October 2026 | Volume 17 | Issue 5
HOMEWOOD’S COMMUNITY NEWS SOURCE THEHOMEWOODSTAR.COM | STARNESMEDIA.COM
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Serving the Birmingham area since 1958.
SERVING HOMEWOOD, HOOVER, MOUNTAIN BROOK, VESTAVIA HILLS, TRUSSVILLE AND THE 280 CORRIDOR
GUINSERVICE.COM
Joseph Braswell Owner of Guin
205-595-4846
AL#12175
INTO THE HALL Inaugural Homewood High Hall of Fame class honors those who paved the way
A sign warns people about the unsafe structures at The Park at Buckingham apartments off West Valley Avenue. Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Future remains uncertain for The Park at Buckingham apartments
By DREW TAYLOR
See HOF | page A21
By SOLOMON CRENSHAW JR.
David Jones, Michael Gross and Gerald Gann are among the 17 honorees into the inaugural Homewood High School Athletics Hall of Fame. Staff photos and courtesy of Homewood High School.
PRSRT STD US Postage PAID Monroe, GA Permit #15
INSIDE
Sponsors............... A4 City......................... A5
Business................ A9 Schoolhouse........ A13
Sports...................A14 Events...................A15
Homewood Turns 100 Founding compromises, neighborhood histories and a century of Homewood stories.
See page B1
It has been two months since residents of The Park at Buckingham apartments off West Valley Avenue were ordered to vacate the premises due to unsafe conditions, but the future of the complex remains uncertain. Homewood Fire Department officials said conditions had deteriorated to the point that some units were considered unsafe for human occupancy. Reported problems include water intrusion, warped floors, leaks, mold and other maintenance issues. About 300 people were living in the apartments when the fire marshal posted signs that the buildings were unsafe to inhabit. Homewood Building Inspector Wyatt Pugh said the office and clubhouse and three other buildings — 106-108, 111113 and 123-125 — could be occupied. “These were not posted as unsafe to occupy,” Pugh said. “They had corrections that need to be made, but they were corrections that were reasonable to be made and continue to be occupied. The
See PARK | page A23 Life.......................A20 Homewood 100......B1
Scan the QR code to follow us online!
Community Appreciation Special Renew Dermatology HALO® Laser Treatments 20% off 9/23/26 - 10/09/26
Thank you for 8 years of support!
SPONSORED
Admittedly, Alvin Bresler was a little surprised. During a recent phone call from Homewood Athletics Director Rick Baguley, Bresler was informed that he would be one of 17 people to be inducted into the inaugural class of the Homewood High School Athletics Hall of Fame. “It hit me right over the head,” Bresler said. Then again, as Homewood High School’s very first football coach who led the Patriots to their first state championship over 50 years ago, it shouldn’t be such a big surprise to anyone else. For Baguley, this hall was about honoring all the great men and women who made Homewood sports what it is today. “This Hall of Fame is about preserving and celebrating the stories, moments and people that helped build Homewood High School into what it is today,” Baguley said in a statement. “For more than 50 years, countless individuals have poured their time, passion and heart into our programs, and this is an opportunity to honor them in a lasting way.”
A2 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A3
A4 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
ABOUT US
Editor’s Note By Kyle Parmley Did you know that this newspaper is just one of the six monthly publications we produce at Starnes Media each month? The Cahaba Sun covers Trussville, Village Living covers Mountain Brook and we also put together the Hoover Sun, Vestavia Voice, Homewood Star and 280 Living papers on a monthly basis. One of my favorite things about overseeing the production of each of these publications is the unique identity each community possesses. Different things are important to different towns and residents are far more interested in certain topics than others. But one thing that is not unique to any of these places is how much the people
Published by:
The Homewood Star LLC P.O. Box 530341 Birmingham, AL 35253 (205) 313-1780 thehomewoodstar.com
care about the place they live, the amount of interesting people all around them. Know of an event we need to highlight? How about that man or woman in town that has such a cool story? We’d love to hear from you! Send me an email at kparmley@ starnesmedia.com with any thoughts and ideas. Thanks for reading!
Please Support Our Community Partners Aqua Systems of Birmingham (A9) At Home Furnishings Three Sheets A Linen Shop (B13) Barlow Wealth Advisory Group (A12) Big # 1 Motorsports (B7) Birmingham Zoo (A10) Brandino Brass (A18, B3) Budget Blinds (A22) Central Avenue Dentistry (A8) Children’s of Alabama (A23) Closets by Design (A1) Edgewood Wealth Advisors (A16) ENT Associates of Alabama (A12) Etc. (A11) Gardner Landscaping (A3) Guin Service (A1) Homewood City Schools Foundation (B15) Homewood Environmental Commission (A14) Homewood Parks and Rec (A5)
Publisher: Dan Starnes Managing Editor: Kyle Parmley News Editor: Jon Anderson Staff Writer: Kelli S. Hewett Production Assistant: Jenn Moon Project Manager: Amanda Kreklau For advertising, contact: Client Success Specialist: Warren Caldwell dan@starnesmedia.com Business Development Exec: Don Harris Operations Specialist: Sarah Villar Please submit
ICONA Health (A8) Issis & Sons (A15) Iter Financial Wellness (A6) Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department (A20) Lakeshore Foundation (B11) Megan Montgomery Foundation (A24) One Man & A Toolbox (A13) Oxmoor Valley Orthodontics (A4) Preservan Birmingham (A17) Samford University Marketing (B16) Sikes Children’s Shoes (A4) Sims Garden (A14) Southern Home Structural Repair Specialists (A10) Terri Sewell for Congress (A2) The Tanner Foundation (A13) The Welch Group (A5) TherapySouth (A19) Trustmark Bank (A7) Watts Realty (A16)
Contributing Writers: April Coffey Solomon Crenshaw Jr. Lauren H. Dowdle Emily Reed Kristi Sellers Karim Shamsi-Basha Drew Taylor
all articles, information and photos to:
Find Us Scan the QR code (or go to qrco.de/ homewoodstar) to read the latest news on our website, find where to pick up the latest print issue, follow us on social media or sign up for our newsletter.
kparmley@starnesmedia.com
Legals: The Homewood Star is published monthly. Reproduction or use of editorial or graphic content without prior permission is prohibited. The Homewood Star is designed
to inform the Homewood community of area school, family and community events. Information in The Homewood Star is gathered from sources considered reliable but the accuracy cannot be guaranteed. All articles/photos submitted become the property of The Homewood Star. We reserve the right to edit articles/photos as deemed necessary and are under no obligation to publish or return photos submitted. Inaccuracies or errors should be brought to the attention of the publisher at (205) 313-1780 or by email.
PLEASE RECYCLE THIS PAPER
Deborah Sema, DMD, MS Joel Stewart, DMD, MS
Your smile is our specialty OVOrtho.com • 205-942-2270 DEPOT LOCATION
415 West Oxmoor Road Birmingham, AL 35209 MCCALLA LOCATION
4823 Promenade Parkway, #101 Bessemer, AL 35022
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A5
CITY
Mayor’s Minute By Jennifer Andress It’s here! After more than a year of planning and anticipation, Homewood’s Centennial celebration is upon us, with fun events planned throughout October. Be sure to check out all the events on our website under the Centennial tab (cityofhomewood.com/centennial) and join us! Highlights include a film festival at Patriot Park on Oct. 4, a Centennial Gala benefiting Edgewood’s Sims Garden on Oct. 15, a family picnic at Central Park culminating in a fireworks show on Oct. 17, a flag presentation from U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer at our City Council meeting on Oct. 26 and recognition of our 100 years at the Homewood High School Patriots football game on Oct. 30. I want to say a huge “thank you” to our Centennial committee, chaired by former City Councilors Walter Jones and Barry Smith. Their committee was composed of representatives from various city departments and boards, local historians and authors. Thank you for the hard work you have put in over the last year to bring us these monumental events. A Centennial celebration happens only once, and you have given us one to be so very proud of! Looking back at our past makes our future seem even more hopeful and bright. In the last year, the city has taken important steps for
organizational excellence and fiscal soundness. We have successfully transitioned to a council-manager form of government and appointed Cale Smith as our first permanent city manager. Under state law, he serves as the city’s CEO, managing day-to-day operations and personnel. Sam Gaston has joined the City Manager’s Office, bringing more than four decades of municipal experience. We have created a much-needed Human Resources Department and hired Kim Kinder, who brings invaluable experience from the Jefferson County Personnel Board. We also hired Aspen Collins as finance director. She brings more than 20 years of municipal and county experience. This is in addition to our already superstacked A-team of department heads, public safety chiefs and chief of staff, along with their direct reports! Add in our nationally recognized, best-in-Alabama Homewood City Schools, and we are well-positioned to thrive for our next 100 years. A mayor of another Alabama city told me recently that Homewood sets the standard for the state and that we set the bar other cities measure themselves against. And we will continue to do just that. We have so much to be proud of, Homewood!
A6 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
CITY
Homewood considers joining national antitrust lawsuit By SOLOMON CRENSHAW JR. The city of Homewood is weighing its potential involvement in an antitrust class-action lawsuit regarding fire engine price-fixing. The national litigation names the nation’s top three manufacturers — REV Group, Oshkosh Corp. (including Pierce Manufacturing) and Rosenbauer America — and the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association as defendants. The lawsuits allege the three manufacturers control 70% to 80% of the nation’s fire truck market. The allegation is that the manufacturers and their association conspired to suppress the supply of fire trucks and raise the prices of trucks sold throughout the United States. More than 60 lawsuits have been filed by cities, counties and other entities that buy fire trucks across the country, and cases are being consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, where the first lawsuit was filed last year. “The council has voted for us to explore our options,” Homewood Fire Chief Brandon Broadhead said. “I would assume that our attorneys will come back and give them ... this is what we think we should do.” Broadhead said the case involves multiple fire engines purchased by the city. “It goes all the way back to 2016,” he said. “Every truck we have purchased since 2016 is being reviewed to try to determine if the price was correct or artificially elevated.” “The lawsuit alleges that the big fire truck manufacturers colluded to fix the price,” the chief continued. “We are just exploring whether we are involved in that or not at this point. If the courts agree that the allegations are true, then I
Homewood Fire Engine No. 1. Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
would suspect we are involved because we have bought them. But at this point, they’re getting our data and determining, would we qualify?” Broadhead said the city has bought four fire engines since 2016. Each came from one of the manufacturers that are alleged to have fixed prices. The city of Milwaukee filed the first lawsuit against the manufacturers. The suit alleges
that the defendants’ conduct to consolidate the market, charge supracompetitive prices and create a backlog in the delivery of new fire apparatuses has diminished the availability of fire trucks, impairing firefighters’ ability to respond effectively and leaving the public less protected during fires and other emergencies. Broadhead said the suit has prompted a hearing in the U.S. Senate.
“The International Association of Fire Fighters actually made a big presentation about it,” he said. “There’s a ton of information out there as far as how it started. It just now came to Homewood to decide if we want to explore being a part of it or not.” At least three cities in Alabama have officially gotten involved, including Chelsea, Guntersville and Muscle Shoals.
Your Financial Wellness Journey Deserves A Thoughtful Guide Serving the Over the Mountain Communities and Beyond Contact Us: Jack Burnette, CFP® (205) 510-9072 | jack@iterfw.com Alison Castellano (205) 894-4071 | alison@iterfw.com Adrian Castellano (205) 894-4263 | adrian@iterfw.com
www.iterfw.com 248 Inverness Center Drive, Birmingham, AL 35242 Advisory services offered by Investment Advisory Representatives of RFG Advisory, LLC ("RFG Advisory" or "RFG"), a registered investment advisor. Private Client Services, Iter Financial Wellness and RFG Advisory are unaffiliated entities. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where RFG Advisory and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advisory services may be rendered by RFG Advisory unless a client agreement is in place.
