CITY SPOTLIGHT
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOTEDISON MARKETING
Located at Celebration Park, the splash pad is a great spot for kids to cool off from May 1 – September 30. It’s open Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. till dusk.
Small City, Big Living Gardendale’s community boom has people talking—and moving BY STEPHANIE GIBSON LEPORE The city of Gardendale may need to add an agenda item to its next city council meeting: Change the town motto. The current one— Gardendale. The best kept secret in Jefferson County—doesn’t really apply anymore. “The secret has finally gotten out,” says Heather Lebischak, Executive Director of the Gardendale Chamber of Commerce. A mere 15 minutes from Birmingham and minus the traffic of the city limits, Gardendale is drawing new residents eager to raise families in a smalltown atmosphere with the benefits of a big city close by. There are a multitude of other reasons, too, says Heather. “New subdivisions continue to surface, and more are planned. The business community has taken notice, and during the last few years we have seen significant growth, especially in the medical arena. We have established Gardendale as the medical hub of north Jefferson County, playing off the largest industry in Birmingham, and the largest employer 18 Bham Family August 2021
in the state, which is UAB.” The once-sleepy enclave began nearly 200 years ago, by veterans of the War of 1812. “They recognized the beautiful woodlands as a productive area,” says Heather. “And the first homesteader, Otis Dyer, settled here in 1825.” The town was first named “Jugtown,” because of a local jug and churn factory. The population doubled after coal mines opened in the area during the 1870s. In 1906, teacher Hettie Thomason Cargo, embarrassed by the town’s name, led a drive to rename it to Gardendale. The city was incorporated in 1955. Today, Gardendale totals 57 square miles and is home to about 470 businesses, four public schools, two private schools, and more than 25 churches—and nearly 15,000 people. “When Interstate 65 on the western edge of the city was completed in 1985, it stimulated commercial growth along Fieldstown Road,” says Heather. “The Chamber of Commerce was organized in CONTINUED ON PAGE 19
