said. “There’s two different ways I know of how to get to the mall; there’s two ways I know to get to work. …

I feel like I’ve added more time to my day just

by [everything] being convenient.”

Hoover has also provided a place where their family can stay even as their kids grow up, Elizabeth Pruitt said. Prince of Peace Catholic School goes through eighth grade, and at that time, Zachary will have the choice to go either to John Carroll Catholic High School or enter public school.

“Hoover has excellent schools, and if something happened where they didn’t go to Prince of Peace anymore, it’s not a bad thing to go to Hoover schools,” she said. “They’re good schools.”

After six months in their new city and new home, the Pruitt family sat down for a family review. At that time, Elizabeth Pruitt said their kids only had one concern, which was comforting.

“The only thing they could say was they missed the color of their rooms,” she said. “If that’s the only thing, we’re doing pretty good here.”

SWAMP MONSTER BBQ After five years in the catering business, Pelham residents Michael and Michelle O’Connor started looking for a brick-and-mortar location. They opened Swamp Monster BBQ in August 2016 on Montgomery Highway in Hoover — a place Michael O’Connor said picked them.

“It did pick us, but we also love the area,” Michelle O’Connor said. “We’ve got lots of

Michael and Michelle O’Connor opened Swamp Monster BBQ in August 2016.

Photo by Sydney Cromwell. friends that live in Hoover; there’s great school systems in Hoover, so the community support has been amazing.”

They already had business clients in the Hoover area, Michelle O’Connor said, but have seen their client base grow substantially since opening their store. Most growth has been through word of mouth or from the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, she said.

“At least once a day, if not more often, we have somebody say, ‘Oh, my neighbor recommended you,’ or people come in and ask for a quote for catering a wedding or whatnot, and it’s all been word of mouth,” Michelle O’Connor said.

The process of opening a new business

was something the O’Connors worried about.

They had heard horror stories about opening a restaurant, Michelle O’Connor said.

“It was easier than I expected,” Michael O’Connor said. “You hear horror stories about opening a business, dealing with the city and this and that. Just horror story after horror story, and for us, they were more helpful.”

The city guided them through the process rather than demand change, Michael O’Connor said, and city officials were even some of their first customers.

Even though they have only been open for a few months, the restaurant already sees regulars. Some people have come in expecting “their table” to be open, Michael O’Connor said, and his reaction is, “Sorry, I didn’t expect you to come in two days in a row.”

“We want it to feel like family here, so it’s nice to see those repeat customers,” Michelle O’Connor said.

The encouragement and patronage from the community has been great, Michelle O’Connor said, and that encouragement led them to opening a food truck as well. Swamp Monster BBQ has grown faster than initially anticipated, but the O’Connors hope that continues.

“I see it growing in Hoover, with the support of the chamber and the support of the businesses and the schools,” Michael O’Connor said.

47-year Hoover resident talks about growth

By MARIENNE THOMAS OGLE At 79, Fran Hoggle has seen a lot, including the dramatic expansion of the area known today as Hoover, where she’s made her home for nearly 50 years.

A native of Washington, D.C., Hoggle, her husband and three children moved to Bluff Park in 1970 from the Eastlake area of Birmingham.

“My husband, a retired Marine who was in the iron and steel construction business, had grown up in the Birmingham area and really liked it,” Hoggle said. “But we were in a two-bedroom house in Eastlake and came to the Hoover area to buy a bigger home.”

That home on Farley Place — where she still resides — was surrounded by woods when the family moved in, and there were no subdivisions in sight, Hoggle said.

A Western Supermarket occupied the space where the Piggly Wiggly is; a dentist and beauty salon were on Shades Crest Road at Park Avenue; Mr. Parker’s gas station was on the bluff and Bluff Park Hardware is still there, Hoggle said.

“Along Highway 31 there was a drug store, insurance company, the Hoover offices and jail

Fran Hoggle said if there was something she would change about Hoover, she would add more sidewalks and streetlights. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

and that was about it. And Highway 150 was two lanes with a mattress store and bank,” she said. “I mean, we used to pick blueberries along Chapel Road because it was just woods. It was such a small area that we really didn’t think about ‘going to Hoover’ at that time.”

In fact, Hoggle, who had begun a career as a lunchroom manager — first at Berry High School, then Simmons Middle School — in the mid-1970s, said she didn’t think that many people had a vision of Hoover’s future and possible growth at that time.

“I was taking a course at Samford University from a professor who had been a Realtor, and he told us about an owner of the land where the Galleria is now who had asked him to sell the property,” she said.

“And the professor told us, ‘That land is all hilly and rocky. Who would ever want to buy it?’”

Asked about the biggest change she has observed in her 47 years in Hoover, Hoggle said without hesitation: “Growth.”

“First, all the businesses along Highway 31 and 150, and then the housing,” she said.

“There are so many homes being built and then a number of apartments over the years, I often wonder where all the people are coming from to live in them.”

If she could change one thing about the city, it would be to have more sidewalks, Hoggle

“For the most part, Hoover is a very safe place to live and a great place to raise a family with friendly people, good schools and established neighborhoods.” said. “And streetlights,” she said. “I know my neighborhood really needs them, and there are more places in the city that do, too.”

Looking into the future, Hoggle said she hopes Hoover “doesn’t grow too much more.”

“I certainly don’t want it to expand like Birmingham,” she said. “And one reason is because it puts too much on our firefighters and police.”

Hoggle spares no words of praise for Hoover’s first responders who have come to her assistance more than once.

“One day my husband had to go to the hospital but couldn’t walk, and I couldn’t carry him to the car, so I called 911, and they came immediately and carried him for me,” she said.

“And on another day, he had fallen, and I called 911, and they were at our door by the time I hung up the phone.”

Hoggle also cites the Hoover city officials

as being “very responsive” to the residents over the years and especially commends them for the creation of the Hoover Senior Center.

“I retired in 2000 and joined immediately and go two to three days each week,” she said.

“If I just sat here, I’d go crazy, and with all their trips, activities and programs, it’s really something I look forward to.”

Through the senior center, Hoggle said, she has met a number of residents who have relocated to Hoover because their adult children live here, something that doesn’t surprise her.

“For the most part, Hoover is a very safe place to live and a great place to raise a family with friendly people, good schools and established neighborhoods,” she said.

“I’ve always thought of Hoover as a very comfortable place and would recommend it highly.”

Mr. Hoover: The man with the plan

By HEATHER JONES SKAGGS The city of Hoover celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. But what’s in a name? And how did this growing city come to be?

The vision for Hoover goes back to one businessman, William Hoover Sr., founder of Employers Mutual Insurance of Alabama (1922). His children and grandchildren describe him as a man of great character, personality, inspiration and vision.

Some of the Hoover family still live in or near the city that bears their family’s name.

William Hoover Sr. (1890-1979) and his wife, Helen Carnes Hoover (1902-87), had four children: Jane Hoover Parrish, twins Bill Hoover Jr. (1936-2009) and Helen Hoover Holmes, and Thomas Hoover.

Hoover’s children went on to have families of their own with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Parrish and Holmes still live in homes that were built in the Green Valley community’s early years.

Elizabeth Holmes, Holmes’ daughter and Hoover’s granddaughter, also lives in the area, and Thomas Hoover and his family live in Birmingham.

On this milestone anniversary for the city,

William Hoover Sr. began buying land in the area in 1944. Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society. the family reflected on how the city started and where it is today, but it is the personal memories between father and child, grandfather and grandchild that illustrate that the name behind the city was also a much loved family man.

“My father always took time for us to do things together as a family. He was the wheel and my mother the hub,” Parrish said.

Helen Holmes remembers her father’s pet

names for his children and grandchildren. “My twin brother [the late Bill Hoover Jr.] and I were simply called ‘Sister/Brother’ or he would call me ‘Tiddlem’ sometimes, which we are not sure how to spell,” she said with a laugh. Jane, whose full name is Dorothy Jane, was called “Doshie” Jane.

“One of my fondest memories with my father is a time when he was changing his shoes in our parents’ room, and I was leaning on the chair. We were all going to a movie (a ‘picture show’ as we called them back then). He asked where I wanted to go, and I said the Ritz, and he said, ‘You don’t want to go to the Ritz; it will make you have fits!’ To a 5-year-old that is funny,” Jane said. “It is memories like that, the funny man our father was, that I remember the most.”

Elizabeth Holmes said she remembers the time the family patriarch spent with the youngest of the Hoover family.

“He always made time for us, the grandkids, no matter what he was doing,” she said.

As a child himself, Hoover looked to his own father as inspiration. Hoover’s father had a brick manufacturing business near Russellville, and it was his intention to build a town for the workmen and name it Hooverville. When it

did not happen, it became the dream of his son, William, to make it a reality. This vision started with the courage, planning and foresight to step out and start his own business in 1922.

It was a monumental task forming Employers Mutual Insurance of Alabama in downtown Birmingham, and Hoover did it without taking a salary. The company emerged from the Great Depression as one of the most sound casualty companies in the nation. In 1929, the company was converted from a mutual company to a stock company — Employers Insurance Company of Alabama, Inc. In 1944, Hoover purchased 160 acres on what is now Tyler Road. Being quite the visionary, Hoover began buying land on U.S. 31 under the company “South Jefferson Company” in the 1950s after learning the state planned to start widening U.S. 31. Hoover realized this would cause movement south toward U.S. 31 and would bring opportunity to the area. This area became known as the Hoover community, and with that, he also brought his company to the area.

The groundbreaking for Employers Insurance Company of Alabama’s new home office building in the community was in December 1957, and it was completed in September 1958.

The business was in what is now the Hoover Court shopping center.

The Hoover family often says the city was

built and managed from this location in the early days. Hoover died in 1979 as the city of Hoover was expanding and growing.

If he could see the city today, would it be what he envisioned?

“I get asked all the time if my dad would be surprised at the size and scope of his namesake city, and the answer is no, he would not be surprised at all,” Thomas Hoover said. “He envisioned, as he told me many times, not only the growth of the city of Hoover but the entire area south of Shades Mountain to Double Oak Mountain and beyond.”

