In the foothills of the Appalachian Chain, the City of Vestavia Hills is charmingly situated atop Shades Mountain. From this unique vantage point, Vestavia Hills overlooks beautiful Shades Valley to the north and has a breathtaking vista of the remaining Appalachian foothills to the south. This exquisite panorama, with its verdant ever changing foliage and magnificent sunsets, is what attracted the eye and interest of George Ward in the 1920's
George Ward, a former mayor of Birmingham, was an idealist, a sentimentalist, a naturalist, a floriculturist, and a lover of the classics. He made frequent trips to Italy and Greece and was particularly impressed by the Temple of Vesta in Rome. Mr. Ward, who had purchased 20 acres of beautifully wooded property on the summit of Shades Mountain, commissioned an architect to design a home for him fashioned after the Temple of Vesta. The Temple was built of dark pink sandstone with 20 massive columns, which were frieze carved and painted with garlands of flowers and fruit. Construction was completed in 1925 and Mr. Ward called his Temple “Vestavia”. “Vesta” was the Roman goddess of the earth and “via” means “by the roadway”.
The garden gazebo was built later and stood across from the Temple overlooking the valley below, serving as the entrance to a bird sanctuary. It is a replica of the Temple of Sibyl at Tivoli, near Rome.
After George Ward’s death, the Temple served as a restaurant and later as a part of a church. It was unfortunately destroyed and the Vestavia Hills Garden Club assumed the responsibility of relocating the Temple of Sibyl to its present site at the northern gateway to the City.
In 1946, Charles Byrd planned and initiated the development of Vestavia Hills as a subdivision originally designed to accommodate approximately 1,000 persons. Today the population of Vestavia Hills is over 24,000. The City was incorporated on November 8, 1950, and observed its 50th Anniversary with events throughout the year 2000.
|
