Editing Homewood, Alabama (section)

==History==
{{close paraphrasing|article|source=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3120|free=no|date=September 2022}}

===Early history and development===
In 1800, the first settlers arrived in the area that is now known as Homewood. However, the area's population would not grow significantly until a [[cholera]] epidemic ravaged the city of Birmingham in 1873, an issue only made worse by the financial crisis brought on by the [[Panic of 1873]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Owen |first=Thomas McAdory |url=http://archive.org/details/historyofalabama01owen |title=History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography |last2=Owen |first2=Marie Bankhead |date=1921 |publisher=Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company |others=Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center |pages=140}}</ref> (See [[Timeline of Birmingham, Alabama]]).

Seeking new beginnings and safer living spaces, many Birmingham residents began moving out of the city, buying up land and developing communities in the surrounding areas. Many of the smaller communities which would eventually become Homewood were developed during this time period, including Rosedale, Grove Park, Edgewood, and Oak Grove.

Edgewood saw the greatest amount of development. The community had an [[electric railway]] leading to downtown Birmingham by 1911 and a man-made lake by 1915.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Homewood {{!}} Encyclopedia of Alabama: History|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3120|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama|access-date=July 27, 2015}}</ref> The lake was created by the construction of a dam along Shades Creek near Columbiana Road. Two parallel roads were graded on either side of the lake with the intention of creating a race track around the lake, however these plans never came to fruition. The roads eventually became Lakeshore Drive and South Lakeshore Drive.

===Incorporation===
On December 29, 1926, a local attorney named Charles Rice started a movement to merge several of the communities surrounding Birmingham. In September of the same year, Rosedale, Edgewood, and Grove Park voted to incorporate under the name Homewood. The city of Hollywood, Alabama was annexed into Homewood in 1929.

In 1955, Oak Grove was also annexed into Homewood.<ref name=":1" />

===Great Depression and World War II===
[[Great Depression|The Great Depression]], beginning in 1929, greatly damaged Homewood's economy. Additionally, a [[polio]] epidemic, which sickened 80 children in Homewood, struck around the same time. However, the regional community and economy began to recover with the outbreak of [[World War II]] and the accompanying boom in Birmingham's steel industry, where production ramped up to support the war effort. Partly due to the steel boom, Homewood's population increased by 74% between 1940 and 1950.<ref name=":1" />

===Civil rights era===
In 1959, Homewood voters defeated a move by Birmingham to annex the city. In July 1964, a second annexation attempt allegedly succeeded, but voting issues and lawsuits caused the Alabama Supreme Court to rule the election null and void on September 9, 1966 (See "City of Birmingham v. Bouldin"). In a special election on December 13, 1966, another vote for annexation failed with 65% of Homewood residents voting against it.<ref name=":1" />

Homewood avoided the worst of the turmoil associated with the [[Civil Rights Movement]] and, more specifically, the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]]'s 1963 [[Birmingham campaign]].<ref name=":1" /> However, in September 1963, the ''Shades Valley Sun'' newspaper reported on a racially motivated bombing on Central Avenue in Rosedale.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

Homewood broke away created its own school system separate from the Jefferson County school system in 1970, opening the new Homewood High School in December 1972.<ref name=":1" />

===Hollywood===
'''Hollywood''' is a former town annexed into Homewood, Alabama, in 1929. A [[historic district (United States)|historic district]] of much of the area is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] as '''Hollywood Historic District'''.  The district is roughly bounded by [[U.S. Route 31 in Alabama|U.S. Highway 31]], [[U.S. Route 280 (Alabama)|U.S. Highway 280]], and Lakeshore Drive and is significant for the [[Mission Revival Style architecture|Mission Revival]] and [[Spanish Colonial Revival architecture|Spanish Colonial Revival]] architectural style of surviving houses and other buildings.<ref>{{cite web|last=King |first=Pamela Sterne |author2=Christy Anderson |title=Hollywood Historic District |url={{NRHP url|id=02000482}} |work=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=March 17, 2014 |date=September 1, 2001 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6O9SHifqw?url=http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/02000482.pdf |archive-date=March 17, 2014 |url-status=live}} See also: {{cite web|title=Accompanying photos |url={{NRHP url|id=02000482|photos=y}} |access-date=March 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6O9SIkx8G?url=http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/02000482.pdf |archive-date=March 17, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Clyde Nelson began developing Hollywood Boulevard as a residential subdivision in 1926. He employed a sales force of 75, armed with the memorable slogan "Out of the Smoke Zone, Into the Ozone", to entice [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]] residents over [[Red Mountain, Birmingham, Alabama|Red Mountain]]. Architect George P. Turner designed many of the new homes in the [[Spanish Colonial Revival architecture]], which had become fashionably linked with the glamour of [[Hollywood, California]] in the early days of the motion picture industry there. Turner also nodded to the [[Tudor Style architecture|English Tudor style]] which was already widespread in Birmingham and over the mountain.

The Hollywood Country Club on Lakeshore Drive (destroyed in 1984 by fire) and the [[American Legion]] Post 134 (originally Hollywood's Town Hall) were also built at this time.

In order to support his new development, Nelson created the area's first [[bus|autobus]] line and extended the first natural gas pipeline into Shades Valley.

Hollywood incorporated as a town on January 14, 1927 with Clarence Lloyd as its first and only mayor. The town was annexed into Homewood on October 14, 1929. The [[Great Depression]] virtually ended development of the subdivision.

In 2002, the Hollywood Historic District was registered with the [[National Register of Historic Places]], and is home to The [[American Institute of Architects]] (AIA)-nominated houses like 11 Bonita Drive.  The listing includes 412 [[contributing buildings]] and one [[contributing site]], over a {{convert|815|acre}} area.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>