Much of the land Hoover acquired he sold or gave away for those schools, churches and city government facilities. Hoover gave the land for Green Valley (now Hoover) Country Club, and the original city hall and police station were built on Hoover’s land. Elizabeth Holmes said that giving spirit is one of the qualities that she seeks for her own life.

“His spirit of giving and caring about the interest of others has inspired me to give back to my community, as well,” she said, “whether it is giving artwork to charity or teaching art to inner-city children or to the kids at the school where I work.”

Elizabeth Holmes, an artist and painter, credits her grandfather and grandmother with helping her realize her dream.

“When I was young, it was fun to tell people

who my granddad was, but as I grew older, it affected me in a deeper way,” she said. “He accomplished his dreams to start a city. It took hard work and sacrifice. His determination spurred me on my own path to achieve my own dreams to become a working artist. That, coupled with my grandmother’s love of art and the way she fostered that love and creativity with me, greatly influenced my dream.”

As the city celebrates its 50 years, Helen Holmes reflected on the anniversary.

“I feel even more proud of its founding as I watch the growth and quality of its businesses, school system, police and fire and parks,” she said. “I am once again reminded of my father’s dream to carry on his father’s dream to have a city. Even today, as I walk around Star Lake and children playing in the park, I think about the reality of my father’s dream and how pleased he would be today to see how the city has flourished.”

Parrish agreed. “It makes me feel very honored to be a daughter of the founder of Hoover.

It has really grown from just the small community of 406 people it started out as,” she said.

Elizabeth Holmes looked to the future of the city and, at the same time, recognized its impact of the last 50 years.

“My grandfather’s name on the city reminds me of the responsibility and the privilege it is to leave a positive legacy for others,” she said.

Artistic threads run through Hoover’s history

By SYDNEY CROMWELL The beginning of Hoover’s longest-running art association lies, like so many other parts of Hoover, in the needs of the community.

In 1964, before the city had even incorporated, Bluff Park Elementary needed books to fill its library. Bluff Park already was known as a “haven for artists,” Hoover Arts Alliance founder Linda Chastain said, and a group of talented residents held an arts and crafts auction to help pay for the school’s books. That small beginning became the Bluff Park Art Association and its signature event, the Bluff Park Art Show.

“That really was the beginning of art [in Hoover]. Those people worked so hard,” Chastain said. “The art show grew legs of its own.”

There had been plenty of individual artists living in the future Hoover city limits before the first Bluff Park Art Show, and since then the BPAA has been joined by the Hoover Arts Alliance, the Hoover Shelby Art Association, Riverchase Loves Artists, National League of American Pen Women and Artists on the Bluff. But for people who have been involved in Hoover’s art scene for many years, the creation

Residents enjoy the Bluff Park Art Show, the signature event for the Bluff Park Art Association. Staff photo. of the BPAA was a critical moment for the city.

“We’re very proud of our community and our people and their spirit,” said Sara Perry, who

moved to Bluff Park in 1964 and remembers attending the first art show with her son.

The Bluff Park Art Show has grown into

a regional gem, with artists from across the country competing for a space. BPAA board members Tommy Sanderson and Trish Hoover said that while the show is no longer a fundraiser for library books, that same community feeling persists in the show. Hospitality, they said, is one of the main draws for returning artists.

Chastain, a Bluff Park resident since 1966, said that in the early years of Hoover’s incorporation, there were not places for artists to work and exhibit their pieces.

“There was always art, but there was never a place to put it,” Chastain said.

Artists on the Bluff, housed in the former Bluff Park Elementary, was one of several ways Hoover’s artists decided to fill that need. The BPAA took the building and turned it into a place for studios, classrooms, meeting spaces and the Soon-Bok Lee Sellers art gallery.

“Well, now it’s almost like an artists’ colony.

You can’t have that everywhere,” Hoover said.

Along with traditional mediums such as pencils and paints, Perry said a peek inside the Artists on the Bluff studios also will reveal creators working with wood, glass, clay, jewelry, metal and more.

“We kept up pretty well,” Perry said of the way artistic trends have changed in the past 50 years.

“Back in the day it was all painting. And

The Riverchase Women’s Club and Riverchase Country Club hosted their 11th Riverchase Loves Artists Art Show on Feb. 4. Photo by Lexi Coon. now you’re seeing the different mediums,” Hoover agreed.

For some longtime BPAA members, Perry said they always get a kick out of seeing their former second-grade classroom turned into a studio.

“That’s a perfect place for it. That’s where the artists are,” Chastain said. “When you do

things for the community, sometimes you don’t make a profit, but you improve the quality of life.”

Art exhibit spaces in the city now include Aldridge Gardens, the Hoover Public Library and a city hall gallery that was added about five years ago. There is also the “unknown secret” of the BPAA, Hoover said: the association’s

A painting from “My Floating World” by Hatsue Miki. Photo courtesy of the BPAA.

The Hoover art scene is home to artists working in a variety of mediums. Staff photo.

permanent collection.

Since the beginning of the Bluff Park Art Show, Perry said the association has chosen one piece of art from the show each year to purchase and add to its permanent collection.

There are now 110 pieces in the collection, and in 1979 the BPAA began displaying a few pieces

at Bluff Park, Shades Mountain and Gwin elementary schools. Since then, the group has been putting pieces from the collection on temporary display in libraries, schools and other public buildings around Jefferson and Shelby counties.

Hoover said the BPAA continually seeks new

places to show its permanent collection to continue sharing their art with the community.

“We don’t want it to be a secret,” she said.

The permanent collection has its roots in the earliest years of the BPAA, so Sanderson said it’s an opportunity to see how artistic tastes have changed over the decades. The entire

“Organized Chaos”

by Scott Coleman is part of the Bluff Park Art Association permanent collection.

Photo courtesy of the Bluff Park Art Association.

collection can be viewed on the BPAA website.

“You actually can see the progression of art from our permanent collection,” Sanderson said. “Our permanent collection is something that we value very highly, obviously, because it is like a time capsule to show each year and what’s going on in art.”

Perry said some members of the BPAA are the sons and daughters of the original members. The association and the Hoover Arts Alliance want to continue that legacy of passing down a love of art to the next generation of Hoover residents. The Bluff Park Art Show presents a scholarship each year to a Hoover High or Spain Park student planning to study art in college.

Chastain said the Arts Alliance not only funds three scholarships each year, but also hosts elementary art contests and helps to fund other arts such as high school theater or band trips. Through the alliance’s work during the past 10 years, Chastain said she has been fortunate to meet the talented high school teachers and students who bring their artistic talents to the city, some in new mediums such as fabric and digital art.

As art continues to be part of the city of Hoover’s story, the BPAA is looking for ways to include more artists in its annual October show.

Hoover said right now the show maxes out at about 145 artists, and they will need to find more space or add extra days in order for the show to grow. Both Perry and Chastain expressed a need for a dedicated civic or convention center that could provide a space for visual and performing arts in Hoover.

Creating a civic center has been a particular project for Chastain since she started the Hoover Arts Alliance with Barbara Lyons in 2007. She said she believes it would not only benefit Hoover’s resident dancers, actors, musicians and visual artists, but also allow the city to attract larger shows than it can currently accommodate. She plans to keep pushing until that idea becomes a reality.

“There’s a need not being met,” Chastain said. “That would be the last piece of the puzzle.”

Chastain marveled at how much the art community in Hoover has changed since that first little arts and crafts fundraiser 55 years ago.

“All this just because they wanted to get books for the schools,” Chastain said.

Fire, police departments expand with the city

By JON ANDERSON Public safety has always been a priority for Hoover.

The Fire Department formed in 1962 — five years before the city incorporated — after several new homes in Green Valley were threatened by brush fires, according to a history of the department written by Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, who spent 42 years with the department.

But both the fire and police departments look much different today than in the early years.

The Fire Department had just three calls in its first year, handled with a 1944 Mack pumper truck housed in a small tin building behind William Hoover Sr.’s Employers Insurance Company of Alabama off U.S. 31.

That compares with 10,212 calls in 2016, handled by a fleet of about 20 vehicles spread out at 10 fire stations over 50 square miles from Ross Bridge to Greystone.

The first permanent fire station was built in 1965 behind Employers Insurance for about $6,000. In 1968, under Chief Ralph Sheppard, the department bought its first new fire engine and added full-time coverage by having Samford University students live at the station and

This 1944 Mack pumper was Hoover’s first fire truck and was housed in a shed attached to the back of the Employers Insurance Company of Alabama location.

Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society. respond to calls when not attending classes.

In the early 1970s, several full-time firefighters were hired, and Hoover joined Birmingham, Homewood and Vestavia Hills as the first cities in the state to provide paramedic coverage, according to city records.

Hoover’s current fire chief, Chuck Wingate, joined the department in 1975 after Hoover began frequent annexations into the Bluff Park Fire District, where he previously served. He was the seventh full-time firefighter hired and,

along with Brocato, one of the first medics.

“It was bare bones and poor equipment, to be honest with you,” Wingate said.

Until that time, the department was supported by dues and subsidized by the city, but in 1976, the city took over full-time operation and hired the first full-time chief.

Tom Bradley, a retired Birmingham fire captain, led the department 33 years.

Thanks to his leadership and support of elected officials, the department made tremendous advancements in service, equipment, training and pay, Wingate said.

Keeping up with the city’s growth has been a challenge, but the department has grown to include 172 full-time firefighters and 15 parttime employees, Wingate said. Almost all the firefighters are paramedics, and 66 percent of calls are medical.

AGGRESSIVE POLICE REPUTATION The Police Department also has seen tremendous changes.

The city’s first police officer and chief, retired Birmingham police detective James Norrell, didn’t stay long. He retired in March 1968 and was followed by Oscar Davis, who was chief for eight years.

At first, the Police Department operated from a small office at Fire Station No. 1, and the bathroom served as a temporary jail until inmates could be taken to Vestavia Hills.