Explore how we are breaking the mold of traditional wealth management
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A7
CITY
City weighs regulations for EV charging stations By SOLOMON CRENSHAW JR. Homewood Fire Chief Brandon Broadhead isn’t waiting for a catastrophe to begin discussions about where electric vehicle charging stations should be allowed in public spaces. “I know this is kind of a touchy subject sometimes, … but inside, under a building, is very dangerous,” Broadhead said. “And I just would not do my job if I didn’t come and say, ‘Hey, that’s going to be quite a challenge for us to put out.’” Broadhead said it’s his job to inform the mayor and council of potential hazards that he can’t mitigate. City attorneys are working in concert with the fire chief to draft an ordinance that would prevent the electric vehicle charging stations from being put underground or under inhabited structures. “It’s not that we’re anti-EV. That’s not it at any means,” the chief said. “[Electric vehicles] can have a potentially hazardous fire, and I don’t have the ability to fight it or to extinguish it like a standard car fire. I’m just trying to limit the effects of the fire by not putting them under buildings that are occupied or in underground parking decks.” Andrews Sports Medicine (under construction at the former Brookwood Village shopping center) is a good example of that, as well as the Target adjacent to it, Broadhead said. “The Target has electric stations, charging stations, but they are outside of the parking deck,” he said. “We still have a method for people to be able to put them in. We’re just asking them not to put them inside [and] under the buildings. We want to limit it to outside of the structures, and we want to be very careful.” The proposed ordinance does not affect residential properties, including personal garages
An electric vehicle charging station at the Target in Homewood. Photos by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
or homes. “That is a decision they have to make for their family.” Broadhead said the EV industry has done a good job of reducing risk, provided the consumer is using the correct charger and the correct method. “What we’re looking for is that you get UL-listed chargers,” he said. “And this doesn’t just go for EV. This is any charger you get. Get UL-listed chargers that are rated for what you’re doing. Studies have shown that if you
Homewood fire Chief Brandon Broadhead.
have all of the correct components, the risk of fire is relatively low — really no higher than your gasoline cars.” “But when they do burn, they’re extremely hard to put out,” the chief said. “It’s not that I advise families against it. It’s just that they need to know the risk and decide what works for them.” Electric vehicles go into what is called thermal runaway when they do have a problem. That generates thousands of degrees of heat that can come out in the form of small jets or little puff outs or jet valves.
“That is what’s extremely dangerous,” Broadhead said. “A standard car fire doesn’t burn that hot, and then we also have materials to put out a car fire. We carry what we call foam, which works on gasoline to help put it out. We don’t have that yet for these EV cars.” The chief sent his fire marshal and another staffer to a battery research class in September to learn how the technology is changing. “We’re actively looking for new methods to help fight these fires and to make sure the public’s safe,” he said.
A8 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
CITY
Homewood’s new CFO aims to earn public trust By SOLOMON CRENSHAW JR. Homewood’s new chief financial officer said her parents made a deal with one another when it came to naming their offspring. “My mom and dad had two girls, but they had a deal that my mom would get to name any boys they had, and my dad would get to name any girls they had,” Aspen Collins said. “He picked both names. On the way to the hospital, they were listening to a ski competition in Aspen. That’s how I got my name. My sister’s name is Randi. She was named after his poker buddy, so I feel like I got the better end of the deal in the naming convention.” Collins’ Colorado name aside, she was raised near Bessemer, across from McAdory High School. “Where Target and that shopping center are now, Meadow Lane Drive, that was the road that most of my family lived on,” the Oak Grove High alumna said. “That is where I originally was from. When I got to be an adult, I moved to Tuscaloosa. That’s where I spent a good bit of my adult life until I moved to Nashville.” Collins said she took “the hard route” after high school. “I went to tech school at Bessemer Tech and got my two-year accounting degree there,” she said. “Then I went to Athens State University in Athens, Alabama, and got my bachelor’s there. Then I went to Auburn for my master’s in accountancy. But I went online because I was working from the time I was 19 years old.
Aspen Collins is the new chief financial officer for the city of Homewood. Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
I worked my way through college. I went to school full time and worked full time.” Collins’ first job was as a maintenance clerk for the Bessemer Housing Authority, the same entity where her grandfather worked for 35 years. “He worked for Hillside Homes in
A BRIGHTER SMILE. FOR LIFE.
BECOME A NEW PATIENT AND ENROLL IN OUR WHITENING FOR LIFE PROGRAM. Dr. Chelsea Maniscalco takes pride in making Homewood smile. Central Avenue Dentistry offers: • Same day crowns • Bioclear • Smile makeovers & veneers • Teeth whitening • Facial esthetic services including botox, dermal fillers,
New patients who complete a comprehensive exam and healthy-mouth cleaning in October receive custom whitening trays and professional whitening gel — plus a complimentary gel refill at future 6-month preventive visits.
micro-needling & more!
Schedule your New Patient cleaning and exam today! Quality dental care for the entire family
205-870-1363
www.CentralAvenueDentistry.com
2901 Central Avenue Homewood, AL 35209
Se Habla Español
Follow Us
Bessemer,” she recalled. “He was a maintenance mechanic there. He found bicycles for kids and fixed them up and took them to them. He treated everyone in his community like his family. That’s kind of where I got my heart for public service. I’ve always worked in public service, either at a housing authority or at a
city.” Collins might have pursued a career in the culinary arts, were it not for the 80-hour weeks required in that field. She still likes to bake and cook, though. “I really like to do cheesecakes, so those are generally my favorite thing to cook,” she said. “But I like to cook anything. I just like to entertain. I like to have my friends and family over and serve a meal.” Collins takes Homewood’s CFO position after the city’s former finance director was sentenced for embezzling nearly $950,000 from the city. U.S. District Judge Anna M. Manasco sentenced Robert Burgett to 37 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in October 2024. Collins said that, since the incident, Homewood has done a good job of putting policies in place to prevent anything like that from happening again. “I feel like my job at this point is more optimization,” she said. “They’ve built the framework, and now my job is just to optimize that framework and ensure that we’re following those policies and procedures that they put in place.” “I do feel some pressure, but I would feel that pressure regardless,” she said. “Every decision that’s made, we have to consider how the public is going to feel about it. I’ve just always felt like that.” Collins is married. She and her husband are parents of five children and have three grandchildren, with another on the way.
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A9
BUSINESS
From Yemen to Homewood: A trendy coffee house with serious buzz By KELLI S. HEWETT When the line for coffee trails down the sidewalk in West Homewood, it’s not just for a caffeine fix. It’s for a step inside a different world. At Bayt Al-Qahwah, which translates to “the house of coffee” in Arabic, co-founder and general manager Amr Alamari is running a Yemeni coffee house that is part cafe, cultural hub and community living room. “Yemeni coffee shops are going crazy in the States,” said Alamari, who grew up in Birmingham as the son of Yemeni parents. “Alabama didn’t have anything like this, so we just opened one.” The shop, located near Publix on Green Springs Highway, has been open about six months and had lines out the door within the first week. The shop is open until 10 p.m. weeknights and 11 p.m. on weekends. The idea was sparked by trips he and his father, Abdo Alamari, took to some 30 Yemeni coffee houses, starting in Dearborn, Michigan, the hub of the U.S. Yemeni coffee craze. “Our coffee is very much stronger than your original coffee,” Alamari said. “You look at the menu and you just get lost. It’s a menu that you never see.” He suggests new customers chat with his team at the counter for a personal walkthrough to the perfect choice, from Yemeni Adeni tea to a nonalcoholic mojito or the perfect coffee creation based on favorite flavors and sweetness levels. Favorites include mofawar medium roast coffee with cardamom and cream, Saudi or Yemeni coffee, and a Biscoff cookie or Spanish latte. There’s also a pastry case filled with an
Amr Alamari, co-founder and general manager of Bayt Al-Qahwah in West Homewood, wanted to bring the Yemeni coffee experience to Alabama.
international selection of sweets and savories, from their housemade honeycomb bread (perfect with Yemeni Adeni black tea), the signature 12+ layer cake sabaya and the Nutella croissant. Alamari, a 20-year-old marketing student at UAB, decides the menu, often creating and refining it himself. His favorite is the Spanish latte. Yemeni coffee is grown from genetically pure, isolated ancient trees terraced at extremely high altitudes. The rustic, complex flavor profile is unlike anything else in the world. The beans arrive from Yemen, and customers notice the flavor and the caffeine buzz. An expert from Dearborn taught the team during two weeks of intense training.
Bayt Al-Qahwah, a new Yemeni coffee house in West Homewood, includes decor, coffee and pastries from Yemen. The Yemeni coffee craze has spread across the United States from Dearborn, Michigan. The coffee is known for its strength and for its rare, exotic flavors. Photos by Kelli S. Hewett.
Inside, the space matches the menu’s ambition: custom design; upscale glam; layered textures; plush pillows and leather seating; marble columns, floors and tabletops; and brass accents. Much of it is shipped from Yemen. There’s a map of Yemen edged in LED light. And to the side, there are two conference rooms and a prayer room. The prayer room, Alamari stresses, is open to all religions. Nazma Noorani of Hoover, who is Indian, said the shop has fast become one of her
favorite spots. The conference rooms are a favorite for girls’ nights out. “I love it,” Noorani said. “The whole concept — it’s more like communal drinking coffee than a singular one. We have the pot in the center. We are sharing desserts, so that is the best part. It’s very different from other places in town.” The entire experience, Alamari said, is unique. “Once you walk in here, you’re going to taste something new,” Alamari said, “something you’ve never tasted in your life.”
GET PEACE OF MIND ABOUT YOUR FAMILY’S WATER QUALITY Filter Out Microplastics, Minerals, & "Forever Chemicals" Enjoy Softer Skin & Hair For The Whole Family Longer Lifespans For Appliances, Dishes, & Laundry Never Worry About Ordering Bottled Water Again
FREE Water Test (no expiration date)
$250 OFF Any Whole Home System Offer expires 11/30/26 Promo Code: AQUA250DS
(205) 578-6090 aquasystemsbirmingham.com
Ask About Our Whole Home Solutions
A10 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
BUSINESS
Business Happenings
NOW OPEN Bayt Al-Qahwah opened earlier this year at 425 Green Springs Highway in Homewood. A modern coffee shop inspired by authentic Yemeni flavors, Bayt Al-Qahwah offers a variety of items from freshly brewed Yemeni-style coffee to pastries and specialty drinks. They also serve tea, lattes, espresso, shaken iced tea, Qahwah ceremonial matcha, refreshers, mojitos, strawberry milk cake, honeycomb bread, croissants, mousse cake and more. The coffee shop is open Sunday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. 205-238-5301 Young Creators, located at 2900 Central Ave., Suite 130, in Homewood, began in September to offer a membership-based after-school creative program for children
ages 8 to 13 years old. The program encourages imagination, creative thinking, problem-solving and confidence through a variety of hands-on projects and experiences. The projects vary throughout the year and include activities like painting, drawing, storytelling, design and other creative challenges. Children can enroll anytime during the year, and membership is $250 a month, which includes one two-hour session each week and art supplies. Classes are limited to 10 children per day. Currently, classes are offered on Wednesdays from 3:30-5:30 p.m. 205-427-5299, youngcreators.studio After two years of preparations, Foo Hai Handmade Noodles and Dumplings opened in August at 1903 29th Ave. S., Suite 101, at 19th Street South in Homewood. Created by the founders of Urban Hai in Midtown Atlanta, the restaurant offers handmade noodles, dumplings
Do you have business news to share? Let us know at starnesmedia.com/ business-happenings
and Szechuan cuisine, as well as a special chef’s selection that isn’t on their Atlanta menu. Foo Hai Handmade Noodles and Dumplings is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. 205-538-5353 The Elemental You opened at 2822 Central Ave., Suite 104, in Homewood. Led by Dr. Barry King and Dr. Tyler Richardson, the practice provides metabolic weight loss support, endocrine hormone optimization and neutralizing aesthetic treatments. Their care includes hormone optimization, refreshed aesthetic, regenerative medicine, weight sustainability, hair restoration and refined wellness. The practice also provides pharmaceutical-grade supplements. The Elemental You is open Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 205-593-4502, theelementalyou.com
FOUNDATION PROBLEMS? WE HAVE THE SOLUTION.
