History of Five Points

Vision and the ability to capitalize on the new development when they present themselves are a hallmark of Five Points South’s history. For nearly 120 years, developers, businesspeople, planners, and residents have combined their interests, needs, and talents to move the neighborhood through at least four distinct levels of growth. A fifth one is at hand.

Five Points South started out as the Town of highland (18787-1893) where five streets converged to create five points instead of four corners, but streetcar lines transformed the tiny Birmingham suburb into something very different. These lines served as arteries connecting the neighborhood to the City Center, industrial work sites, and entertainment and recreation.

According to Town Within a City, “So inextricably was building tied to the location of streetcar lines” that one this early planning is understood the development of Five Points becomes clear. The earliest form of mass transit was the horsecar pulled, however, by mules along 20th Street. An extra mule sat waiting at 8th Avenue to pull the car up to the Five Points Circle.

On May 25, 1885, steam dummies began huffing their way along 20th Street soon replacing the obsolete horsecar. By October 1891, Birmingham’s first electric streetcar started operation over the 10th Street line, and by 1900 the Highland Avenue and Belt Railroad began converting from steam to electricity. After 1900 two new streetcar lines opened to service the community.

By 1920, lines radiated in all directions throughout Birmingham connecting not only Five Points, but also Norwood, Avondale, Woodlawn, East Lake, Ensley, West End, and Pratt City to downtown. Not unrelated was the fact that Birmingham had become one of the fastest growing cities of its size in the country.

By then modest, as well as fashionable, families had built stylish homes and churches including high toned “Nabob Hill” near present day Cobb Lane Bed and Breakfast and St. Mary’s on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church. Clustered in the southern end of the neighborhood were the romantic Queen Anne style Hassinger House on Highland Avenue, and the massive Classical Revival Lathrop, Rogers, and Robertson houses at the foot of Cobb Lane all of which remain.

While streetcars brought unprecedented vitality and amenities to Five Points, the automobile ushered in a new craze that made previous inventions seem dull. Auto-related industry and fancy shopping centers took Birmingham – line most other cities – to a new level of sophistication.

Beginning in the mid-1920’s, the Munger family established the “look” that made the Circle unique. The once residential Circle became a shopping and professional office center with parking places in front of Spanish Revival and Art Deco stores to serve those who drove in from further out “over the mountain” areas. Just outside it, spectacular Baptist, Jewish temples were constructed and sat juxtaposed with mid-rise, carefully designed apartment houses.

In the 1930s and 40s Five Points’ largest old houses began to be converted to apartments and doctor’s offices. By the 1950s many of the grandest houses along Highland Avenue and 20th Street were being demolished to make way for new office buildings. In the 1960s , extensive redevelopment for commercial use continued to change the scale and density near the major traffic arteries, 20th Street and Highland and 11th Avenues. Helping to check the sense of upheaval were the churches and temples that continued to draw loyal worshipers from all parts of the metropolitan area.

In the 1970s, the Five Points South Neighborhood Association banded together to protect the neighborhood’s historic character and special neighborhood qualities. In 1980, the City began working with merchants and property owners to develop a commercial revitalization plan with planner mike Dobbins leading the effort. At that time, ONB president Michael Calvert, was a consultant working on the project.

The plan called for a relocation of the statue of Brother Bryan from a tiny island in the center of the traffic circle to an enlarged plaza now offering outdoor dining. Plazas defined other points of the intersection and a fanciful fountain including a sculpture by internationally known Birmingham born artist, Frank Fleming. Trees and decorative pedestrian scale lighting finished off the public improvements.

Merchants and property owners agreed to be bound by mandatory facade design standards funded in part by grants rebated by the City. Within two years, the City’s $1.3 million investment had stimulated three times as much in private investment. Designer/developer Bob Moody bought and renovated the stylish Spanish Stores and attracted a young Alabama chef named Frank Stitt who wowed local and tourist appetites.

For the next decade, Bon Appetit, Gourmet and other high brow food magazines wrote regularly about Five Points South’s Highland’s Bar and Grill. By the mid-1990s, Gourmet voted it the country’s fifth best restaurant.

In the early 1980s Moody bought and renovated the Art Deco style Munger Building which is now being further developed by John Samford. Dr. Donald Kahn converted the Medical Arts Building to the Pickwick Hotel, renovated the surrounding stores, and partnered with the city to develop the adjoining parking deck. Other restaurants and entertainment venues followed along with retail shops to create a vibrant, urbane commercial, and in 1984, Five Points South had won national acclaim for its success.

Now, there are new opportunities for mid-rise, mixed-use development, additional restaurants and shops, and revitalization of authentic historic ambiance of Five Points South. Once again, historic Five Points South with not miss an opportunity to rise to a new level.

The above historical information has been taken from:
Town Within a city: The Five Points South Neighborhood 1880 – 1930, by Ann McCorquodale Burkhardt and Alice Meriwether Bowsher, Editor, Birmingham Historical Society, 1982.