The department moved to a new 6,000-square-foot city hall along U.S. 31 in the early 1970s. Davis retired in 1976 and was replaced by David Cummings in 1977. Cummings served 21 years at the helm.

Derzis said when he joined the force in 1979, police had just a small chief’s office, detective office and two jail cells. When the current Municipal Center was built in 1985, the Police Department moved into 15,500 square feet on the first floor, including nine jail cells.

With annexations and the opening of the Riverchase Galleria, Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and Interstates 65 and 459 during the 1980s, the Police Department grew quickly, doubling from 33 officers to 68 between 1984 and 1988.

More annexations and home building followed in the 1990s. Due to manpower shortages, many officers doubled their salaries working extra shifts with overtime pay.

As city revenues grew, the department caught up and now employs 180 sworn officers (including 11 part-time school resource officers in elementary schools) and 65 civilian employees, Derzis said.

Bob Berry became chief in 1998, and police opened an operations center for the patrol and

The Hoover Police Department had nine officers in 1972, led by Chief Oscar Davis, seated in the middle. Photo courtesy of the Hoover Historical Society. traffic divisions in an old movie theater on Lorna Road in 2000. Then in 2004, a new 72-bed jail opened as part of a new Hoover Public Safety Center off Valleydale Road. The jail later was expanded to 88 beds and houses federal inmates.

Derzis said when he was named chief in 2005, police started requiring new officers to have either a college degree or experience in law enforcement or the military.

Thanks to generous support from city leaders, Derzis said Hoover police have added a lot of equipment and specialty teams many departments don’t have, including three helicopters shared with Jefferson County, a tactical team,

dive team, canine unit, fingerprint database, body cameras and, soon, an armored rescue vehicle.

Hoover police have developed a reputation for being aggressive and solving crimes, with a 71 percent clearance rate for robberies last year, Derzis said. Even with roughly 90,000 residents and a daytime population of more than 200,000 people, Hoover had just 42 robberies in 2016, and nine of those were shoplifters struggling with someone.

The city frequently lands on lists of top U.S. cities in which to live, partly based on a low crime rate, Derzis said.

“Our people do a heck of a job,” he said.

Hoover through the years 1814: With the conclusion of the Creek War, a number of families — several headed

by Creek War veterans — returned and settled in the Cahaba Valley, including the Hoover area.

Many established large farms in the rich river bottomland.

1859-1863: Gardner Cole Hale, former superintendent of the Daniel Pratt Cotton Gin Factory in Prattville, purchased land atop Shades Mountain, an area that became known as Hale Springs and, today, as Bluff Park.

Hale and family members developed a resort on the northern side of Shades Mountain. It was a popular resort destination into the early 1900s.

1944: William Hoover Sr., an insurance company owner, bought 160 acres along Tyler Road, then a narrow, dirt, logging road, and built a two-room cabin.

It was not his primary residence.

William Hoover Sr.

1959: Residential construction quickened to the point that the first Parade of Homes was set for the Valgreen Lane area. That, along with development of Green Valley Country Club (now Hoover Country Club) the same year, prompted the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders to have its Parade of Homes in the area again the following year.

1968: The worked-out Acton Mine land was sold to Harbert Construction Co., which developed the land into a commercial park and the Riverchase planned community.

Henry DeBardeleben, son-in-law of Daniel Pratt, opened Acton Mines, a 42-square-mile section of the Cahaba River Coal Basin. Located in present-day Riverchase, the mining operation provided the region’s first significant industrial work, employing several hundred workers including a number from the Patton Chapel area.

1947: The Hoover family moved into a colonial style brick home on Tyler Road, which was their primary residence.

1962: A volunteer fire department was incorporated to serve the community.

1967: 1953: Hoover begins buying land along U.S. 31 south of Vestavia as the Alabama Highway Department began a six-mile project to widen the highway from the crest of Shades Mountain southward to the Cahaba River.

A community consisting of four blocks voted 100-45 to incorporate.

It was named Hoover’s first mayor, Hoover. Upon Don Watts incorporation, Hoover had a population of just more than 400.

1930 1930 930

1906:

1920 1920

1910 1910

1900 1900 900

1850 1850 850

1850s: Several families of the Patton clan moved to an area known as Little Valley, south of Shades Mountain.

They formed the area’s earliest village.

It included a store and gristmill. The community grew up around the site of what is now Hoover First United Methodist Church on Patton Chapel Road. That church was founded in 1866 by a member of the Patton family and was then known as Patton Chapel Church.

1840 1840

Patton Chapel School

1830 1830

1820 1820

1810 1810

1819-1821: The area’s first land sales were recorded.

The Acton family

SOURCES: Information for this article by the Hoover Historical Society came from the society’s book “A History of Hoover, Alabama and Its People” by Marilyn Davis Barefield and “The History of the Hoover Fire Department 1962-2012” by Frank Brocato, now Hoover’s mayor, the 2015 City of Hoover Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and from interviews with Hoover planning consultant Bob House, Hoover Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Powell and City of Hoover Public Information Officer Lori Salter-Schommer.

Hoover’s first city hall.

1971: Hoover’s first city hall was built on the east side of U.S. 31 on property donated by William Hoover.

*According to the Environmental Systems Research Institute

1985: A new Municipal Center opened on U.S. 31, at a site south of the original city hall.

1973: After several years of rapid commercial growth along U.S. 31, a section of that highway populated by several automobile dealerships was nicknamed Motor Mile.

1990: City limits extended to U.S. 280, eventually encompassing both commercial and residential areas of Inverness, Meadowbrook and Greystone.

2010 2010

2000 2000 000

1990 1990 990

1980 1980 980

1970 1970

1984: Completion of the I-65/I-459 interchange was considered to be the most significant single economic event in the city’s history. The area surrounding and radiating out from the intersection experienced explosive commercial growth that continues to the present.

was annexed into Hoover, bringing in some of the area’s oldest neighborhoods.

1960 1960 960

1950 1950 950

1940 1940

1930 1930 930

1983: Hoover Public Library opened in the River Oaks Shopping Center, but didn’t remain there long. During the next 10 years it expanded into larger quarters several times until moving into its present structure in the 1990s.

1988: Hoover Metropolitan Stadium opened with the Birmingham Barons moving to the new venue as its home stadium. The surrounding Trace Crossings residential area began being developed during this same period.

1985: Bluff Park

1980: Riverchase was annexed into Hoover, bringing 1,200 homes, a country club and large area of commercial development. The annexation of such diverse land use marked the end of Hoover as a bedroom community and its beginning as a diversified freestanding city.

Trace Crossings Baptist Church, now known as Mars Hill Missionary Baptist Church

2000: Hoover population was 64,000, according to U.S. Census.

1987: Hoover City Council voted to form a city school system, with goals that included elevating the quality of education for Hoover students and creating a greater sense of community.

Formation also led to higher residential property values throughout the city.

1986: Riverchase Galleria opened as the largest mixed-use development in the Southeast. The $300 million project included 3.3 million square feet, a 17-story office tower and 350-room hotel. The ¼-mile skylight roof was America’s largest.

2016: City population estimated at *87,515.

2017: Completion of the multi-use Finley Center adjacent to the Hoover Met is expected to provide a venue for a variety of sports competitions plus large community events, trade shows and meetings. It is the latest addition to Hoover’s system of 32 parks. Some parks predate Hoover’s incorporation and became part of the city system by annexation. Those parks range from the forested 250-acre Moss Rock Preserve and the popular open spaces of Veterans Park to the 30-acre Aldridge Gardens and small neighborhood playgrounds. Together, they create a broad and diverse series of recreation opportunities, adding to the quality of life and providing recreation and leisure opportunities that are highly sought by young families. (Note: The Snowflake hydrangea, discovered by Eddie Aldridge and his father in 1969, is an important feature at Aldridge Gardens and has been named the official flower of the city of Hoover.)

Schools prosper amid growth, funding challenges

By JON ANDERSON The Hoover school system, though 20 years younger than the city of Hoover, was born in controversy just like the city.

Hoover voters were asked in December 1986 whether they wanted to form a school system, and supporters were shocked when the measure failed by 57 votes. There were 3,359 votes against the idea, and 3,302 in favor.

But the vote was nonbinding, and in October 1987, the Hoover City Council voted to form a school system anyway. The move angered some residents who felt the people’s voice was ignored, but city leaders pressed on.

The result is a school system that has seen tremendous growth over the years and become a highly regarded educational entity, with award-winning faculty and students who perform among the best in the state on achievement tests.

BIRTH OF A SYSTEM The push to form a city school system was born out of dissatisfaction with county schools, said Charles Hickman, one of the first school board members.

Construction workers make progress on Hoover High School in June 1993.

The school opened in 1994 with 2,100 students.

Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.

“It seemed obvious to us that the quality of education our students were getting was not what most of the people in the city of Hoover wanted,” Hickman said.

Hoover residents were tired of having rundown facilities, old textbooks, old equipment, old technology and crowded classrooms, said Susanne Wright, who served on the school board from 1990-2002.

Most of the schools that served Hoover students at that time were in the Jefferson County system, and “they weren’t on the cutting edge of anything,” Wright said.

Hoover parents wanted lower class sizes, more guidance counselors, a dedicated college counselor, more special education and learning support teachers, and additional course offerings and advanced studies programs, Hickman

said. He believes that, through the years, they have been able to achieve all of those.

When the Hoover system was formed, it obtained Berry High School, Simmons Junior High School and Bluff Park, Green Valley, Gwin, Rocky Ridge and Shades Mountain elementary schools from Jefferson County. There were 5,243 students that first year, records show.

One of the first orders of business was to renovate and repair school buildings.

“They were old Jefferson County schools that needed improvement,” Wright said.

But school officials quickly found they needed more classroom space to handle Hoover’s fast growth.

The school board bought 100 portable classrooms until they could build additional facilities. Between 1988 and 1994, every Hoover school had an addition built, including a brand-new school for Bluff Park Elementary that opened in two phases in 1994 and 1995.

The first completely new school to be built under the Hoover City Schools flag was Trace Crossings Elementary in 1993, thanks to a 14-mill property tax increase approved by residents in May 1990.