FOUNDATION REPAIR BASEMENT WALL REPAIR FLOOR LEVELING CRAWLSPACE ENCAPSULATION
REQUEST A FREE QUOTE TODAY
205-520-9777
foundationsunlimited.com
Family-Owned and Operated Since 1996
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A11
BUSINESS
RELOCATIONS AND RENOVATIONS Homewood Bagel Company and Goodies Toy Store are merging into one location at 2907 Central Ave. and opening together on Oct. 2. Homewood Bagel will close for remodeling for two weeks prior to the reopening and offer delivery on the weekends during that time. Goodies Toy Store will close its storefront at 3027 Central Ave. Sept. 27. Homewood Bagel is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 205-769-6131, homewoodbagelco.com, goodiestoystore.com
ANNIVERSARIES Founded in 1984 by the Bostany family, Alpha Church Supply and Gifts is celebrating 12 years at its location at 121 West Valley Ave. The company has moved locations several times but has been in Homewood for more than 30 years now. They offer a variety of items
and materials for churches and other religious organizations including advent candles, crosses, decorations, pews, graduation items, books, wedding items and more. The store is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 205-942-5750, alphachurchsupply.com Ono Poké, located at 934 Oxmoor Road in Homewood, is celebrating its eighth anniversary in Edgewood. When founder Vinh Tran moved from the West Coast to Birmingham, he wanted to bring some of the tastes with him. The restaurant opened its original location in the Pizitz Food Hall in 2017 and now has locations at The Summit and Hoover, as well. The restaurant offers dishes including ono fries, build your own bowls and seaweed salads. The Edgewood location is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday noon to 7:30 p.m. 205-730-1992, theonopoke.com
The Seafood King has been cooking up seafood in Homewood for the past eight years at 180 State Farm Parkway. The restaurant also has locations in Hoover and Bessemer. Customers can enjoy dishes including fried calamari, oysters, popcorn shrimp, catfish, snow crab legs, clams, mussels and more. The Seafood King is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 205-637-3630, theseafoodking.com Salon 46 is celebrating four years at 350 Hallman Hill East, Suite 71, in Homewood. The stylists offer services including coloring, styling, treatments and cuts for women, men and children. The first Salon 46 was founded in 2012 in Alexandria, Va. Salon 46 is open Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 205-848-2265, salon46.com
A12 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
BUSINESS
Recently sold homes in Homewood
► ADDRESS: 329 Kenilworth Drive ► BED/BATH: 4/3.5 ► SQUARE FOOTAGE: 2,755 sq. ft. ► NEIGHBORHOOD: Edgewood ► LIST PRICE: $1,249,900 ► SALE PRICE: $1,220,000
► ADDRESS: 309 Crest Drive ► BED/BATH: 4/3 ► SQUARE FOOTAGE: 4,814 sq. ft. ► NEIGHBORHOOD: Homewood ► LIST PRICE: $729,900 ► SALE PRICE: $780,000
► ADDRESS: 104 Mecca Ave. ► BED/BATH: 3/2 ► SQUARE FOOTAGE: 1,751 sq. ft. ► NEIGHBORHOOD: Edgewood ► LIST PRICE: $729,000 ► SALE PRICE: $690,000
► ADDRESS: 407 Hambaugh Ave. ► BED/BATH: 3/2 ► SQUARE FOOTAGE: 1,476 sq. ft. ► NEIGHBORHOOD: Edgewood ► LIST PRICE: $545,000 ► SALE PRICE: $600,000
► ADDRESS: 117 Venetian Way ► BED/BATH: 3/2 ► SQUARE FOOTAGE: 1,144 sq. ft. ► NEIGHBORHOOD: West Homewood ► LIST PRICE: $399,900 ► SALE PRICE: $390,000
► ADDRESS: 601 Grove St. ► BED/BATH: 2/1 ► SQUARE FOOTAGE: 954 sq. ft. ► NEIGHBORHOOD: West Homewood ► LIST PRICE: $340,000 ► SALE PRICE: $330,000 SOURCE: GREATER ALABAMA MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE
WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR HEALTH
Experience Matters
Joel Barlow, CPA, CFP®, CPWA®, Kara Barlow, CPA
The Winning Formula Looking beyond tax season— CPA expertise. CFP® guidance.
The team at ENT Associates includes 15 board-certified physicians, 6 licensed PAs, and 17 clinical audiologists across 11 locations, including a new satellite office in Clanton, all dedicated to your care. We prioritize your health, treating every patient with personal attention and compassion. We offer same-day, early morning, evening, and Saturday appointments. Call 1-888-ENT-5020 (1-888-368-5020), visit entalabama.com, or scan the QR code to connect with us online.
A CPA who is also a CFP® and CPWA® offers a unique combination of tax expertise, financial planning, and investment guidance. At Barlow Wealth Advisory, our coordinated wealth management approach helps clients see the complete picture and is designed to inform and empower decision-making. For more information, scan code or contact: Joel Barlow, CPA, CFP®, CPWA® jbarlow@barlow-wag.com, 205.732.9012 – Ext. 100, barlow-wag.com 400 Union Hill Drive, Birmingham, AL 35209 Investment advisory and financial planning services offered through Apex Wealth Advisors, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor. Insurance, coaching and education services offered through Barlow Wealth Advisory Group. Apex Wealth Advisors, LLC, and Barlow Wealth Advisory Group are affiliated entities. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Center for Financial Planning, Inc. owns and licenses the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the United States to Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., which authorizes individuals who successfully complete the organization’s initial and ongoing certification requirements to use the certification marks.
Birmingham • Grandview • Valleydale • Trussville • Gardendale Alabaster • Jasper • Pell City • Bessemer • Cullman • Clanton
entalabama.com | 888-368-5020
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A13
SCHOOLHOUSE
A ranking worth celebrating, a mission that matters more By APRIL COFFEY There are some numbers that make you stop and smile, and the release of the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best high schools in Alabama has given Homewood High School a reason to celebrate. The Patriots have been named the number two public high school in Alabama and number 212 in the nation in the 2026-27 U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools rankings, placing Homewood among approximately the top 1.2% of public high schools ranked nationwide. That is no small accomplishment. And for a school with a long tradition of academic, artistic, athletic and extracurricular excellence, it is another well-deserved moment to celebrate. But there is something even more telling about Homewood High’s latest recognition. Ask Principal Joel Henneke about the ranking, and he doesn’t talk for long about numbers. He talks about kids. At Homewood High’s Open House on Aug. 25, Henneke discussed different stakeholders asking him about the recognition. His answer was perhaps the best reflection of what makes his leadership so distinctive. “Whenever someone says congratulations on these or similar rankings, I just say ‘thank you.’ But what is so much more important to me is each individual child and them reaching their own unique potential because that is the real measure of success.” In a moment when it would be easy to celebrate a ranking — and Homewood and Henneke certainly should — Henneke, a Marine Corps veteran and true servant leader, brings the conversation back to the reason the school exists in the first place: to serve students. It is a simple philosophy, but one that is
Homewood High School Principal Joel Henneke. Photo courtesy of Homewood High School.
Homewood High School. Staff photo.
deeply personal to Henneke. No two students arrive at Homewood High with exactly the same gifts, interests, challenges or dreams. One may be preparing for a highly selective university. Another may discover a calling through music, theater, athletics, career technology or service. Another may need a teacher, coach, counselor or principal to see something in them before they are able to see it themselves. Success looks different for each of them. And Henneke understands that. That student-first perspective is especially meaningful when the numbers are this impressive. U.S. News evaluates public high schools using multiple measures, including college
LIVING WELL IS ABOUT MORE
THAN MANAGING A DIAGNOSIS.
readiness, AP and IB participation and performance, state assessment results, graduation rates, and student performance across demographic groups. Homewood performs exceptionally well in all measures. Seventy-one percent of Homewood High students participate in AP courses, and 63% have passed at least one AP exam. Sixty-eight percent of students are proficient in science, 67% in math and 62% in reading. The school also climbed from number 363 nationally in the 2025 U.S. News rankings to number 212 this year. Only New Century Technology High School in Huntsville ranked higher among Alabama public schools. But New Century is
a specialized magnet school, while Homewood is a comprehensive public high school serving a broad student population. Still, the measure Henneke chooses to focus on will always center on each individual child under his care, and that is a fitting one for a principal whose leadership is so clearly rooted in service and in a genuine desire to know and encourage every Homewood High School student. The ranking is worth celebrating because of the hard work of the students, teachers, counselors, coaches, families and stakeholders who helped make this possible. But those numbers are meaningful because behind every statistic is a student, and behind every student, is a story still being written. And for Henneke, success will always be measured in the lives of students touched and providing the support they needed to reach their potential, not as a group number or ranking, but always as a unique individual.
One Man & a Toolbox Handyman Services $25 OFF
Relationships. Resilience. Real-world tools.
First Hour for Veterans and Senior Citizens
DR. EMILY RISER
DR. BEVERLY THORN
Living Well with a Neurological Diagnosis Featuring nationally respected speakers, practical education and dedicated learning tracks for people living with neurological disease, care partners and healthcare professionals.
November 17
Vestavia Hills Civic Center
Because
Doing it Yourself isn’t for everyone.
FREE for people living with neurological disease & their care partners
SEE THE SPEAKERS + REGISTER
tanner-foundation.org
Residential Commercial Special Projects 205-823-2111 • OneMan-Toolbox.com
A14 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
SPORTS
Patriots, Cavaliers turn to back half of region schedules in October By KYLE PARMLEY Homewood High School’s football team opened Class 5A, Region 4 play in September against Mountain Brook, Pelham and Helena, while John Carroll opened Private-AA, Region 2 play against American Christian, St. John Paul II and Lee-Scott. Both teams now turn to the second half of their region schedules in October.
OCT. 2
Homewood hosts Calera, a series it has swept 2-0, including a 43-21 win in 2023, the last time the teams played. John Carroll travels to Westminster Christian in the first meeting between the two programs. Both John Carroll and Homewood are entering new region alignments this season as part of the AHSAA’s move to split public and private school classifications.
OCT. 8-9
Homewood hosts Chelsea on a Thursday night, Oct. 8, a series it has swept 4-0. The teams have not met since 2021, when Homewood won 37-35. John Carroll travels to Briarwood on that Friday, a series Briarwood leads 13-3 and has won 12 straight, including a 23-7 win last season.
OCT. 16
Homewood travels to Chilton County, a series it has swept 6-0, including a 34-13 win in 2023, the last time the teams played. John
Carroll hosts Madison Academy in the first meeting between the two programs.
OCT. 23
Homewood hosts Ramsay, a series it leads 4-1. The teams have not met since 2017, when Homewood won 38-0. John Carroll travels to Randolph in the first meeting between the two programs.
OCT. 30
Homewood closes the regular season at home against Oak Mountain in a non-region game. The two programs have not met since 2011, when Homewood won 14-7; Oak Mountain leads the all-time series 4-2. John Carroll closes the regular season at home against Leeds in a non-region game. John Carroll leads that series 19-10-1 and won the last meeting in 2019, 34-33 in double overtime, though the teams have not played since.
LOOKING AHEAD
Homewood finished 11-2 last season and reached the Class 6A quarterfinals under head coach Ben Berguson, extending the program’s playoff streak to 14 straight years. A strong finish in October will go a long way in determining the Patriots’ playoff future. John Carroll finished 3-7 and missed the playoffs under head coach Will Mara. All 16 teams in the Private-AA classification will make the playoffs, but the Cavaliers will be fighting for strong positioning entering the playoffs.
Homewood defensive lineman Dennis White (91) gets past the John Carroll offensive line during a game between Homewood and John Carroll on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, at John Carroll Catholic High School. Photo by Richard Force.
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A15
EVENTS
Event guide for Homewood centennial celebration By EMILY REED The city of Homewood is celebrating its centennial, with Oct. 29 marking its official birthday and incorporation date. From small surprises to big community events, there will be plenty of ways for those who love Homewood to take part. Below are a few activities planned throughout the city in October.
OCT. 4: CENTENNIAL FILM FESTIVAL
Films will begin around 6:30 p.m. at Patriot Park featuring stories connected to Homewood.
OCT. 15: CENTENNIAL GALA
The Centennial Gala will be held at City Hall Plaza and Rosewood Hall. This is one of the biggest events of the year and will take everyone back to the style and spirit of 1926 with a red carpet welcome, music from the Homewood Pops, stories from the city’s past, Homewood memorabilia and a live auction. The evening’s emcees will be Mayor Jennifer Andress and Chris Cooper. All proceeds from the event will help fund capital improvements to Miss Sims Garden Botanical Park. Catherine Anville Sims’ vision was to have a teaching garden to serve the community for generations to come. An individual ticket to the event is $100, and a group of 10 tickets is available for $1,000.
OCT. 16: CENTENNIAL BRUNCH
Held at the Homewood Rec Center, a breakfast and brunch gathering to honor living former mayors and City Council members will take place. More details on this event will be available closer to the date.
OCT. 17: CENTENNIAL PICNIC AND FESTIVAL
From 1-6 p.m. at Homewood Central Park, a citywide picnic will be held. This event will feature performances from the Homewood High School band and show choir, live entertainment, food trucks and activities throughout the afternoon.
OCT. 29: TIME CAPSULE BURIAL
To mark 100 years of Homewood, a time capsule burial will take place at the Homewood Public Library. More details will be announced. For more information about city events held throughout October to celebrate the centennial, visit cityofhomewood.com/centennial. Beyond the events themselves, this month’s Homewood Star includes a special Centennial Salute section beginning on page B1, tracing the vote that created the city in 1926, the sixvote election that nearly dissolved it in 1964, and the neighborhoods, schools and businesses that have carried Homewood through a century of change.
A16 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
EVENTS
Save the Date
FRIENDS BOOKSTORE $7 BAG SALE ► Where: Homewood Public Library, Friends Bookstore, 1721 Oxmoor Road ► When: Friday-Saturday, Oct. 16-17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ► Cost: $7 per bag ► Details: Stock up on books during the Friends Bookstore $7 Bag Sale at Homewood Public Library. Fill a bag with bookstore finds for $7, and check out in Room 116. Shoppers may pay with cash, check or card. The Friends of the Homewood Public Library operate the bookstore to support library services and programs. ► Contact: 205-332-6600 ► More Info: homewoodpubliclibrary. org
PICNIC IN THE PARK ► Where: Homewood Central Park, 1632 Oxmoor Road ► When: Saturday, Oct. 17, 1-6 p.m.; live music at 5 p.m. ► Cost: Free ► Details: Pack a picnic and head to Homewood Central Park for an evening celebrating Homewood’s 100th anniversary. The centennial celebration will feature live music from Alabama favorites Three on a String, along with family-friendly fun and a chance for neighbors to gather and celebrate a century of community pride. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and enjoy an evening in the park marking this special Homewood milestone.