But perhaps the most defining construction project for the Hoover system was Hoover High School, which opened with 327,000 square feet for $22.8 million in 1994. The

mammoth, almost college-like campus was dubbed “Hoover University.”

The original Hoover High buildings were built to hold 2,500 students, and the school opened with 2,100 coming from Berry High, making it the state’s largest high school.

With the city’s fast growth and continued annexation to the east, school officials realized one high school would not be enough. With Hoover High bursting at the seams with 2,800 students, Spain Park High School opened in 2001, at a cost of $40 million.

Splitting up Hoover High was quite contentious, said Connie Williams, who was Hoover High’s first principal and later became superintendent. While some people on the eastern side of Hoover were eager for a new high school, many people didn’t want to go to Spain Park, Williams said.

“They loved Hoover High, and they were entrenched,” she said. “Now, those same areas and those same people love Spain Park, as they should.”

Hoover High’s enrollment dropped below 2,000, but not for long. Continued growth boosted Hoover’s enrollment back above 2,400 by 2006. School officials opened a separate freshman campus for ninth-graders to buy time until a third high school could be built, but in 2011 they built 36 new classrooms for Hoover High instead, expanding capacity to

3,500. The school now has more than 2,900 students.

Systemwide, the district has grown to about 13,900 students in two high schools, three middle schools, an intermediate school and 10 elementary schools.

SIX SUPERINTENDENTS The Hoover school system has had six superintendents over 30 years, not counting interim leaders.

The first was Robert Mitchell, who came back to Alabama from Portsmouth, Virginia.

Mitchell’s supporters hailed him as an outstanding educator, but he lasted only three years. The school board fired him in April 1991 after allegedly receiving pressure from city officials, who were critical of school spending and called for more transparency.

Mitchell filed a $45 million lawsuit, claiming a conspiracy to oust him, but a federal judge dismissed it.

The Hoover school board hired Homewood Superintendent Robert Bumpus to take over.

Bumpus was widely viewed as a peacemaker and healer.

“Everybody loved Robert Bumpus. He was a calming figure,” Wright said. “He was very popular, easy to talk to, very open — gave you any information you wanted.”

Bumpus hired former Homewood High

Principal Jack Farr as director of planning and community services and promoted him to associate superintendent in 1993, Farr then replaced Bumpus when he retired in 1996. The school board named a new middle school after Bumpus in 1999.

Bumpus and Farr led the school system during its peak growth years, but Farr was diagnosed with a brain tumor in November 2002 and took a leave of absence. Upon returning, he oversaw a controversial rezoning effort that moved about 1,500 of Hoover’s 5,100 elementary students — mostly students from apartments — to new schools.

The same day he recommended the zoning plan in 2004, he announced his retirement due to health complications. Farr died in November 2004.

Farr was followed by his deputy superintendent, Connie Williams. Williams led a middle school rezoning effort that resulted in the relocation of Berry Middle School to Spain Park and the closing of the original Berry campus.

She also was in charge when film crews documented the Hoover High football program in the MTV series “Two-A-Days” that brought national fame to the school.

But Williams drew the ire of city officials when she publicly criticized city funding cuts for schools. She was fired less than a month after the council appointed two new school

A sign along Valleydale Road shows the future Spain Park High School, seen in the background while it is under construction. Photo courtesy of Hoover City Schools.

board members in 2006. Council members denied being behind Williams’ ouster.

School board members later said Williams had lost respect for the school board’s

authority and showed preferential treatment to Hoover High, but Williams said board members from both high school zones were asking for favors for athletic programs that

she was unwilling to grant.

The board picked Andy Craig, the assistant superintendent for finance and business, to replace Williams.

Craig hired a retired federal judge in 2007 for an investigation that found evidence of academic, athletic and moral improprieties related to the Hoover High football program.

The investigation resulted in the firing of the principal, resignation of the football coach and an assistant principal and changes in the way athletic-related finances are handled.

Craig led the system through a period of declining revenues. A one-time $85 million boost from Jefferson County helped avoid drastic cuts in personnel or services but led to deficit spending that was highly criticized.

Craig also sparked uproars with a rezoning plan and his recommendation to eliminate school bus service — and later charge bus fees — for most students. His rezoning plan was scrapped, and both bus decisions were rescinded after the NAACP and Justice Department intervened.

Craig also launched a program to put handheld computers or laptops in the hands of every student in grades 3-12. He became a deputy state superintendent in January 2015 but remains Hoover’s longest-serving superintendent.

This time, the board went outside the system

and hired Monroe County schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy. She started in June 2015 and spent time rebuilding trust with the community and redrawing school attendance zones — a plan waiting approval from a federal judge at press time.

Murphy also has worked to rein in budget deficits and helped the school system end 2016 in the black for the first time since 2011.

Every Hoover superintendent has had to deal with rezoning, which has caused much angst. Williams said rezoning is one of the “necessary evils” that comes with growth.

ATHLETIC, ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Most city leaders say the school system is one of the main reasons people move to Hoover.

Kelvin Smith said that was the case for him and his wife, Alicia, who moved to Hoover from Center Point in 2013. They believed their youngest son, Darius, would do well in Hoover High’s baseball program, and they liked the academic offerings.

“None of the other schools we looked at had a Finance Academy,” Kelvin Smith said.

His son dropped out of the baseball program after his sophomore year.

“It seemed like if you didn’t grow up in the community, you were going to get very little opportunity,” Kelvin Smith said. But his son

stuck with football and had a good experience there and with the rest of the school, he said.

“Overall, I think it [moving to Hoover] was a very good decision,” he said.

Outstanding athletic programs are some of the first things people think about Hoover schools, but Williams said outstanding academic programs also are a hallmark.

Hoover parents expect excellence in everything, and “that’s a valid expectation,” she said.

However, Hoover really shouldn’t be compared with Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and Homewood because Hoover is much larger and more diverse, Williams and Wright said.

While diversity is a huge asset that draws many people to Hoover, it can be a challenge, too, Williams said. The system attracts more transient and lower-income families whose children sometimes don’t have strong educational backgrounds.

“I think that they’re up to that challenge,” Williams said. “It just takes time, resources and effort and a determination to provide for all kids, no matter who they are, where they come from or how they got here.”

Wright and Hickman said Hoover schools are doing a remarkable job in spite of fast growth, demographic changes and funding challenges.

“We have a great system, and I think it’s getting better every year,” Hickman said.

Niche of knowledge — a lifetime in Hoover’s schools

By MARIENNE THOMAS OGLE He didn’t know it then, of course, but Clark Underbakke heard the call of the Hoover City Schools system at a very young age — a call that would become his vocation. As of today, Underbakke has spent 33 of his 47 years as part of the city’s schools — first as a student and then a teacher.

Born in Iowa, Underbakke and his family moved to Bluff Park when he was 9 years old, and he entered fourth grade at Bluff Park Elementary in 1979. Following sixth grade, he attended what was then Simmons Junior High School for grades seven and eight and went on to the original campus of W.A. Berry High School, where he graduated in 1988, the same year the schools changed from Jefferson County to the Hoover City Schools system.

Entering UAB in the fall, he received his undergraduate degree in education in 1993 and immediately took a teaching job — in Hoover, of course.

“I was lucky enough to get a position at Green Valley (Elementary) where I taught second, fourth and fifth grades from 1993 to 2001 while also pursuing my master’s degree and Ph.D. in early childhood/elementary education,” he said. “At that point in my life as a student in education classes, I really knew I wanted to be part of what Hoover schools had to offer.”

For the next two school years, Underbakke served as a systemwide reading specialist, working primarily with teachers, modeling lessons, co-teaching and helping and advising with individual student issues.

“There was a lot of professional development, and I not only learned a great deal, but being in all the elementary schools, I was able to get an in-depth look into each,” he said.

In fall 2003, Underbakke moved to Trace Crossings Elementary, where’s he has taught second and third grades and remains today. His longevity there and experience as both a teacher and student gives him a unique perspective of the system as a whole.

“Like the quote ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same,’ many things remain the same in the schools when it comes to a caring faculty and staff, from bus drivers to custodians to administrators,” he said.

“Also, the schools are microcosms of the overall system, where students of all ages and abilities are cared for and taught. Hoover elementary schools in particular have great parental support and a sense of community, something I felt very much as a child and student.”

Looking back on his elementary student days, Underbakke recalls with fondness Ann Hearon, his fourth-grade teacher with whom he still keeps in touch, and Doris Dickinson, a Bluff

Sitting in his Trace Crossings third-grade classroom, Clark Underbakke displays a variety of photos, yearbooks and other items from his time as a student in the Hoover schools. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

Park secretary/registrar who “cared for each of us, took attendance by hand, watched over us and called our moms when we were sick, and who we went to when we lost personal items.”

“Fast forward to today and Patrice Langham, the Trace Crossings registrar who still fulfills a very similar role though technology has updated some of the methods,” he said. “We see Patrice every day when first entering the building, always smiling and always assisting. Even after 40 years, the roles are much the same and still pivotal and part of the school experience.”

Between his years as a student and then faculty member, Underbakke said he’s also observed many changes in Hoover’s education environment.

“I think about the Bluff Park and W.A. Berry I attended versus today’s elementary schools and Hoover and Spain Park High schools, and there’s absolutely no comparison as far as being state-of-the-art,” he said. “The facilities, technology and education opportunities — Hoover has made and continues to make the shift to the most contemporary state of education and

offers everything a teacher and student can dream of.”

Underbakke also points to the HCS vision and motto “learning for life” as another example of change.

“It’s a big umbrella we all fall under and is enhanced by the great support from our superintendent, Dr. Kathy Murphy, and here at Trace Crossings, Principal Quincy Collins,” he said.

“Hoover has incredible opportunities for professional growth, and that support goes a long way in what we do as teachers.”

As a young child, Underbakke said a lot of his “pretend time” was spent as a teacher “with a pretend classroom and pretend paper grading” and in time he was fortunate to realize that was meant to be his reality at Hoover City Schools.

“I knew they were the best, and that was where I wanted to be,” he said. “I worked hard to get a job in Hoover and, like my colleagues, am still working hard, but it’s as rewarding as it is challenging. Though I do think sometimes how amazing it is that I’ve worked this many years — time truly does fly.”

Athletic success starts at the top

By KYLE PARMLEY Whether it’s been Berry, Hoover or Spain Park, the high school sports state championships have come in droves to the city of Hoover, Alabama, over the last 50 years.

Like it or not, the conversation starts with the success of the football programs at those schools. Berry won the state championship in 1977 and 1982. Hoover – which opened in 1994 – has ripped off 10 titles since the beginning of the millennium. Spain Park has yet to win one, but advanced to the state championship game twice, as recently as 2015.

But all three schools have enjoyed an almost obnoxious amount of athletic success in the past half-century. The list is long, whether discussing Berry’s boys swimming run of dominance from 1969 to 1973, or Hoover’s cross-country and track and field reign of terror the past 20 years, or even Spain Park’s seven boys golf titles since 2008.

It would be easy to chalk up all that success to the fact that Hoover is a big city, with a big school, with a large number of students, increasing the likelihood that any given sport would be highly competitive.

But people involved with Berry, Hoover and Spain Park athletics believe there is more to it than that. The people at those schools tasked with guiding and nurturing successful programs did that in the past and are still doing it today.

“We hire great people,” said Jennifer Hogan, a former student-athlete at Berry and currently an assistant principal at Hoover. “They take it and run with it, and we get out of their way.”

THE FIRST NAME The first name brought up when discussing the impact of leaders at Berry is Bob Finley, a longtime educator and coach at Berry High School from 1963 to 1994. Finley is responsible for those 1977 and 1982 football championships – the 1982 state title game ended in a 10-10 tie with Enterprise – and he spent time atop both boys and girls basketball programs during his tenure as well.

Finley arrived at Berry in 1963 as an assistant football coach and head boys basketball coach. He assumed the head football coaching duties in 1968, and his first team put together a 9-2 record, followed by an 11-1 mark in 1969.

Berry missed the playoffs the following seven seasons despite the Bucs posting a winning mark each season. His 1977 squad burst back onto the playoff scene in a big way, finishing the season 13-1 and allowing 11 total points in four playoff games.

He also took over the girls basketball

The Spain Park girls basketball team takes on Gadsden City during a Class 7A Northeast Regional Semifinals game on Feb. 16 in Jacksonville. The Lady Jaguars came back to win in overtime 52-49. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

Berry High School’s football team against Minor High in 1975. Photo courtesy of Hoover High School. program in 1984, and his teams in that sport advanced to the Final Four six times in 10 seasons.

In 26 years as head football coach at Berry, Finley’s team posted a losing record just three times. During the summer of 1994 – the summer of transition between Berry and Hoover – Finley passed away unexpectedly.

But Finley’s impact extended far beyond the sidelines he roamed or the basketball courts he coached on. The stadium at the former Berry High School was dedicated in his honor in 1979 and bears Finley’s name to this day. There is a Finley Award handed out to a Hoover or Spain Park high school student each year honoring his/her outstanding character.

Spain Park Principal Larry Giangrosso

knows Finley’s impact firsthand. Giangrosso’s first job out of college in the mid-1970s was as an assistant at Berry with Finley. Giangrosso remembers his time fondly being involved in a program with Finley and future head coaches Gerald Gann (Hoover, Homewood, John Carroll), Dickey Wright (Homewood, Shades Mountain) and many other great leaders.

“They were just wonderful people,” Giangrosso said. “You talk about mentoring, before mentoring is what it is now, they just did it naturally. They just took us under their wing. We were really fortunate to have that. I know I would’ve never made it in education and coaching were it not for those coaches.”

ENTER SPAIN PARK Giangrosso certainly did make it in coaching, as he led the Berry baseball team to a state title in 1981 and served as UAB’s baseball coach from 1999 to 2006 among other stops.

He has been on the Hoover side of the fence and now is on the Spain Park side, as the principal since 2015. Both schools compete at the Class 7A level, Alabama’s top athletic division.

Despite opening in 2001, the Jags compete toeto-toe with the Bucs in nearly every sport.

“When Spain Park started, we were the younger brother,” Giangrosso said. “But after we got a few years under our belt and got through some of the growing pains, I think we’re making really good progress.”

Spain Park has totaled 16 state championships in that time. The Jags have yet to win a

Action from a basketball game between Vestavia Hills and Hoover on Jan. 17 at Vestavia Hills High School. Photo by Sarah Finnegan. football state title but have been on the doorstep twice, advancing to the championship game in 2007 and most recently in 2015 (a playoff run that included a defeat of Hoover).

The boys golf program takes claim to seven of those titles, while the girls soccer team has four. Baseball, boys and girls tennis and girls golf have all won titles in recent years. Neither the boys basketball nor softball programs have claimed a title, but were each in the state tournament in 2016.

“We compete in everything,” Giangrosso said.

CONTINUED GREATNESS Myra Miles served as the athletics director at Hoover High from 2007 to 2014, and during that time oversaw an impressive amount of on-field success. That, however, was only part of her formula when determining the people to place in charge of the programs at the school.

“We expected every single program to be as successful as every other, but we felt like we had the best coaching staff, but one that would also teach them how to be great people,” she said. “That was very, very important to us.”

Miles remembers a particular coaching hire, where a portion of the final decision ultimately came down to a coach’s community service record at his previous job.

“All he had done with his programs in the community, sacking groceries, feeding the poor, those are things that we really encourage them to do with their teams,” she said.

The focus on the whole picture is what has allowed high school athletics to thrive in the city of Hoover. It is not just about the on-field success, and it is not just about character development with no competitive goals. One

Hoover won its most recent football state championship in 2016. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

is not sacrificed without the other.

“It all goes back to leadership,” Hogan said.

“With [Hoover principal Don] Hulin, we’ve had the consistency of leadership here. He’s for excellence in everything, not just athletics, but he wants excellence everywhere.”

Whether it is a robotics class, swimming team, or top-ranked football team, each group at Hoover and Spain Park seems to enter each season with an achievable goal in mind: a state championship.

After all, continual winning is what is going to keep the history of success at the forefront

of the conversation.

“You can’t say we’ve been state champs for five years in a row then all of the sudden drop off and live off that glory,” Hogan said. “You’ve got to continue to strive for excellence.”

Other communities are successful at placing competitive products in action in athletic pursuits and couple that with developing high-quality members of society after they leave school. But there is something about that blend in Hoover.

“I think you have to be here to understand it,” Giangrosso said.

Neighborhood spotlight

Bluff Park

By HEATHER JONES SKAGGS Bluff Park and the area known as Shades Mountain are some of the oldest communities in Hoover and predate the city itself.

More than 100 years ago, Bluff Park was a vacation and health resort known for its natural spring waters and picturesque views. Before the area was known as Bluff Park, it was called Spencer Springs after Octavius Spencer. The name changed again in 1863, when Gardner Hale of Prattville purchased the property and renamed it Hale Springs.

Transportation to the mountain resort was improved by way of an access road built over an old wagon road by the Hale Lumber Company in 1892. Gardner Hale’s son, Daniel Pratt Hale, ran a bed-and-breakfast type establishment called Liberty Hall and another called Pinnacle House, which was said to have the best views.

As time passed, visitors and landowners of Hale Springs became more interested in the view from the bluff rather than the springs and their healing properties. It was around this time the name Hale Springs changed to Bluff Park. One of the first recorded uses of the name Bluff Park is the Bluff Park Hotel.

Left: Hoover residents stand in front of Summit Church and School in 1920.

Courtesy of city of Hoover.

Right: One of the first recorded uses of the name Bluff Park is the Bluff Park Hotel. Courtesy of city of Hoover.

After Gardner Hale’s death, Hale’s son, George Gardner Hale, continued the family legacy in Bluff Park with his sons William, Evan and George Jr. The brothers did most of the development in the area including several homes for their families on Shades Crest Road. The homes are about 90 years old or older and are still standing.

Other prominent families and landowners on the bluff included the Tylers, Disons, Morgans, Hanahan, Yates, Chambers and Aldritches to name a few. The first one-room

schoolhouse and church was around the intersection of Tyler Road and Valley Street.

In 1896, Summit Church and School were built. In 1923, the school moved and changed its name to Bluff Park School. Bluff Park School became Bluff Park Elementary School. Summit Church changed its name to Bluff Park Baptist.

It was not until 1985 that the historic community of Bluff Park was annexed into Hoover.

The area was one of the last established areas to be brought into the city, along with its volunteer fire department.

Neighborhood spotlight

Riverchase

By HEATHER JONES SKAGGS The Hoover community of Riverchase began as the mining area called Acton. The growth of the coal industry through mines scattered along the Cahaba River brought the industry to Jefferson and Shelby counties. In 1945, the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (which was the current owner) sold the Acton land to the Chace family who were active in Acton for about 18 years. Their land was sold in 1968 to Harbert Construction Company and the vision began for the Planned Community of Riverchase.

Still Hunter, who later became the first project manager for the development of Riverchase, was the lead planner and negotiator for Harbert. The plans for Riverchase began for two large tracts of land, and in 1974 the Harbert Corporation partnered with Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States to form the “Harbert — Equitable Joint Venture.” Together, they developed the 3,000 acres that had once been used for mining.

Harland Bartholomew and Associates did the Master Plan, and Roger Yanko was the project manager and landscape architect for the joint venture. The construction moved quickly once the initial plans were complete.

During the time of its construction in the 1970s, Riverchase was one of the few environmentally and architecturally controlled communities in the Southeast.

Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

Riverchase Parkway opened in 1975, and the first home was completed in 1976. Riverchase was one of the few environmentally and architecturally controlled communities in the Southeast being built at the time, not to mention the only one in Alabama. Developing a

community in this way was new for the times. It was expected to be a $500 million development in 10 years with 15,000 residents. That number was exceeded. Several churches, a school and many businesses were part of the development.