► For more events news, connect with the Homewood Star online by scanning the QR code. ► Have an upcoming event to share? Email Kyle Parmley at kparmley@starnesmedia.com.
OCTOBER CHAMBER LUNCHEON AND ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE UPDATE ► Where: Valley Hotel Homewood, 2727 18th St. S. ► When: Tuesday, Oct. 20, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ► Details: Join the Homewood Chamber of Commerce for its October Chamber Luncheon and Annual Legislative Update. The event offers members of the local business community an opportunity to connect while hearing updates on legislative issues affecting Homewood and the surrounding area. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m., followed by the luncheon program at noon. Registration is required by Thursday, Oct. 15. ► Contact: Homewood Chamber of Commerce, 205-871-5631 ► More Info: business.homewoodchamber.org
HOMEWOOD FALL FESTIVAL & WITCHES RIDE ► Where: Homewood Central Park, 1632 Oxmoor Road ► When: Sunday, Oct. 25, 2-5 p.m. for the Fall Festival; Witches Ride time to be announced ► Cost: Fall Festival is free; Witches Ride registration information TBA ► Details: Celebrate the season at Homewood’s annual Fall Festival with an afternoon of family-friendly Halloween fun. The festival will feature inflatable attractions for kids, a costume contest, a DJ and food trucks at Homewood Central Park. The celebration is traditionally followed by the Homewood Witches Ride, when hundreds of costumed riders take to the streets and toss candy to spectators while raising money for cancer research through UAB’s O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. ► More Info: homewoodparks.com
2x Certified Property Manager® of the Year in the State of Alabama Century+ as Family Owned & Operated Business
COMMERCIAL BROKERAGE RESIDENTIAL MANAGEMENT REAL ESTATE CONSULTATIONS INSURANCE 1527 3RD AVE SOUTH BIRMINGHAM www.wattsrealty.com
205-251-1267
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A17
EVENTS
HOMEWOOD MINI-CON 2026
CAIN LIVE AND IN WORSHIP TOUR
► Where: Homewood Public Library, 1721 Oxmoor Road ► When: Sunday, Oct. 25, 2:30-5:30 p.m. ► Details: Celebrate anime, manga, comics, gaming and fandom culture at Homewood Public Library’s MiniCon 2026. The annual event invites teens, tweens and families to come together for an afternoon devoted to their favorite fandoms. This year’s convention will again include an Artists’ Alley showcasing work by local students in grades six through 12, giving young artists an opportunity to share their creations with Mini-Con visitors. ► Contact: 205-332-6600 ► More Info: homewoodpubliclibrary. org
► Where: Wright Center at Samford University, 872 Montague Drive ► When: Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m.; doors open at 6 p.m. ► Details: Contemporary Christian trio CAIN brings its Live and In Worship Tour to Samford University for an evening of music, encouragement and worship. The Birmingham stop will also feature special guest Patrick Mayberry. The tour is designed around uplifting songs and intentional moments of worship, and attendees at the Birmingham show are encouraged to wear red. ► More Info: caintheband.com
MIXTAPE: THE ULTIMATE ’80S TRIBUTE BAND ► Where: The Edge, 815-819 Green Springs Highway ► When: Friday, Oct. 30, 7:30 p.m. ► Cost: Tickets start at $25. ► Details: Break out the neon and take a trip back to the ’80s with Mixtape, an energetic tribute band bringing the decade’s biggest rock and pop hits to The Edge. Expect sing-along favorites, shredding guitar solos, throwback costumes and plenty of dance-floor energy during this nostalgic night of live music. The concert is for ages 18 and older. ► Contact: hello@theedgehomewood. com ► More Info: theedgehomewood.com
MEGAN MONTGOMERY 5K RUN/WALK ► Where: Homewood Central Park, 1632 Oxmoor Road ► When: Saturday, Oct. 31, 8-11 a.m.; 1-Mile Fun Run begins at 9 a.m. ► Cost: $35 for the 5K Run/Walk through Oct. 25; $15 for the 1-Mile Fun Run or Sleep In option. The 5K price increases to $45 after Oct. 25. ► Details: Run or walk for a meaningful cause at the Megan Montgomery 5K Run/Walk in Homewood Central Park. The annual event raises funds for awareness and education efforts to prevent domestic violence, with proceeds benefiting the Megan Montgomery Foundation and Turning Point Services. Participants can choose the 5K Run/Walk, a 1-Mile Fun Run or a Sleep In option for those who want to support the cause from home. ► More Info: runsignup.com/Race/ Info/AL/Birmingham/MeganMontgomery5KRunWalk
HOME & GARDEN
Wood rot? Repair don’t replace! Wood rot is very common in the southeastern U.S., more so than in most other U.S. regions. High humidity, heavy rainfall, and warmer temps combine to make a nearperfect combination for wood rot. If you’re dealing with a specific wood rot issue (wood frame windows, wooden columns and doors) expensive replacement, and disruptive renovation, is not the only solution. Wood rot can often be permanently repaired by Preservan Birmingham, for a fraction of the price of full replacement, which removes damaged wood, treats the area to stop further deterioration and rebuilds the original shape using epoxy resins. “In many cases, damaged wood can be permanently repaired without replacing original elements,” says owner Hillary Edwards. One of Preservan’s happy customers, Tyler, “had a fantastic experience” with the company and says “it’s a great value to repair rather than replace.” Katherine had a damaged window and was told by other vendors she would have to order a brand-new window, which could take months and cost $4,000. “Preservan fixed it in two days for a fraction of the replacement cost,” Katherine says. “They did an amazing job.” Preservan repaired five window sills for Bernard, who was “truly
happy and satisfied” and gave the company “a 5-star rating.”
BEFORE
AFTER
“This isn’t a cosmetic patch,” Edwards says. “When epoxy is installed correctly, the process restores strength and, in many cases, the repaired wood is stronger than it was originally.” FASTER, LESS DISRUPTIVE Most Preservan projects
are completed in two to three days, without demolition, long construction timelines or long waits for materials. “Our work is focused and efficient,” Edwards says. Preservan can help customers with all sorts of repairs, as well. For example, Preservan fixed two rotting cedar posts that were holding up Eska’s back porch. “The cost was less than half the quote I received for replacement,” Eska says. “We couldn’t have asked for a more satisfying experience.” Toya in Hoover had Preservan repair rot on her wood door and garage door. The price was “exponentially lower than a full door replacement” and the job was completed “very fast,” Toya says. LOCAL ROOTS, SUSTAINABLE FOCUS A Birmingham resident since 2019, Edwards opened Preservan Birmingham in 2024. “We want homeowners to understand their options and preserve their homes whenever possible,” Edwards says. Repairing wood instead of replacing it also reduces the construction waste that goes to the landfill. “By repairing what’s there, we preserve materials and reduce waste,” Edwards says.
GREAT STAFF Customers have been very pleased by Hillary and her highly trained techs. “Hillary’s team was so professional in their process,” Bernard says. “I’m a very happy homeowner.” “Hillary is a gem,” Toya says.
Schedule your consultation at 205-772-4447 or go to preservan.com.
A18 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
HOME & GARDEN
Brandino Brass offers ‘high-quality’ products, ‘exceptional’ service, ‘unique’ variety, customer says
Kelly Kirby and Renee Genereux. Photo courtesy of Brandino Brass.
Brandino Brass in Homewood is known throughout the Southeast as a go-to destination for designers, contractors, architects and homeowners seeking top-quality decorative and architectural hardware. With a range of prices and quality unmatched by big-box stores, Brandino Brass offers cabinet hardware, door knobs, fireballs, custom brass shelving, bathroom accessories, interior and exterior lighting and more. The company carries many unique, high-end hardware makers and vendors, with some products available exclusively at Brandino Brass. Best of all, Brandino Brass has a passionate, well-trained staff who understand that hardware is “the jewelry of the home” and help clients find the best products for their homes. The customers who’ve enjoyed this great service include Kelly and Brian Kirby, who recently built a two-story, Tudor-style house in Edgewood. The house measures 3,500 square feet with five bedrooms, 4.5 baths and an office, and Brian – who builds houses for a living – handled the construction. Brian is pleased by his handiwork but gives his wife — a designer and licensed real estate agent — much of the credit for the project’s success. “I’m more impressed by what Kelly does with the finishes,” Brian says. “This was some of her finest work to date.” Picking Brandino Brass for all of the cabinet and door hardware in her new house was an easy choice for Kelly, who worked with Brandino co-owner Renee Genereux and the rest of the staff while serving on the
BRANDINO BRASS CO
► 2824 Central Ave., Suite 100, Homewood ► 205-978-8900 ► brandinobrass.com
design team at Homewood builder Ketcham & Co. “Renee and Brandino were the only choice,” Kelly says. “The service at Brandino is always exceptional, the products are highquality and the variety in selections give each home a unique sense of personality.“ Renee helped Kelly find the hinges for a “hidden door” in her dining room that her kids love, Kelly said. “Figuring that out was a process, and Renee helped us through every option available.” As a designer who works with her own clients, Kelly is very impressed by Brandino Brass. “Every staff member is willing to help, scheduling is seamless and communication with orders is always relayed in a timely manner in regards to arrivals and backorders,” she said. The Brandino Brass staff even labels all hardware items by location. “This keeps the job site organized and creates efficiency when confirming that all items are accounted for and ready for installation,” she says. “I will always appreciate Brandino’s commitment to quality service and variety of high-end products,” Kelly says. “Finishes truly make the difference in a home, and Brandino provides the best out there.”
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A19
EVENTS
Jimmie Hale Mission to host sixth annual Rescue Run By EMILY REED The sixth annual Jimmie Hale Mission Rescue Run will be held Oct. 3 with a 10K, 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run. Runners will follow a course through Homewood that starts and finishes on 29th Avenue South between 18th Street South and 19th Street South. Race attendees will receive a T-shirt and swag bag, along with post-race food, water and sports drinks. The race helps raise awareness of Jimmie Hale Mission Ministries, which helps men afflicted by homelessness in downtown Birmingham through education remediation, job readiness and spiritual support. The mission helps combat substance abuse in the community by shifting its focus from rescue to recovery. “By addressing these deeper challenges, we can help our clients once again become self-sufficient and productive citizens,” Jimmie Hale Mission’s website says. Jimmie Hale Mission aims to transform adults directly affected by homelessness, poverty-thinking or addiction into people who lead healthy, self-sufficient and productive lives for the glory of God. Marla Weaver, development coordinator at Jimmie Hale Mission, said one of the positive aspects of offering the Rescue Run to the community is that it allows people a meaningful way to come together around a shared purpose. “It is not just about running a race; it is about building connections and creating an
The sixth annual Jimmie Hale Mission Rescue Run will be held Oct. 3. Photos courtesy of Jimmie Hale Mission.
opportunity for families, businesses, churches and neighbors to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” Weaver said. Weaver said the race typically draws between 300 and 350 runners and walkers who participate in the events. This year, organizers are hoping to reach 400 or more participants. “Every person who registers helps strengthen community involvement and supports our
mission of bringing hope and restoration to those who need it most,” Weaver said. The Rescue Run brings the community together to make a difference in the lives of those who are struggling, Weaver said. “The Rescue Run helps provide our neighbors in need with critical services such as a safe shelter, nutritious meals, education, job training, counseling and life-transforming programs that empower individuals to move beyond unhealthy
FALL INTO
BETTER MOVEMENT Whether youʼre competing in fall sports, staying active in your daily life, traveling for the holidays, or enjoying time with family, TherapySouth can help you move with greater strength, mobility, and confidence. Our team creates personalized treatment plans to support your goals, from injury recovery and prevention to proactive wellness and athletic performance. Make the most of the season and keep moving toward what matters most.
SCAN THIS QR CODE TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT
life choices and embrace a path toward stability, purpose and hope,” Weaver said. Packets can be picked up before race day from 3-6 p.m. Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 at Trak Shak, 2839 18th St. S. More information and registration are available at runsignup.com/Race/AL/Birmingham/ JimmieHaleMissionsRescueRun. Additional information is available at jimmiehalemission. com.
A20 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
LIFE
Reel history: Homewood resident Kate Burney preserves culture through film By APRIL COFFEY The movies we love don’t just entertain us — they preserve the values, fears, dreams and identities of the people who made them. For Homewood resident Kate Burney, protecting those films means protecting something much larger: our collective cultural memory. It’s a mission that has taken the Sidewalk Cinema and Film Festival development assistant from Birmingham to Belgium, Portugal, and soon Ireland and Estonia as part of one of the world’s only graduate programs dedicated to film heritage and restoration. “I didn’t know there was a way to be in the film industry without making films,” Burney said. “When I learned there were people whose job was to care for what already exists, that felt like stewardship.” Burney’s path into film preservation wasn’t a conventional one. She earned undergraduate degrees in film studies and global studies at Montana State University before moving to Alabama three years ago to care for her grandmother during the final stage of her life. Only later did she realize that experience had shaped the work she now feels called to do. “I’ve thought about how providing endof-life care and preserving old films aren’t as different as they seem,” she said. “It’s about saving what’s left before it’s gone.” That philosophy now drives her studies in the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s in Film Heritage, an international graduate program that accepted Burney as one of its first American students. The two-year degree takes students to Belgium, Portugal, Ireland and Estonia, where they work alongside film archivists learning how to preserve the world’s cinematic history.
Kate Burney in Sintra, Portugal. Photo courtesy of Autumn Chapman.
Kate Burney at CINEMATEK Royal Film Archive of Belgium. Photo courtesy of Kainat Bashir.
Film restoration, Burney explained, is about far more than simply converting old reels into digital files. “Audiovisual materials — whether they’re analog or digital — require enormous amounts of upkeep to survive and remain accessible,” she said. “Technologies age rapidly. So do people. If we don’t train a new generation of skilled technicians, we’re set to lose decades
of global film history.” Without that expertise, she noted, audiences could one day lose access not only to silent-era classics like “Cabiria” (1914), but to contemporary films such as “Sinners” (2025). For Burney, every film is more than entertainment. “Every movie is a historical document,” she said. “It’s a primary source. It tells us something about the people and the culture that created it.” That belief shapes her work at Sidewalk Cinema and Film Festival, where she serves as a development assistant while also presenting public film lectures. Her annual “Cinema all’Italiana” series, presented in partnership with the Italian American Heritage Society, gives audiences the historical and cultural context behind each featured film.
“If we can get people to turn their brains on instead of off when they watch a movie, we’ve accomplished something,” Burney said. “Movies should start conversations, not end them.” She also believes those conversations are most meaningful when they happen together. “Storytelling is meant to happen in community,” she said. “Watching a film with other people — and talking about it afterward — is part of what makes it meaningful.” Looking ahead, Burney hopes to bring her international training back to Alabama and help preserve the state’s own filmmaking legacy. Birmingham already safeguards its music, civil rights and community history, she said. One day, she’d like to see its independent film history preserved with the same care.
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A21
HOF
CONTINUED from page A1 Along with Bresler, other inductees include Philadelphia Eagles guard Evan Mathis, longtime Homewood volleyball coach Susan Cook and professional soccer player-turnedcoach Katy Freels. A special induction ceremony will be held Oct. 1 at Rosewood Hall, and the class will also be recognized during halftime of the Homewood-Calera game the following night. “There will be a lot of chills going up my spine that night,” Bresler said. The rest of the inaugural class spans six decades of Homewood athletics. Susan Cook coached volleyball, basketball, softball, track and gymnastics from 1972-2003, winning back-to-back volleyball state titles in 1991 and 1992 and more than 700 matches before going on to start the UAB volleyball program. Gerald Gann, the longest-tenured head football coach in school history, went 108-76-2 with six region titles and three state runner-up finishes from 1979-1994. Bob Newton led the Patriots to five state championships and six region titles from 1976-2008, finishing 124-24. Homewood’s football field has borne his name since 2009. Dickey Wright won five state titles as a defensive coordinator and five more as head wrestling coach, while David Jones has been on the football staff for all six of Homewood’s state championships dating to 1971. Tim Shepler spent nearly 30 years as boys basketball coach, reaching four state final fours and winning a state title in 2016, and Tom Esslinger produced 31 state championships across cross country and track before later coaching at Hewitt-Trussville. Robert Davis remains the only Mr. Football winner in school history, rushing for 6,542 career yards from 1988-1991 before playing at LSU. Evan Mathis started four years on the offensive line at Alabama and went on to a 12-year NFL career that included two Pro Bowls, a first-team All-Pro nod and a Super Bowl title with Denver. Chris Gray played 208 NFL games, mostly with Seattle, where he still holds the franchise’s consecutive-starts record. Austin Hubbard won two football state titles as Homewood’s quarterback and later pitched at Auburn, while Aaron Ernest set school track records before becoming an 11-time All-American and world junior champion at LSU. Ronald Nored, a two-time national runner-up at Butler after his Homewood career, was named head coach at Butler University in March 2026, and Kiara Williams (now Williams Chase) won state titles in nine different track and field events before earning All-American honors at Alabama. Michael Gross, Homewood’s first principal and later its superintendent, rounds out the class as an Exceptional Contributor honoree.
THERE FROM THE BEGINNING
A knee injury during his sophomore year at Auburn gave Bresler’s childhood dreams of playing in the NFL a stutter step. Despite being drafted in the sixth round to the San Francisco 49ers in 1971, the Shades Valley alumnus knew that the best of his playing days were behind him, so he opted out. “I knew my knee wouldn’t hold up,” he said. Wanting to find some way to stay in football, Bresler thought coaching might be something he could do, and in 1972, following a brief stint as an assistant coach in Anniston, he was encouraged to apply for the head coaching job at a new high school that had just been formed: Homewood High School. At the time, Bresler was only 23 years old. “In the beginning, those students who were going to Shades Valley High School were going to have to go to Homewood for their senior year,” he said. From the start, Bresler and the team had to work with what they had. Home games had to be played at Berry High School, then at Samford University, until the school’s stadium could be completed by 1974. But Bresler felt like he had to reach his team in a different way. “I think, in my mind, the older coaching
David Jones has been part of Homewood’s football staff for all six of the program’s state championships since the school’s doors opened in 1971. Photo by Richard Force.
Tim Shepler won a state championship in 2016 and reached the state final four four times during his tenure as Homewood’s boys basketball coach from 1995-2024. Staff photo.
philosophy would not match with the upcoming era of high school players,” he said. “I wanted to communicate with them and respect them, finding ways to get them to be self-motivated.” Leading into the 1974 season, Bresler and his coaching staff made a choice: they would only have 42 players on the team, half of whom were seniors. Between three-a-days and a quick retreat with the team, Bresler felt like the intense time together made the team both inseparable and unstoppable. “That was the glue,” he said. That season, the Patriots went 13-1, winning their first regional championship and their first state championship over Dothan on Dec. 7, 1974. Since then, the Patriots have won 18 additional regional championships and five other state titles. Following the 1974 season, Bresler spent two years at Talladega before ending his coaching career at Vestavia in 1977. He remains grateful to have been an early part of Homewood football’s success. “At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, it means so much for everything you work hard for to become a reality,” he said. “I’m just so humbled.”
MEANS SOMETHING MORE
Growing up in Homewood, soccer was always Katy Freels’ joy. In those days, people in the stands would hear Freels being called by her maiden name, Frierson, but even then, her name was already traveling far and wide. As a freshman, Freels had played for the Homewood girls varsity soccer team for a year before playing for the U-23 women’s national team for two years. But by the time her senior year came around, Freels wanted to be a Patriot again. “It was really fun to get to come back my
last year,” Freels said. After graduation, Freels went to Auburn, where she was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2008 and continued playing for the U-23 team. By the time her Auburn career ended in 2011, she had racked up 73 career points, marking her as only the 10th player in the program’s history to score over 50 points. During this time at Auburn, Freels began doodling coaching ideas in her notebook and thinking differently about the game. “The kind of way I played the game, I had a very tactical approach,” she said. “By the time my junior year came around, I began to journal a lot of different coaching ideas.” In 2012, Freels made the jump to professional soccer, being selected by the Atlanta Beat in the second round of the Women’s Professional Soccer draft. However, with the league folding shortly afterward, Freels went to the Western New York Flash in the Women’s Premier Soccer League Elite. After two years with Sky Blue FC, Freels retired from soccer in 2015 to start a family. Living in Florida, she knew that she didn’t want to stay away from the game for long, so she began looking for a way into coaching. “I reached out to Florida Tech and asked if there was a way I could get involved,” she said. “They allowed me to join.” After three years as an assistant coach, Freels was named head coach of the Florida Tech women’s team in 2024. This past season, Freels led the Lady Panthers to a 17-3-6 record, the most wins in a season in the program’s history, as well as a South Region championship. It’s a different state of mind for Freels but one she feels has changed her outlook on the game. “When you’re playing, for better or worse, it’s a selfish endeavor,” she said. “When you
Tom Esslinger guided Homewood’s crosscountry and track and field programs to 31 state championships from 2005-2020. Submitted photo.
Michael Gross served as Homewood High School’s first principal before becoming superintendent, a role he held until 1985. Staff photo.
get in coaching, your perspective changes to, ‘How can I help them reach their goals?’ and I have the attitude that I’m going to love them whether they win or lose.” It’s an attitude that Freels feels she learned from all the coaches and teachers at Homewood who mentored and encouraged her throughout her career. “I’ve lived all over the world and there’s no other place in terms of the investment offered like Homewood,” she said. “So many people were there with me for the highs and the lows and I still get messages from them to this day.” With her name enshrined in the Homewood High School Athletics Hall of Fame, Freels feels blessed to be a footnote in the story of the school’s many acclaimed sports programs. “I think it’s such a testament to the people that it makes you proud to share in that joy with them and all they’ve poured into you over the years,” she said. “Sharing in that again is something I will treasure for the rest of my life.”
A22 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
WINDOW COVERINGS DESIGNED FOR YOUR LIFE Custom window treatments for every room, style and budget.
BLINDS • SHADES • SHUTTERS • DRAPES
REQUEST A FREE IN-HOME CONSULTATION
205-824-3300
BEST WARRANTIES IN THE INDUSTRY
BudgetBlinds.com 2130 Columbiana Road, Vestavia, AL 35216
LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED
TheHomewoodStar.com
October 2026 • A23
PARK
CONTINUED from page A1 rest of them have severe problems, including a lack of fire block/fire stopping, structural issues with balconies and decks on the outside, air quality issues. It’s lots of leaks, plumbing leaks. The buildings are not safe to occupy. “It’s gone on for years and years,” he said. “We’ve had assurance after assurance that things were going to get fixed, but they never do.” Notices were posted at the end of July that the residences are not fit to be inhabited. Residents started leaving in early August. In assessing the future of the complex, Fire Chief Brandon Broadhead cited the condemnation process. “The Fire Department determines it’s unsafe,” Broadhead said. “We turn it [over to] building inspections and they go and do their inspection. They also determined that it was unsafe, and then they refer it to the Abatement Board. The Abatement Board is made up of citizens here in Homewood. The Abatement Board determines if they recommend to the council whether it be torn down or remediated or whatever the fix would be.” Pugh said the Park at Buckingham is on the October agenda of the Abatement Board. “At that time, the Abatement Board will review all of the conditions and determine whether the buildings are unsafe to the extent that they create a public nuisance,” the building inspector said. “That’s their job, to determine that. If they find that those buildings are unsafe to the extent they create a public nuisance, the owner will be given notice of unsafe structure, giving them 60 days to bring the unsafe conditions into a safe condition to abate the unsafe conditions essentially. “If they don’t [abate the issues], then it will be referred to City Council to consider whether or not to condemn the buildings.” Condemnation could yield demolition. “Once [the council passes] a resolution, that would mean that we then have the authority, pending any appeals, that we would have the authority to demolish the buildings,” Pugh said. The city building inspector said he’s seen issues at the Park at Buckingham apartments throughout his 10-year tenure with the city. “On and off the whole time, there have been issues that we’ve been working with them to try to get corrected,” he said. “Sometimes they’ve corrected things that we’ve brought to them. There was a time when we would take them the worst problems and they would get them corrected. But now it’s just snowballed.” Residents of the apartment complex faced uncertainty as well as they looked for places to live after their homes were deemed unlivable. But neighbors came to their aid. Homewood City Council established seed funding to assist residents who were displaced by the July condemnation of the Park at Buckingham apartments. The council allotted $25,000 to start the fund aimed at aiding residents after Homewood code enforcement officers posted condemnation notices on most of the apartment buildings. Residents were given 30 days to vacate the affected buildings. Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama
Carlos Alemán, CEO of the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama (HICA), discusses resources available to residents displaced from The Park at Buckingham apartments. Photos by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Homewood Fire Chief Brandon Broadhead discusses the condemnation process for The Park at Buckingham apartments.
Volunteers organize donated paper products for residents displaced from The Park at Buckingham apartments.
A volunteer assists a resident at a resource fair for those displaced by the closure of The Park at Buckingham apartments.