Riverchase was annexed in September 1980.

Neighborhood spotlight

Greystone

By ERICA TECHO In the late 1980s, Daniel Corporation CEO Charlie Tickle sought out what other neighborhoods were doing and found the idea for Greystone, a retail developer community.

“We took the ideas we learned from that trip and came back and said, ‘There’s nobody else to do it, so we’ve got to do it ourselves,’” Tickle said.

Construction on the now more than 3,000home development started in 1997, and 17 years later, all of the home lots were sold.

“It was just a record pace I don’t think ever will be met again,” Tickle said.

Dave Porter, general manager of the Greystone Golf and Country Club, said the community stands out due to its private club, a variety of custom homes and home prices, and a community spirit where residents care for each other and rally around charitable causes. The piece of land where Greystone is located, up against Double Oak Mountain and surrounded by woods, also sets it apart, Porter said.

Greystone is a planned unit development that encompasses more than just the residential area. It includes two main segments, Greystone Founders and Greystone Legacy, as well as 24 miles of private roads, two golf courses,

Greystone is a planned unit development that encompasses more than just the residential area. Photo by Sarah Finnegan. two fire stations, multiple parks and walking trails and an elementary school.

“Of course, with all of that, at the time it was unincorporated [Shelby County] so to round out all of that, we knew we needed a school system,” Tickle said. “So that’s what birthed the idea of getting into the Hoover school system.”

Daniel Corporation owned a lot of

commercial property on U.S. 280 at that time, Tickle said, and worked with the city of Hoover to have that property and Greystone annexed into the city.

“It was certainly the right decision at the time,” Tickle said. “Hoover took a gamble on us, and we took a gamble on Hoover, and certainly from our standpoint, it has worked out well.”

Even though Daniel Corporation sold the last lot a decade ago, Tickle said homes are retaining their values. Greystone remains a “nice, mature, stable” neighborhood, he said, that is re-energized by new events, rather than new structures.

Since he arrived in 2015, Porter said Greystone has worked to build a service culture for residents by offering new member services including a barber, tailor and car wash. Those will hopefully continue to grow in the future, he said.

“The plans for the future of Greystone include primarily growing our membership, continuing to improve our physical assists for members to enjoy, improve quality and service regularly, so it never gets stagnant, and create a focus on lifestyle, which will then support the other primary initiatives,” he said.

Neighborhood spotlight

Russet Woods

By LEXI COON Like many communities today, Russet Woods started out small.

In the early 1970s, Albert Awtrey, a managing partner with Awtrey Realty, built many of the homes in Russet Woods, said Karen Apel, president of the neighborhood’s Home Owners Association. Sitting in the southwest of Hoover, this would mark the start of the neighborhood, although it would be a little while longer until it was annexed into Hoover in the late 1980s.

“We didn’t even have a Hoover zip code [at that time] I don’t think,” said Diane Camp with the Russet Woods HOA, founded in 1987.

“There was no cable, and the water came from a different area [than Birmingham Water Works].”

Local resident Ed Wertz added that often times, the water was “unreliable at best.”

Despite the challenges of a new community, families began moving to the neighborhood and Russet Woods.

“Russet Woods continued to expand from the sleepy little backwoods (or so it seemed — my mother referred to it as ‘Podunk’) community into the huge development it is today,” Wertz said.

By 1997, the residents came together to raise

Russet Woods boasts 950 homes, a third of which take part in the optional Home Owners Association.

Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

$20,000 to tear down the existing sign to build a new brick sign for the entrance.

“It used to be wooden and really bad. You couldn’t hardly see it,” Camp said. “We did brick by brick, and everybody gave money for it. We built this beautiful brick sign at the entrance.”

Now, the neighborhood that started as only

a few paved streets has flourished to have 950 homes, about a third of which take part in the optional HOA Camp said, and has a park next to Johnsons Lake for local residents.

“It is still an area where young families want to raise their children,” Apel said. “Couples who were raised in this neighborhood moved back into the neighborhood to raise their children.”

Neighborhood spotlight

Ross Bridge

By LEXI COON “It all started with somebody’s vision of building a hotel near the rail lines,” said John Gunderson, president of Daniel Communities.

That’s how many resort towns across the United States, such as Colorado Springs and Asheville, North Carolina, started, and that’s how Ross Bridge was designed.

“What I was able to do was to go back to that whole fabric,” Gunderson said, mentioning that the development of the community was modeled off of the original American resort town blueprint that had been successful in other areas. He said that for a while, only the train station stood in Ross Bridge. The hotel within the community was built in 2003, and the roadways and houses soon followed suit.

“It’s very different from your standard residential community,” Gunderson said.

Bob House, Hoover planning consultant, said the community includes a small village in the downtown area, but like the resort towns, the focus of the neighborhood is the large hotel as well as the Alabama retirement system’s golf course.

Located southwest of Birmingham, the land originally belonged to the Ross family, who

The Sawyer Trail section of the Ross Bridge community has 140 home sites.

Photo by Jon Anderson.

immigrated from Scotland, Gunderson said.

The land was eventually acquired by U.S. Steel in the early 1900s and was annexed into Hoover in 2002.

Gunderson admitted that when Ross Bridge was annexed, it was not in the general path of expansion that Birmingham had seen in recent years. “It was a property that had historically been in an area of town that … had not been in the path of growth,” Gunderson said.

The success of the community was noticed in 2010, when it was named the Best Community in America by the National Association

of Homebuilders. “Little old Birmingham was in competition with some of the greatest areas in the country,” Gunderson said. “That was really important for us as a broader community.”

Now, Ross Bridge has nearly achieved complete sell-out of the neighborhood with 2,200 homes and 200 more on the way.

“Obviously, today it’s all about the families, the people who came here and believed in the story,” Gunderson said. “It far and away has surpassed anybody’s wildest dreams with how successful it could be.”

Neighborhood spotlight

Trace Crossings

By JESSE CHAMBERS Trace Crossings, a planned community begun in 1987, has earned a place in Hoover history.

With the exception of Riverchase, it’s the city’s oldest, largest planned development, said planning consultant Bob House.

It’s home to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and Hoover High School – both of which have iconic sports-world status.

The Hoover Met hosts the annual SEC Baseball Tournament and was home to the Birmingham Barons for 24 years.

Hoover High has won 12 state football titles and was featured in the MTV series “Two-A-Days.”

And adjacent to The Met, Hoover is building an $80 million sports complex that city officials say should attract out-of-town visitors and additional commercial development.

Trace Crossings – developed by U.S. Steel, or USS Real Estate – is a mixed-use area, with residential, commercial and light-industrial uses.

It originally contained about 1,200 acres, with about 260 for houses or apartments, House said.

The Park Trace subdivision sits across the street from Trace Crossings Elementary School. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

However, the development has been expanded and now has about 2,225 total acres, said Karen Furlow of Associa McKay Management, which manages the development.

Most of that additional land was for houses.

The building of Brock’s Gap Parkway, which

was completed in 2001, opened up several new neighborhoods.

Today, Trace Crossings has about 1,270 houses built, House said.

There are plans for about 40 more in the Brock’s Gap area, plus 499 houses on the Lake Wilborn property, where Signatures Homes plans to start building this year.

At press time, negotiations were under way to annex another 211 acres into the city and add 235 acres to Trace Crossings. Plans called for adding 421 houses to Trace Crossings.

Most of the commercial land has been developed, House said.

However, USS Corp. has been trying to arezone additional industrial land for commercial use. This was unpopular, and negotiations have been under way for a resolution.

The 155,000-square-foot Finley Center — an indoor facility for sports, trade shows and other events — is expected to open in May 2017.

When combined with the outdoor sports fields, the complex is expected to have a direct economic impact of $33.4 million in its fifth year.

Councilman Mike Shaw said it’s exciting to think about the positive impact it will have on the community.

Neighborhood spotlight

Green Valley

By HEATHER JONES SKAGGS Today, the community of Green Valley stretches over a larger area than in its early years. U.S. 31, Green Valley Elementary School, Green Valley (now Hoover) Country Club, Hoover Commons Shopping Center and Star Lake are some of the cornerstones in the history of this community where the city of Hoover got its start.

The original location of William Hoover Sr.’s Employers Insurance was in what is now known as the Hoover Commons Shopping Center and was the hub of early business in Hoover. The history of Green Valley’s school dates back to about the 1860s when kids living in the Patton Chapel area were taught basic education at Patton Chapel Church or in homes.

In the 1900s, a separate school was built on Patton Chapel Road and remained at that location until 1922. The school then moved to the intersection of Patton Chapel Road and Lorna Road. The school continued to grow and stayed in this location until the 1960s. Patton Chapel School moved one last time and reopened on Old Columbiana Road with the new name Green Valley Elementary. The land for this

Star Lake is one of the cornerstones in the history of the Green Valley community.

Photo

by Sarah Finnegan.

school was given by Hoover.

Green Valley Elementary opened its doors in 1963 with only six rooms. In December 1964, the first vote was held to officially incorporate the residential areas around the Green Valley area into the town of Hoover, but it was voted down. The people voted again in April 1967 with a smaller area to incorporate (only four blocks long and one block wide); the vote passed.

The community of Green Valley voted to incorporate into the town of Green Valley with the hope of avoiding joining the newly formed

Hoover, but as decisions were overturned, all of the area was eventually incorporated into Hoover. What some refer to as “old Hoover” is the original area that was first incorporated, including Whispering Pines, Helen Circle, part of Deo Dara Drive, Greenvale Road and Valgreen Lane.

The Parade of Homes also started in this area, and one home on Valgreen Lane is one of the original homes on the tour when it was built. The population of the new town was 406 people. Star Lake was annexed into the city in 1969.

Neighborhood spotlight

Monte D’Oro

By EMILY FEATHERSTON Tucked just off U.S. 31 and Wisteria Drive, the Monte D’Oro community is older than Hoover itself. The roughly 160-home subdivision was established in 1964, and some of the original residents still live in the neighborhood.