(HICA) was approved to administer funds from the city and those contributed by others. A resource fair was held at Trinity United Methodist Church’s west campus. The city of Homewood and multiple organizations within the city — including the Church of Homewood, Trinity, Dawson Memorial Baptist, Volunteer Lawyers in Birmingham, United Way, Homewood City Schools and Homewood Community Church — created a resource team that works with families to get them into new accommodations. “They’ve raised like $135,000 in order to help families,” Broadhead said. Carlos Alemán, CEO of the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama, said more than 100 people came out, and several community partners were at the resource fair. “We took a lot of intakes for folks who needed assistance in moving,” he said. “We’re doing first-month rental deposits. They will email us the vendor of where they’re going, the moving company, what have you, and then we will pay that for them. Or they will call us, and we will figure that out.” Alemán only wishes more could have been done for residents who were displaced. “I think that we just try to do what’s right by
Furniture and belongings are loaded onto a trailer as residents vacate The Park at Buckingham apartments in August.
The welcome center at The Park in Buckingham apartments off West Valley Avenue.
our neighbors. That’s all,” Alemán said. “These are folks, and we can help them. And this isn’t enough. “I’ll be honest. I’ll be frank,” he said. “I wish we could do more than what we’re doing. We’re just trying because we’re having to cap the amounts to help as many people as possible, up to $1,000 for the most part. Sometimes [if] there are extraordinary circumstances, maybe [we can do] a little bit more. But we’re trying to help as many people as possible.” The HICA CEO said it has been able to get
quite a bit of money out. “Now we’re just continuing to process those requests through cashier’s checks,” Alemán said. “We just had a conversation where we’re going to start allowing back rent to be paid through some of the funds because some people can’t get out of their lease until they pay off their back rent. We’ll be providing assistance in that regard as well. We’ve already exhausted the city of Homewood’s contribution and now we’re utilizing Trinity and others’ contributions.”
A24 • October 2026
The Homewood Star
Homewood
at 100 1926-2026
Photo courtesy of Jake Collins.
The vote that made Homewood The founding compromise that still shapes the city 100 years later By KARIM SHAMSI-BASHA In September 1926, residents south of Red Mountain went to the polls to decide whether their towns would continue to exist. The question was a merger: whether Edgewood, Rosedale and Grove Park would dissolve themselves into a single new city in Shades Valley. Within months, on October 29, 1926, Homewood existed. That was the point. Red Mountain separated Shades Valley from Birmingham, and in the early 20th century that separation was the valley’s whole identity. Birmingham was the fastest-growing industrial city in the South. The valley was the other side of the ridge in every sense: green where Birmingham was gray, quiet where Birmingham was loud. “By joining together, these communities have been able to provide the city services that Homewood residents enjoy today including its award-winning school system and its library,” said Eddie Griffith, chairman of the Homewood Historic Preservation Commission. “We also benefit from its outstanding police, fire, public works, and parks and recreation departments. All contribute to the desire to live in the ‘City of Happy Homes,’ as it was called in that era.” The three communities arrived by different roads. Rosedale came first, platted in the 1880s and sold cheaply to Black buyers after the railroad meant to serve it failed. By the 1900 census, 95% of its residents owned their homes free and clear. Edgewood had an electric railway across the mountain by 1911 and an artificial lake by 1915. Grove Park was the smallest and is the least documented: a residential enclave with almost nothing about its founding surviving in the public record. By the mid-1920s the three towns shared a valley, a streetcar line and a set of problems none could solve alone. Roads needed paving. Water and sewer service was a patchwork. Three small governments maintained three of everything, and none could afford one of anything done well. Charles Rice, a local attorney called the Father of Homewood, started a movement to merge the communities, and within months he had it on a ballot. One city could deliver what three towns could not: shared infrastructure, a real tax base, schools everyone wanted for their children. But a second argument ran underneath the first, and it would define Homewood politics for the next 50 years: Birmingham. The giant across the mountain grew by annexing, and the valley had watched it happen. Everyone in Shades Valley knew what had occurred when Birmingham absorbed nine surrounding towns at once. A scattering of small towns south of the mountain made easy targets. One incorporated city of respectable size could stand on its own.
The Edgewood Electric Railway in the 1920s. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
The merger of 1926 was, among other things, a defensive act. Homewood was founded in part to not be Birmingham. The compromise that made the merger possible was the name itself. None of the three would lend its name to the new city. A new name gave every resident equal claim on the new identity. It is worth pausing on what was surrendered. A town’s name is its memory of itself. The people of Edgewood had built a business district and a lakefront under that name. Rosedale’s name was carried by families who had bought land nobody else wanted and raised churches on it. Folding those identities into an invented word took a level of civic trust that is easy to miss at a century’s distance. The founders hedged the bet wisely. The old names never left. A hundred years later they are still on the map. Homewood kept its founding communities as neighborhoods, which is why the city has always felt like a collection of small towns that happen to share a government. “Homewood is a unique community, where our residents recognize our strengths and our
Edgewood in 1959 looked different than it does now. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
B2 • October 2026
Oak Grove Dairy operated in one of the three founding communities of Homewood. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
individuality,” Homewood Mayor Jennifer Andress said. “At the same time, I have seen a shift toward regional cooperation. We need a strong Jefferson County that attracts economic investment and retains an educated workforce. I strongly believe that when appropriate, it benefits Jefferson County as a whole to work together to address regional issues.” The Homewood of 1926 was a few thousand residents, a patchwork of paved and unpaved roads and a bet that a valley could govern itself. In 1929 the Spanish Colonial development of Hollywood voted to be annexed into Homewood. The city survived the Depression, a polio epidemic and the recurring question of whether Homewood would remain Homewood at all. It did remain, and Homewood became the city where everyone wants to live. “I think people choose to live in Homewood because they recognize that our diversity is our
HOMEWOOD AT 100
strength,” Mayor Andress said. “Our community has texture, history and authenticity. It’s organic. It is what makes Homewood so incredibly special, from Forest Brook to Patriot Park, from Edgewood to Rosedale, from Mayfair to Hollywood and every special neighborhood in between.” What’s next for Homewood is on the minds of everyone as the city celebrates its 100-year anniversary. Mayor Andress sums it up this way: “We do need to be intentional about protecting what makes Homewood so special. I have been on the council for 10 years, and we have not rezoned one parcel of Neighborhood Preservation District in that time. We have a group of councilors and planning commissioners who work to protect our history, and that needs to continue. Our community in the Valley is so unique, and we must listen to one another and hold each other accountable to keep it so!”
The Homewood Star
CENTENNIAL SALUTE
Brandino Brass loves being in Homewood and honors the city’s centennial Homewood is a lovely town, known for its safe, friendly neighborhoods, tree-lined streets, historic homes, marvelous parks, and many recreation and cultural amenities. The city, which is celebrating its centennial in 2026, also has a very walkable, shopper-friendly downtown and a reputation for nurturing small businesses. Those small businesses in Homewood include Brandino Brass, a respected, family-owned company that is known throughout the Southeast as a go-to destination for designers, contractors, architects and homeowners seeking top-quality decorative and architectural hardware. Founded in Birmingham in 1948, the company has operated its showroom in Homewood since 2009. It’s no surprise that the co-owners of Brandino Brass, which is located on Central Avenue, have a lot of nice things to say about the city. “I like Homewood,” says co-owner Jessie Isom. “The community itself is unique in many ways. It’s a tight-knit community that is somewhat diversified. I’ve met many people over the years that moved to Homewood after visiting or passing through and fell in love with the vibe here.” Co-owner Renee Genereux has fond memories of her childhood in Homewood. “My days in Homewood began in 1979 when my family moved here from Hartford, Connecticut,” she says. “Although we went to church at Our Lady of the Valley, my older brothers and I attended school at Our Lady of Sorrows. I have fond memories of going
The hardware room at Brandino Brass. Photos courtesy of Brandino Brass.
Co-owners Renee Genereux, Eric Brandino, and Jessie Isom.
to Homewood Park as a child. Climbing the caterpillar was such a scare as a little one, but I had to keep up with my brothers! Who knew that I would return to Central Avenue as an adult?” The Brandino co-owners are also thrilled to see Homewood celebrate its 100th anniversary. “I’m glad to be part of that history, and we are glad to be here,” Eric Brandino says. It’s been almost 17 years, and we hope we’re here for a lot longer.” “It’s another milestone for the city and a testament to the determination of the community to continue thriving,” Isom says.
TheHomewoodStar.com
“Homewood thriving equates to success for the local businesses including Brandino Brass.” Genereux shares praise for Charles Rice, the local attorney who led the effort to combine Rosedale, Edgewood, Hollywood and Grove Park into one city in 1926 and is dubbed “The Father of Homewood.” Rice was “a pioneer,” Genereux says, adding that she “is proud of this milestone for all neighbors, companies and local governments to come together as one.” Eric Brandino is certainly proud of his family’s legacy and heritage at Brandino Brass. “I am the third generation,” says Brandino,
who opened the Homewood showroom with his father, Buster Brandino. Buster retired in 2022, and Eric was joined as co-owner by Isom and Genereux, both of whom had long ties to the business. “We are a small company that is big on service, and we are really glad to be in Homewood, which is a good fit for us,” Brandino says. “We like being a part of the community in Homewood. We’ve gained good customers and employees because of that. The city has been very good to us.” “I like to think we’ve become a staple in the community, and we do our best to give back on an annual basis and support the community
HOMEWOOD AT 100
in different ways,” Isom says. “I’m extremely proud to be a small part of Brandino Brass’s legacy,” Genereux says. “So many from Birmingham, Homewood and surrounding cities have trusted us to enter their homes for practical items as well as beautification of their homes. I love that residences in Homewood want to honor the age of their home but also bring in modern technology.” Homewood has been a great place to run a business, all of the co-owners say. “I think the city works diligently to improve the environment around local businesses,” Isom says. “When issues arise, they listen to their community and respond accordingly. It’s centrally located making it easy for a lot of people to get to us without much hassle.” “Homewood is a great place for a business,” Genereux says. “The Homewood community is an amazing mix of residential and commercial blending together to live and exist as one.” “I think the city focuses on smaller businesses, and that has been very nice,” Brandino says. “They have a great Chamber of Commerce, and the whole feel of Homewood has been good. It is a walking community. They walk by the store and come in because they are curious. We are not downtown but we are close. We are two blocks away. We are glad to be local for our customers who want to come into the showroom, and Homewood is a very accessible city.” It is a city that honors both its past and its future.” Genereux says. “Homewood doesn’t forget their roots yet looks forward to the future. Homewood offers so many amazing restaurants, shops yet keeps a small hometown feel. Cheers to 100 years!” Brandino Brass 2824 Central Ave., #100, Homewood 205-978-8900 brandinobrass.com Instagram: @brandinobrass
October 2026 • B3
THEN AND NOW: Homewood through the lens Homewood has changed dramatically over a century, yet pockets of the past remain visible if you know where to look. This photo spread pairs images from Homewood’s history with contemporary photographs of the same locations today. The historic photographs were sourced from Eddie Griffith, chairman of the Homewood Historic Preservation Commission, and Jake Collins, a Homewood High School history teacher. What emerges is a portrait of continuity and
change: some buildings still stand, transformed by time; others have vanished entirely, replaced by new developments. Together, these images tell the story of a city that has held onto its character while moving forward. Jake Collins has spent two decades documenting Homewood’s visual story. He grew up on Roxbury Road, graduating from Shades Cahaba in 2001, and has published two books capturing the city’s past, including “Homewood Images of America” and
“Homewood Past and Present,” which launches October 29 at homewoodpastandpresent.com. “I grew up with Dino’s hot dogs, Doug’s Coin and Jewelry, baseball cards, and games like Spotlight and Capture the Flag. At a young age, I recognized how unique this place is.” Collins hopes his work will help residents see the city anew. “When people look at these photographs and walk through downtown Homewood, I want them to see the hard work people did to keep this place alive. Homewood has seen so much change, but what matters has endured: the wonderful and diverse people who live here.”
The Homewood Theater in the 1930s. Photo courtesy of Jake Collins.
Nadeau Furniture has replaced The Homewood Theater. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Union Missionary Baptist Church in Rosedale - 1890. Photo courtesy of Jake Collins.
Union Missionary Baptist Church in Rosedale in 2026. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
The Curve in the 1950s. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
The Curve today. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
B4 • October 2026
HOMEWOOD AT 100
The Homewood Star
Manhattan Street used to be tracks for The Edgewood Electric Railway in 1910. Photo courtesy of Jake Collins.
Manhattan Street. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Downtown Homewood in the 1930s. Photo courtesy of Jake Collins.
Downtown Homewood in 2026. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Edgewood Pharmacy in 1924. Photo courtesy of Jake Collins.
Escape Day Spa has replaced Edgewood Pharmacy. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Hall-Kent Elementary, West Homewood, late 1930s. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
Hall-Kent Elementary. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
TheHomewoodStar.com
HOMEWOOD AT 100
October 2026 • B5
The six-vote annexation that nearly ended Homewood A 1964 vote to dissolve Homewood into Birmingham passed by six ballots — then unraveled By KARIM SHAMSI-BASHA Six votes to end a city. In 1964, Homewood voters went to the polls to decide whether to dissolve their city into Birmingham. Annexation won by six votes. Current Homewood Mayor Jennifer Andress points to the importance of voting. “It is vitally important for Homewood citizens to show up at the polls, whether it is a municipal election or a special called election, like the one we had in 2024 to change our form of government to a Council-Manager form of government. It is a privilege to exercise our right to be heard through our votes, and our city is stronger with an engaged and informed citizenry,” Mayor Andress said. Since the 1950s, Birmingham had been courting the over-the-mountain suburbs. The families who moved south of Red Mountain still worked downtown, shopped downtown and built their prosperity on Birmingham’s economy, while paying their taxes to Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills. Annexation would recapture the tax base. Seen from Homewood, the same arithmetic ran in reverse. An earlier Birmingham bid in 1959 had been turned back, and everyone understood there would be another. The 1964 attempt moved fast. Within weeks, a petition signed by more than 50 qualified Homewood electors reached the City Council. The council called the election a month before the ballots were cast. That notice would matter more than anyone expected. Morris N. Bouldin was a Homewood resident and taxpayer, and by his own account, he was mostly worried about his tax bill. Homewood’s rate was lower than Birmingham’s, which also levied a sales tax that Homewood did not. Bouldin sued to void the election, and his argument had nothing to do with how anyone voted. State law required 60 days’ notice before a special election of this kind. Homewood had given roughly half that. Birmingham’s answer was, in effect, that everybody already knew. The merger had been argued in the newspapers for months; formal notice was a technicality. The Alabama Supreme Court did not agree. General publicity through the news media could not substitute for the notice the statute demanded. The requirement was mandatory, not a suggestion. The trial court declared the election void within a year, and the state supreme court affirmed shortly after.
The Hollywood Town Hall in 1927. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
For a little more than two years, the city of Homewood existed mainly as an argument. Birmingham had not waited for the courts. After the 1964 vote, the city began collecting taxes in Homewood at Birmingham’s higher rate. When the courts finally ruled, a companion decision ordered that money returned to the people who paid it. For two years, in other words, Homewood was a city whose existence depended on which document you were reading. But the court’s ruling did not settle the question; it reset it. A new election was called, and this time the campaign ran with the full legal notice and no ambiguity about what was at stake. Homewood voters rejected annexation decisively — roughly 65% chose to remain independent. Turnout climbed significantly, more than a quarter higher than in 1964. Eddie Griffith, chairman of the Homewood Historic Preservation Commission, moved to Homewood in 1986, and he lives on Hollywood Boulevard. The commission is working on an app with TravelStorys that will offer a walking tour of Homewood. “That vote was two decades before we moved to Homewood. I was 34 when we moved here, and we loved everything about this unique place,” Griffith said. “You knew your
Homewood Mayor Jennifer Andress. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Eddie Griffith at his home in Hollywood. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
neighbors back then, but today, everyone’s in a hurry. We also love the diversity. We wanted our kids to grow up in a diverse community.” Historians still argue about what drove overthe-mountain independence — civic identity, local control, taxes and the racial politics of the era were braided together in ways residents themselves described differently at the time. Griffith, an architect, reads the appeal in the housing stock itself.
“There were many reasons for Homewood wanting independence,” Griffith said. “Speaking as an architect, these reasons included houses built to the same scale and lot size. Welcoming front porches. Sidewalks. Front porches invite a friendlier neighborhood, which in turn makes a community prosper and grow.” What is not in dispute is the outcome. The second vote hardened Homewood’s sense of itself as a city that had chosen its own name. When Homewood built its own school system years later, the confidence to do it traced straight back to the annexation fight. A city that had voted to exist felt some obligation to act like one. Every centennial invites a counterfactual, and Homewood’s is unusually sharp. Flip a few ballots in 1964, let the result stand, and this town would not exist. The school system would not exist. Homewood would be a neighborhood inside Birmingham. Griffith describes the appeal in the terms many residents do. “Everything is a few minutes away, the grocery store, the community center, the schools. You still see kids walking home from school. Not many places can say that. It’s like the fifties when I was growing up.” Six votes held the line in 1964. A hundred years on, Homewood is still walking home from school.
Despite the battle for independence, downtown Homewood has thrived throughout the centuries. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
B6 • October 2026
HOMEWOOD AT 100
The Homewood Star
CENTENNIAL SALUTE
Making the customer #1 A soldier came home from Vietnam with a love of motorcycles. A Homewood institution came home with him. In 1971, Joe Belmont came home from Vietnam and did something that would outlast him: He opened a motorcycle shop. The decision was rooted in something simple: Joe loved motorcycles. He was an avid weekend dirt bike racer and always knew he wanted to work for himself, and if he was going to put 100% into a business, he wanted it to be something he was passionate about. He called it Big #1. In business Joe was decisive and confident. But he was a family man at heart, calling his mother every night to check on her, being a Boy Scout Troop 105 Scoutmaster for his two children when needed, and being a devoted husband to his wife and business partner Paula Jean for over 50 years. Joe always had faith that his business could succeed and become a top motorsports dealership, so he wanted to name it appropriately. A shop finds its home Joe started the business in 1971 at 1813 29th Ave. S. In those years the shop included small bike brands that no longer exist, like Penton, Hodaka, Ossa and Bultaco. In 1976, the store moved just across the street to a larger location at 1829 29th Ave. S. The following year brought another significant change: a Yamaha franchise and the name Big #1 Yamaha. After a brief period at the Palisades Shopping Center, Joe bought property at 227 West Valley Ave. in 1992 and expanded the dealership to Big #1 Motorsports with brands like Suzuki, Polaris, Canam, Seadoo and Ducati. After more than 20 years at that location, the business eventually resided at its current location on Cobb Street off of I-65, where it added premium brands like BMW and Indian. In the decades since, Homewood grew up around it. When Big #1 opened, the city itself was barely fifty, still building the schools and the identity it celebrates at this centennial. The dealership on Cobb Street became one of the constants: the same family, the same business, through every version of Homewood that has come and gone since. The word customers keep using Read what Big #1’s customers write about the place, thousands of them over the years, and one word surfaces again and again, unprompted: family. Not as a slogan. As a description of how it felt to buy a first bike, a kid’s four-wheeler, a retirement Gold Wing. For the Belmont family, that reputation traces directly back to Joe and how he felt a customer should be treated by a business. “Joe believed in customer service above all else,” Mindi Belmont, treasurer at Big #1 Motorsports, said. Success and growth mattered, she said, but Joe believed the most powerful advertisement was what customers told people when they left the shop. “He always felt word of mouth was the best type of advertising,” Belmont said. “If we
TheHomewoodStar.com
treated our customers like family, they would return and send their friends.” That philosophy remains central to the business today. Even after a recent overhaul of the dealership’s exterior and interior, the family says there is one thing they do not want to ever change: the feeling customers get when they walk through the door. Their goal is to look and operate like one of the Southeast’s top dealerships while maintaining the personal experience that helped Big #1 build its reputation in the first place. “We will greet each and every customer with a smile and do our best to give each one a memorable experience,” Belmont said. The next generation Joe’s sons, Joey and Johnny, grew up in the business and watched it grow from one location with a handful of motorcycle brands into a major powersports dealership. The family business is now positioning for a third generation. Johnny’s sons are both currently attending Samford University and are expected to take over the dealership in the future. The family story is, in many ways, a story of steady growth rather than one dramatic leap. Each new location created more room. Each new franchise expanded what Big #1 could offer. And as powersports products became larger and more diverse, the business continued adapting to meet those changes.
Today, that evolution continues. The dealership recently underwent a complete overhaul of its exterior and interior, as well as its sales and service areas. The family is willing to change how the dealership looks and operates. What it will not change is the way customers are treated. Big #1’s reach extends well beyond Homewood. That reputation has a radius. Riders drive in from Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana, passing dealer after dealer, to buy from the shop on Cobb Street. Mindi Belmont attributes that loyalty to two things: customer service and selection. “If you are treated like family, the drive is worth it,” she said. However, customer service is only part of the equation. When it comes to powersports, customers usually have very specific ideas of what they want, and keeping up with the industry means having the right inventory available. For Big #1, that means keeping up with trends, understanding what customers want and making sure that the dealership has a broad enough selection to serve them. The result is a business that has grown far beyond its original neighborhood while keeping its roots firmly planted in Homewood. Big #1 could have moved anywhere in 55 years. Bigger highways, cheaper land, flashier corridors all beckoned. It stayed.
HOMEWOOD AT 100
Homewood provides Big #1 with a central location in the Birmingham metro area that is easily accessible to a wide range of customers. But accessibility is not the only reason the family has remained in Homewood. “It is the city itself that has always treated us right,” Belmont said. The city has allowed the dealership to move several times and provided enough room to stock the selection customers need, especially since powersport products have gotten larger. Big #1 also makes a point of opening its events to the community, with food trucks, grill-outs and entertainment. “It’s always open to our Homewood neighbors,” Belmont said. The Homewood Police Department has also been there to assist the dealership countless times in the middle of the night, whether responding to a false alarm or a real incident. Officers have also assisted with demo rides and bike nights. For 55 years, through a city’s transformation and a family’s two generations, Big #1 has stayed exactly where it started, treating the people who walk in the way the name always promised. In a city built by people who bet on staying, that is as Homewood as it gets. Big #1 Motorsports 505 Cobb St. 205-942-3313 bignumber1.com
October 2026 • B7
Rosedale: The neighborhood Homewood’s oldest neighborhood tells the story of a community that refused to disappear By KARIM SHAMSI-BASHA Red clay and creek water. The smell of rich earth after rain, rising from unpaved streets where children played. Front porches where the world slowed, where time moved differently than it did across the mountain. This is the Rosedale that came first, the neighborhood that built itself. 90-year-old Josephine Jerald was born and raised in Rosedale. “We walked everywhere. Our streets were not paved, and when it rained, our shoes got muddy, and we changed into clean shoes at church. Later, I would walk to Hollywood and clean houses for $2.50 a day, then go downtown and get ice cream cones at the Homewood Creamery. Life was simple back then,” Josephine Jerald said. She remembers her father buying the house she still lives in and adding onto it himself, room by room, year by year. Homewood’s centennial in 2026 marks 100 years since three communities merged to form the city. But Rosedale was already here. It was born first, in 1886, when the Clifton Land Company deemed the red clay acres unsuitable for white buyers and sold the land cheap to Black buyers who saw possibility. Benjamin F. Roden of the Clifton Land Company sold the first parcels to a nurseryman named Theodore Smith. Alexander Johnson bought some of the earliest lots. By 1900, the census showed what these buyers had built: a neighborhood where 95% of residents owned their homes free and clear. Laborers and craftsmen, furnace workers and merchants, teachers and tradespeople who had bought land for $20 or $30 an acre, who had built houses and expanded them over decades, holding the land the way you hold something you mean to keep. B.M. Montgomery arrived in the 1920s as Rosedale’s school principal. He stayed for 42 years, until 1967. Under his leadership, Rosedale School became the first school in Jefferson County to teach Black students above the junior high level. It was a quiet revolution, one classroom at a time, in a neighborhood where education was understood as the thing that would last. It was a neighborhood built on proximity and knowing. Dennis Bush is gym supervisor at the Lee Community Center. He grew up in Rosedale. “It was one of the best places. Everybody knew everybody. Strong sense of family community. It’s still that way. People cared about one another back then, and they do now. The people of Rosedale love Rosedale,” Bush said. This sense of community survived displacement and threat. In September 1963, the same month the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in downtown Birmingham, a bombing took place on Central Avenue in Rosedale. No arrests were documented. In the mid-1960s, the Red Mountain Expressway widened and split Rosedale in two. What had been one continuous neighborhood was suddenly interrupted by concrete and speed. The three founding neighborhoods of Homewood, supposedly equal partners in 1926, did not experience this displacement equally. Rosedale bore the burden. Rosedale started with 110 acres. Fewer than 30 acres of houses remain. In 1968, Afton M. Lee Sr. became Homewood’s first Black council member. Decades later, his daughter Adrienne Lee founded the Rosedale Community Development Corporation. In 1988, the CDC built the first two Habitat for Humanity homes in the neighborhood.
B8 • October 2026
Josephine Jerald has lived in the house she grew up in for decades. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
HOMEWOOD AT 100
The Homewood Star
that came before Homewood
Dennis Bush and Annalise DeVries take a walk through Rosedale. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
The work of rebuilding, of remembering, of staying, continued quietly, house by house. In 2004, both Rosedale districts were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The recognition was significant. It did not, however, include a preservation ordinance. Without legal protection, what remains is vulnerable to development pressure, to the kind of erasure that comes not from a single dramatic act but from the slow accumulation of choices made elsewhere, in offices and zoning meetings by people who do not live in Rosedale and do not walk its streets. Annalise DeVries, an associate professor of history at Samford University, began working with the Rosedale community in 2019 on what would become the Rosedale Memory Project. Her digital history students proposed digitizing the neighborhood’s artifacts and stories. The archive grew to include oral histories and community documents, creating what she describes as a richer understanding of Homewood’s overlooked past. “We wanted to preserve this history without taking the artifacts away from the community,” DeVries said. “For Rosedale, which lost so much of its identity in the sixties, making this history available and accessible matters.” The project continues to grow at rosedalememoryproject.omeka.net, where rotating groups of students digitize archival materials, preserving neighborhood memory for future generations. The creek still runs. The red clay remains, holding memory in its grain, and the families who stayed wrote their stories into this ground. Rosedale was already here, and something of that presence lingers still.