Monte D’Oro, which means “mountain of gold” in Italian, was developed by William “Bill” Humphries, with the help of designer Cordray “Corky” Parker. Humphries was also the developer for other neighborhoods in the over-the-mountain area, including Talheim in Vestavia Hills and Chandalar in Pelham.

Cordray was first and foremost an artist, and his training in Italy and Austria can be seen in the designs of many of the homes in the neighborhood, explained Eileen Lewis, a member of the Monte D’Oro Neighborhood Association who moved to her home in 1992.

In addition to his work designing the homes, she said, Cordray has several pieces of artwork displayed throughout Birmingham.

The organization that would turn into the current neighborhood association began in 1971 as a neighborhood garden club, which eventually turned into the Monte D’Oro Women’s Club.

In 2001, the club broadened its scope and

Today, the Monte D’Oro community holds multiple neighborhood events each year. Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

became the Monte D’Oro Neighborhood Club, and finally settled as the neighborhood association in 2003.

Today, the Monte D’Oro community is more organized and connected than ever, holding multiple neighborhood events each year, working closely with city hall to preserve the integrity of the neighborhood and even getting involved in the 2016 municipal election.

“The neighborhood association is what holds this neighborhood together, “ said Susanne Wright, who has been a Monte D’Oro resident since 1973.

“It identifies issues within the neighborhood, with the help of our neighbors, that we as a

group can address,” she said.

Lewis said that the community may not be as large as some of the other neighborhoods in Hoover, but that especially with the association’s recent upgrades in technology and connectivity, they can “rally the troops” to make sure their neighborhood is heard.

“We will get involved,” Lewis said.

Internally, the community has an active beautification effort as well as a “very organized” neighborhood watch.

As far as helping maintain the integrity of the neighborhood, residents said they are thankful the city has taken steps to protect and support older neighborhoods.

Neighborhood spotlight

The Preserve

By EMILY FEATHERSTON Since the end of World War II, the American suburban design paradigm has been that of the sprawl, with towns and cities ending up split into commercial, residential and recreational areas and leading to residents spending more time behind their steering wheels than anywhere else.

But to Steve Mouzon, town architect of The Preserve, there was much to be said about a different kind of development, where residents felt more at ease walking to restaurants and shops and didn’t need to drive to have a high quality of life.

The Preserve was built by USS Real Estate, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel Corporation, which at its height held an immense amount of land in and around Birmingham.

Mouzon said the idea was to create a traditional neighborhood out of the 300-acre development, rather than a sprawling subdivision, with amenities and green spaces never more than a five-minute walk from each home.

“The walkable community is an important part,” said landscape architect Nimrod Long III. Long said even though The Preserve is in the

The Preserve was intended to be a traditional neighborhood with amenities and green spaces never more than a fiveminute walk from each home. Photo

by Sarah Finnegan.

middle of the action in Hoover, he thinks it’s a quiet spot.

The Preserve is also directly adjacent to the 250-acre Moss Rock Preserve, which both Long and Mouzon said also draws people to the community.

“It’s the only one of its kind in Hoover,” Mouzon said. But he hopes future neighborhoods will adopt the idea, he said.

“I don’t want The Preserve to be the only neighborhood in Hoover like this in the future.”

Neighborhood spotlight

Lake Cyrus

By LEXI COON Lake Cyrus started with a vision — specifically, the vision of developer Charles Givianpour.

Givianpour and his wife, Concetta, purchased the property from Vulcan Materials in the late 1990s and worked with the site to take the rock quarry and turn it into the community it is today. “It was one of those opportunities to … transform what would have otherwise been a stripped-out rock quarry into a lush residential community,” Concetta Givianpour said.

Although Charles Givianpour recently died, Concetta Givianpour said he always strived to make his ideas for the community a reality, something she is continuing to do now as the developer and president of the neighborhood’s homeowners’ association.

“It was developed in kind of an odd way,” Concetta Givianpour said. “The community was actually developed from the inside out because … further into the community is where the school site was.”

The school site, which sits within Lake Cyrus, was a way for Charles Givianpour to give back to the city of Hoover and became the home of Bumpus Middle School and later Brock’s Gap

Lake Cyrus holds about 1,000 homes and a walking system that includes sidewalks and walking trails throughout the neighborhood.

Photo by Sarah Finnegan.

Intermediate School.

“Our first sectors of Lake Cyrus are those houses that are right around the school,” Concetta Givianpour said.

Since the neighborhood’s annexation into Hoover in the late 1990s, Concetta Givianpour said Lake Cyrus has won a number of awards from the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders as well as a Community of the Year title.

The community holds about 1,000 homes, which include estate homes, single-family homes and garden homes, and a walking system that includes sidewalks and walking

trails throughout the neighborhood, she said.

Lake Cyrus also has a clubhouse, pool and golf course.

“There is a club amenity that has been a private swim and tennis club but has opened its doors to the neighborhood,” Concetta Givianpour said, adding they recently hosted a farmers market.

Today, Lake Cyrus houses a tight-knit group of homeowners and is only a couple hundred homes away from being built out, Concetta Givianpour said.

“I think it has a very bright future,” she said.

“And what that future is … is a wait and see.”

Looking ahead: Where does Hoover go from here?

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he wouldn’t mind seeing Hoover move up the list of Alabama cities in population rank, as long as the city can maintain high-quality schools and city services.

Photos by Jon Anderson.

By JON ANDERSON There is no disputing that Hoover has grown by leaps and bounds over its first 50 years, surging to become the sixth-largest city in the state.

But where does Hoover go from here?

City Council President Gene Smith said that, before long, Hoover is going to be the fifth-largest city in Alabama, surpassing Tuscaloosa. And to him, that’s a good thing.

There already are plans for 3,000 to 5,000 houses in the city that have not been built, mostly in the western part of the city, Smith said. So it’s not a question of if the city is going to grow, but how fast, he said.

City planning consultant Bob House estimated the city would gain at least 350 new houses in 2017, which is similar to the past three years.

With so much growth still to come, the challenge will be making sure people’s needs are met, including infrastructure, public safety and, most of all, education, Smith said.

“The school system is going to have to be able to keep up,” Smith said.

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato agreed.

Brocato said city officials over the years have always been frugal and smart in the way they have spent money. “We saved money and invested in areas that we knew would improve the quality of life in the city,” he said.

Maintaining a high-quality school system is essential, Brocato said. “Between that and

public safety, I can’t think of anything that will turn a city around in the wrong direction than to have a poor public school system and a school that’s not delivering,” he said.

Smith said Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy has done an exceptional job of getting the school system’s financial house in

order since arriving in June 2015. The city is increasing its contribution to schools this year, but it needs to continue looking at educational needs to make sure the system has the proper resources, he said.

Charles Ball, executive director for the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, said he has watched with interest as Hoover has grown but would be afraid to make any bets on whether Hoover will surpass Tuscaloosa in size.

“It comes down to leadership in both communities,” Ball said. “Sometimes, a city has a meteoric rise and then sort of levels off. The leadership makes all the difference. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The residents of Hoover will have to decide how much growth they can accommodate and what that growth needs to look like, Ball said.

His advice is to pay close attention to peer cities, and not just those in the Birmingham area, he said.

“It’s all about remaining competitive,” Ball said. “You have a lot of smart people in Hoover. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.”

Ball commended Hoover for making a concerted effort to bring in more visitors for sports-related events and to diversify its economic base. “That just makes sense for any city not to put all their eggs in one basket,” he said.

Brocato said Hoover loves its strong retail

base, but he plans to hire an economic developer to bring in more businesses in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.

He also is going to hire a city planner to help develop a master plan. A planner can help the city identify the best uses for land, potential areas for revitalization and ways to design developments for better walkability, he said.

“I think what’s missing in Hoover is the urban effect of a city center — an area we can say is downtown Hoover,” Brocato said.

It doesn’t have to be a 10-square-block development, but it’s going to have to grow out of some catalyst, such as a fine arts center, a new library, hotel or entertainment venue, he said.

Brocato said he wouldn’t mind seeing Hoover move up the list in population.

“I’ve said all along I’m not for stifling our growth. I’m for managing our growth,” he said. “As long as we can keep up the services we have without compromising that and the quality of our school system stays at the top of its game as it is now, I am all for controlled growth.

“People are going to want to continue to move here because of the quality of life we have,” Brocato said. “Our home values are strong. Our economy is strong. We’re going to work hard to grow at a pace we can control and where we can keep up.”

ALABAMA’S LARGEST CITIES City

Population*

1. Birmingham

212,461

2. Montgomery

200,602

3. Mobile

194,288

4. Huntsville

190,582

5. Tuscaloosa

98,332

6. HOOVER

84,848

7. Dothan

68,567

8. Auburn

62,059

9. Decatur

55,437

10. Madison

46,962

*ESTIMATED BY U.S. CENSUS BUREAU FOR 2015

Hoover to celebrate anniversary all year long

By SYDNEY CROMWELL While Hoover’s official 50th birthday is in May, the city wants to keep the party going throughout 2017.

The anniversary festivities started March 7 with a kickoff party at the Hoover-Randle House.

Mayor Frank Brocato also has visited each of the schools to collect items for a time capsule to be buried at city hall, city event coordinator Erin Colbaugh said. The time capsule burial ceremony will be held at the Municipal Center on May 18, the official anniversary of the city’s incorporation.

The main event, of course, will be Celebrate Hoover Day on April 29 at Veterans Park. The event started as a celebration of the city’s 40th birthday, and Colbaugh said they’ll celebrate the birthday with the usual games, rides, vendors, music, giant apple pie, military veterans’ recognition and other fun, along with giveaways of posters and other items made just for the anniversary. She said last year about 15,000 people attended the event.

“This will be the big party,” Colbaugh said.

City officials also are planning a series of neighborhood parties to celebrate on a smaller scale. Colbaugh said City Council members and the mayor will be bringing cake and ice cream

Celebrate Hoover Day will be the biggest anniversary event of the year for the city of Hoover.

Photo by Ron Burkett.

to several Hoover neighborhoods, though the dates and times have not yet been finalized.

The 50th birthday will also be referenced in special ways at other events throughout the year, closing with the Christmas tree lighting.

The city won’t just be celebrating through events, however. Colbaugh said the city has made banners, decals, posters and more to distribute throughout Hoover to remind residents

about the 50th birthday.

Every city vehicle will have a new front license plate commemorating the event, and Colbaugh said they’re planning a series of videos on social media talking to different Hoover residents and sharing “50 things you didn’t know” about the city.

For more information about Hoover city plans, go to hooveralabama.gov.

HOOVER CITY OF HOOVER OFFICES Municipal Center 100 Municipal Lane Hoover, AL 35216 444-7500 Mayor Frank Brocato Denise Roberson, executive assistant 444-7510 mayorsoffice@ci.hoover.al.us

CITY COUNCIL Margie Handley, City Clerk 100 Municipal Lane 444-7557 handleym@ci.hoover.al.us Gene Smith Council President, Council Place 2 genesmith3rd@gmail.com John Greene President Pro Tem, Council Place 7 johngreene3@msn.com Curt Posey Council Place 1 curtposey@ci.hoover.al.us John Lyda Council Place 3

DIRECTORY johnlyda@ci.hoover.al.us

BUSINESS LICENSES & TAXES Mike Shaw Council Place 4 mikeshaw@ci.hoover.al.us Derrick Murphy Council Place 5 derrickmurphy@ci.hoover.al.us Casey Middlebrooks Council Place 6 middlebrooksc@ci.hoover.al.us

Revenue Department 2020 Valleydale Road, Suite 207 444-7516, morgand@ci.hoover.al.us, davidsok@ci.hoover.al.us

PERMITS & LICENSES Inspection Services Department 444-7586, -7522

PURCHASING & BIDS 100 Municipal Lane

CITY OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT 100 Municipal Lane 444-7554

PUBLIC SAFETY Fire Department 2020 Valleydale Road, Suite 201 444-7655, contact@hooverfire.org Police Department 100 Municipal Lane 444-7700, police@ci.hoover.al.us

Ben Powell, director of purchasing 444-7573, powellb@ci.hoover.al.us Barbara Janchus, purchasing specialist 444-7504, janchusb@ci.hoover.al.us

FINANCIAL SERVICES 100 Municipal Lane Robert Yeager, city treasurer 444-7595, yeagerr@ci.hoover.al.us

BOARD OF ZONING ADJUSTMENT MUNICIPAL COURT

100 Municipal Lane

Hoover Public Safety Building 2020 Valleydale Road 444-7526, municipalcourt@ci.hoover.al.us

Vanessa Bradstreet, zoning assistant 444-7517, bradstrv@ci.hoover.al.us

HOOVER

DIRECTORY

Lisa Lindsey, assistant city clerk 444-7507, lindsleyl@ci.hoover.al.us

URBAN FORESTRY

MOSS ROCK PRESERVE

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Sharon Nelson, landscape architect 444-7743, deeps@ci.hoover.al.us

616 Preserve Parkway This 250-acre nature preserve has trees, plants, streams, waterfalls, rock formations and wildlife.

Human Resources Department Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

100 Municipal Lane 444-7549, humanresources@ci.hoover.al.us

SEWER SYSTEMS Sanitary Sewers Engineering Department 2020 Valleydale Road, Suite E-100 444-7637

Colin Conner, forester 739-7141, connerc@ci.hoover.al.us Kim Marlin, horticulturist 437-3657, marlink@ci.hoover.al.us

HOOVER LIBRARY 200 Municipal Drive 444-7800 (circulation and information) hooverlibrary.org

STORMWATER SEWERS Public Works Department 2020 Valleydale Road, Suite 111 444-7543

HOOVER PARKS AND RECREATION

GARBAGE & RECYCLING

EVENTS AND RECREATION

Administrative Office 2020 Valleydale Road, Suite 111 444-7543, publicworks@ci.hoover.al.us

Aldridge Gardens 3530 Lorna Road 682-8019 Available for rental for parties, weddings and corporate functions.

ANIMAL CONTROL Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

An animal control officer is on call 24/7 to handle emergencies.

2020 Valleydale Road 444-7760

600 Municipal Drive 444-7703

HOOVER METROPOLITAN STADIUM 100 Ben Chapman Drive 444-7781, tortomaj@ci.hoover.al.us Facilities for rental, plus an RV park.

VETERANS PARK 4800 Valleydale Road 444-7781 The 82-acre park has a lake, playgrounds, cross-country trail, beach volleyball courts and other facilities and is available for events.

COMMUNITY CENTERS AND ATHLETIC FACILITIES Blue Ridge Gymnasium, Blue Ridge Park and Trails Located behind Shades Mountain Elementary School, the facility includes a small playground.

Birchtree Swim and Racquet Club 3583 Burnt Leaf Lane 979-7541 Hoover Recreation Center 600 Municipal Drive 444-7703 75,000-square-foot facility available to Hoover residents for annual membership fee.

HOOVER

DIRECTORY

Hoover Senior Center 400 Municipal Drive 739-6700 Open Mon.-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. hooverseniorcenter@ci.hoover.al.us Sertoma Park 3301 Thornton Drive This park has a playground, picnic tables and four lighted tennis courts.

Trace Crossings Athletic Fields 5454 Learning Lane Two soccer fields are located adjacent to Trace Crossings Elementary.

COMMUNITY & NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS Bluff Park Community Center 517 Cloudland Drive 444-7781 This facility is available for rental and accommodates 60 people.

Hoover Lake House (Howard Lake) 300 Municipal Lane For event rental, call 444-7781 The park has a lake, a lake house, gazebo, playground and walking track.

Hoover West Park (Shades Mountain Park) 1211 Al Seier Road Located near the Preserve subdivision, the park has lighted baseball fields, batting cages, a playground and a walking track.

Inverness Nature Park and Trails 100 Inverness Center Parkway

Riverchase Sports Park 2003 Parkway River Road 802-9010, hooversoccerclub.com This home of the Hoover Soccer Club has four lighted soccer fields.

Russet Woods Park 105 Top O’ Tree Lane This small neighborhood park has a playground, pavilion and walking trail.

Star Lake Star Lake Drive, adjacent to Hoover Country Club and Golf Course. Lake, picnic area and walking trail.

Wildflower Park This park has two playgrounds, an outdoor basketball court and a walking track.

2000 Wildflower Drive

SPORTS PARKS Georgetown Lake 2224 Myrtlewood Drive The park has a lake, lighted track, playground, grill and two gazebos, which are available for rent by calling 444-7781.

Hoover Dog Park 3469 Loch Haven Drive 444-7703

Hoover Sports Park Central 3458 Chapel Lane The 22-acre park has a track, a football field and six softball fields.

Hoover Sports Park East 2649 Old Rocky Ridge Road 160-acre park has a pavilion, a playground and softball, baseball, soccer and football fields.

Spain Park Sports Complex 4710 Valleydale Road The park has two softball and baseball fields plus a pavilion and playground.

JEFFERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE – HOOVER OFFICE Open Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

1901 Hoover Court 497-8976 Motor vehicle registrations; title applications/ registrations; boat registrations; county sales tax collections; state and county business licenses; property tax collections

HOOVER AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 1694 Montgomery Highway, Suite 108 988-5672 Bill Powell, executive director, bill@hooverchamber.org

HOOVER HOOVER CITY SCHOOLS Hoover City Board of Education Farr Administration Building 2810 Metropolitan Way Hoover, AL 35243 439-1000

HIGH SCHOOLS Hoover High School Principal, Don Hulin 1000 Buccaneer Drive 439-1200 hooverhigh.al.hch.schoolinsites.com Spain Park High School Principal, Larry Giangrosso 4700 Jaguar Drive 439-1400 spainparkhigh.al.hch.schoolinsites. com

Principal, Dr. Tamala Maddox 6055 Fleming Parkway 439-2200 bumpusmiddle.al.hcm.schoolinsites. com/ Simmons Middle School Principal, Brian Cain 1575 Patton Chapel Road 439-2100 simmonsmiddle.al.hcm.schoolinsites.com

INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS Brock’s Gap Intermediate School Principal, Scott Mitchell 1730 Lake Cyrus Club Drive 439-1600 brocksintermediate.al.hci.schoolinsites.com/

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS MIDDLE SCHOOLS Berry Middle School Principal, Dr. Chris Robbins 4500 Jaguar Drive 439-2000 berrymiddle.al.hcm.schoolinsites. com Bumpus Middle School

Bluff Park Elementary School Principal, Terry Lamar 569 Park Ave. 439-2800 bluffparkelem.al.hce.schoolinsites. com Deer Valley Elementary School Principal, Dr. Wayne Richardson

4990 Ross Bridge Parkway 439-3300 deervalleyelem.al.hce.schoolinsites. com Green Valley Elementary School Principal, Jeff Singer 3200 Old Columbiana Road 439-2500 greenvalleyelem.al.hce.schoolinsites. com Greystone Elementary School Principal, Stacey Stocks 300 Village Street 439-3200 greystoneelem.al.hce.schoolinsites. com Gwin Elementary School Principal, Dr. Kimberly White 1580 Patton Chapel Road 439-2600 gwinelem.al.hce.schoolinsites.com Riverchase Elementary School Principal, Dr. Alice Turney 1950 Old Montgomery Highway 439-3400 riverchaseelem.al.hce.schoolinsites. com

DIRECTORY Rocky Ridge Elementary School Principal, Dr. Dilhani Uswatte 2876 Old Rocky Ridge Road 439-2900 rockyridgeelem.al.hce.schoolinsites. com Shades Mountain Elementary School Principal, Juli Feltham 2250 Sumpter Street 439-3100 shadesmountainelem.al.hce.schoolinsites.com South Shades Crest Elementary School Principal, Dr. Kara Scholl 3770 South Shades Crest Road 439-3000 southshadescrest.al.hce.schoolinsites.com Trace Crossings Elementary School Principal, Quincy Collins 5454 Learning Lane 439-2700 tracecrossingselem.al.hce.schoolinsites.com