TheHomewoodStar.com
Josephine Jerald at her Rosedale house with food pantry volunteers Kelly and Bobby Patrick. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
HOMEWOOD AT 100
October 2026 • B9
The city that chose itself A Homewood timeline, 1926 – 2026 Decade by decade through Homewood’s first century, from an 83–45 vote in 1926 to the time capsule going into the ground this October By KARIM SHAMSI-BASHA
1. Edgewood Lake
1
5. Rosedale High School Band
9. Downtown Homewood
6
1926–1936
The founding decade
On Sept. 20, 1926, Edgewood voted 83–45 to merge with Rosedale and Grove Park under a new name. Charles S. Rice, the attorney who led the consolidation, would be remembered as the Father of Homewood. The state recognized the city on Oct. 29. That same year, Clyde Nelson began selling lots along Hollywood Boulevard under the slogan “Out of the Smoke Zone, Into the Ozone.” Hollywood was its own town then. It joined Homewood in 1929.
2
War changes everything Birmingham’s wartime mills needed workers, and the workers needed homes beyond the smoke. Homewood’s population grew roughly 74% between 1940 and 1950, the fastest stretch in its history. In 1946, Jefferson County drained Edgewood Lake, the valley’s social heart since 1913, for dam repairs that never came. A hundred acres of dry lakebed passed to Howard College.
3
The boom
1956–1966
The college and the fight
Howard College opened its new campus beside the drained lakebed with 1,825 students, its largest enrollment yet, and became Samford University on Nov. 9, 1965. Then Birmingham came calling. Homewood voters turned back annexation in 1959. A second referendum on Aug. 11, 1964, appeared to pass by six votes, 2,423 to 2,417, but the election was challenged for inadequate legal notice, and the Alabama Supreme Court declared it void on Sept. 9, 1966. That Dec. 13, Homewood voted 4,015 to 2,149 to remain itself. No decade did more to guarantee there would be a centennial to celebrate.
5
1996–2006 Homewood built itself a new downtown. Excavation began in May 2004 on a full block of 18th Street, and by 2005 SoHo Square stood there: $55 million, a new City Hall over ground-floor retail, and 76 condominiums above, all sold before the building opened. The year before, the Rosedale Historic District joined the National Register, 143 buildings across 250 acres built by and for Black families since the 1880s. One block was new. The other had been there the whole time.
9
2006–2016
Downtown becomes a destination
Homewood sold its old City Hall in 2007, and on April 2, 2009, a 111-room Aloft hotel opened on the site, a $20 million building aimed at young professionals who wanted to walk to dinner. It worked. Downtown began filling with people who did not live here, and the restaurants along 18th Street noticed. The Homewood Star launched in April 2011.
10 2016–2026 One hundred
1966–1976
A city builds its schools
Under federal court order, Homewood’s schools integrated in 1968–69. Former principal Bill Gross later said it went smoothly because Rosedale children and white children already knew one another. Rosedale educator Mamie Foster sat with Mayor Bob Waldrop and Gross to plan a school system of Homewood’s own, which needed federal approval. The city created it in 1970. Homewood High opened in December 1972, and the Patriot Band formed the same year in the tricorn hats and red-whiteand-blue uniforms it still wears.
B10 • October 2026
A church becomes a library
SoHo Square
Subdivisions replaced pastures, and the Edgewood and downtown districts became the city’s commercial spines. Homewood annexed Oak Grove, west of Green Springs, whose Zelosophian Academy had been teaching children since 1892, 34 years before there was a Homewood to teach them in.
4
1986–1996
The Homewood Public Library opened at 1721 Oxmoor Road in the former Homewood Church of Christ, bought by the city in 1984. The library had begun in 1941 in a single room at City Hall, when Homewood counted 7,397 residents. It has been growing since, expanded again in 2020. In 1992 the city adopted a plan for 18th Street: wider sidewalks, trees and a sign ordinance so the storefronts stopped shouting over each other.
8
1946–1956
Downtown holds on
The mall came for Homewood’s main street and did not get it. Brookwood Village opened in 1973, and 18th Street kept filling with businesses that meant to stay: Little Professor, O’Carr’s, Shaia’s. On Lakeshore Drive, the old Hollywood Country Club came back to life in 1979 as Brothers Music Hall, drawing touring rock acts and crowds the mayor called a headache. It burned in 1984.
7
1936–1946
1976–1986
The city approached its centennial doing the things that built it: filling its schools, packing Central Park, arguing lovingly about parking. Then it changed how it governs itself. On Sept. 24, 2024, residents voted 1,787 to 1,565 to adopt a council-manager government, the largest structural change at City Hall since incorporation; the new council took office Nov. 3, 2025. On Oct. 29, 2026, Homewood turns one hundred and buries a time capsule for the residents of 2126, who will open it in a city that exists because 83 people said yes on a September Monday in 1926.
HOMEWOOD AT 100
The Homewood Star
CENTENNIAL SALUTE
Lakeshore Foundation celebrates its long, rich history in Homewood at city’s centennial
More than 13,000 members and guests visit Lakeshore each month to exercise, connect with community and participate in inclusive programs. Photos courtesy of Lakeshore Foundation.
The Lakeshore Foundation and the city of Homewood have a shared history that goes back for a century. The Foundation has been a part of Homewood since it opened on Lakeshore Drive in 1925 as the Jefferson Tuberculosis Sanatorium. In fact, the Foundation recently celebrated its centennial, and the city of Homewood – founded in 1926 – is currently celebrating its own centennial. The Lakeshore Foundation is “excited to celebrate Homewood’s centennial and proud to be part of a community with which Lakeshore shares such a long history,” says Cathy Miller, the Foundation’s Chief Operating & Financial Officer. “Having celebrated our own 100th anniversary in 2025, we look forward to celebrating Homewood’s while continuing to grow together in the years ahead.” There’s been “a long and meaningful relationship between Lakeshore and Homewood,” says Jen Allred, Chief of Programs & Special Projects at the Lakeshore Foundation. “Lakeshore is extremely proud to be part of the Homewood community and to share such a long history with the city,” Miller says. “We’re proud of our history here, grateful for the support we’ve received and excited about what the future holds as both Lakeshore and Homewood continue to grow,” Allred says. In 1973, the old sanitarium became Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital, and in 1984, the facility became the Lakeshore Foundation. The Foundation has become an internationally renowned organization and is especially well-known for its research and advocacy for individuals with physical disabilities. “We’re the only U.S. Olympic and Paralympic training site in the Southeast and one of
only a few such sites in the entire country,” Allred says. “Each year, countless Olympic and Paralympic athletes train and prepare for the highest levels of sport right here in Homewood.” Lakeshore is the only organization in the United States that is home to three USA teams: USA Wheelchair Rugby, Boccia United States, and USA Para Powerlifting. “That distinction reflects not only the strength of our programs, but also the strength of the Homewood community that has helped shape us for generations,” Allred says. Homewood has been a good place for the Lakeshore Foundation to operate all these years. “Its central location in the Birmingham metro area makes our campus convenient and accessible for members who participate in our programs regularly,” Miller says. “We value the strong sense of community in Homewood and are grateful to have grown our mission here the past century,” she says. The community of Homewood has been important to Lakeshore’s success in countless ways. “Hundreds of Homewood residents have been members of our daily fitness, aquatics, recreation and athletic programs,” Allred says. “Over the years, they’ve participated as athletes on many of our 27 different national championship teams for children and adults, and some have competed at the highest level, representing Team USA at the Paralympic Games in sports such as cycling, tennis and wheelchair rugby. That kind of impact is possible because Lakeshore has grown within a community that understands the value of our mission.”
USA Wheelchair Rugby is one of three national Paralympic teams based at Lakeshore. The team just won the WWR World Championship and will head to LA28 as world champions. Photo courtesy of Melanie Butez.
TheHomewoodStar.com
In 1973, the old sanitarium became Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital, and in 1984, the facility became the Lakeshore Foundation.
Many of the Foundation’s leaders and staffers have lived in Homewood through the years, including the organization’s first CEO, Jeff Underwood. “Jeff’s leadership was instrumental in building the strong relationship between Lakeshore and the city,” Allred says. That bond between Lakeshore and the city continues under the leadership of the current CEO, John D. Kemp. “Both leaders appreciate that for Lakeshore to be truly successful as a mission-driven organization, we must be connected to and engaged with the community in which we’re proud to be located,“ Allred says. “That connection has helped us remain focused on meeting real needs and ensuring that people with physical disabilities have access to the programs and facilities they deserve.” Homewood city leaders have also stood beside Lakeshore during “some of the most meaningful moments” in the organization’s history, according to Allred. “They’ve helped us welcome the world to our community through international sports events and partnered with us when we had the opportunity to host President George H. W. Bush,” she says. Homewood embraced Lakeshore’s commitment to service members and veterans when the Foundation launched Lima Foxtrot, an injured military initiative, in 2007. “In true Homewood fashion — and fittingly in the home of the Patriots — the city helped us celebrate our nation’s injured veterans with a parade through the heart of the community,” Allred said. “That support meant a great deal to Lakeshore and to the service members and
HOMEWOOD AT 100
families involved.” Looking ahead, Lakeshore Foundation expects to receive positive media attention in 2028 during the Los Angeles Olympics and the LA28 Paralympic Games. “When Homewood residents watch athletes compete on the world stage in 2028, we hope they’ll feel a deep sense of pride knowing their city has played a meaningful role in that journey,” Allred said. “For many athletes, that journey begins long before the opening ceremonies. It begins in training sessions, community programs, daily practices and, so often, it begins right here in Homewood.” Lakeshore Foundation has big plans for its future in Homewood. “Lakeshore’s 45-acre campus includes land opportunities for future development,” Miller says. “As we look ahead, we will evaluate the use of our campus strategically in order to strengthen and expand our mission.” The Foundation and the city of Homewood will continue to build a great relationship that has lasted for a century. “At our core, Lakeshore is here to support the citizens of Homewood,” Allred says. “Together, we can continue building a city that’s accessible and welcoming for everyone who wants to live, work, worship, play, train and compete here. We are deeply proud to call Homewood home, and we look forward to continuing that partnership for generations to come.” Lakeshore Foundation 4000 Ridgeway Drive, Homewood 205-313-7400 lakeshore.org
October 2026 • B11
Reader memories from Homewood From the corner stores to the front porches, the voices that built the city
By KARIM SHAMSI-BASHA Our readers remember the Homewood of their youth: the neighborhoods they knew block by block, the schools and stores and streets that made belonging possible. Memory captures not just what happened but what it felt like to live through it and what it meant. As Homewood celebrates 100 years, these reader memories offer something the official record cannot: the lived experience of a community, told by the people who built it, year by year, generation by generation. Their stories are Homewood’s heartbeat.
1. Lynette Mantooth has watched Homewood from behind the counter of Mantooth Interiors since 1973. She has seen the neighborhood thrive on foot traffic, weddings, parent weekends and customers from across the state who frequent the store. “If it snows, I’m walking to the store. That’s how I know this is the right place to be. I’ve spent more time here than anywhere else, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” “Every holiday is a memory — the Fourth of July fireworks with customers invited to watch, Christmas open houses, a winter wonderland feeling. In 2014, when the snow came, everyone slept here. We’re mom and pop, and we help one another. It takes a village.”
2. Dora Cothren Sarris has spent 32 years in her store that she loves, Theodora, and living in the same house where she grew up in Hollywood. She has watched Homewood grow, yet the community bonds she treasures remain. “We walked downtown for homecoming dresses, to the hobby shop, to the shoe stores. Before the malls came, everybody shopped here. Dino’s hotdogs, Outtakes restaurant — those were our gathering places.”
B12 • October 2026
“What I know about Homewood is community. I’ve watched three generations come through the store at 13, and I’m now watching their children go to college and have kids of their own.”
3. Dennis Bush grew up in Rosedale. He works as the gym supervisor at the Lee Community Center, and the way he got that job makes him smile every time. “I was 14 and playing basketball when the director at the time, Norman Dill, put the whistle around my neck and asked if I could watch the gym for an hour. I did, and I have done it since that day, and I absolutely love it.” “Rosedale is one of the best places on earth. Everyone knows everyone, and there is a strong sense of community and family. This job is my calling. It keeps me connected to the neighborhood, and the kids who come every day are wonderful.”
4. Sue Graphos has owned Sam’s Super Sandwiches since 1970. She remembers weekends with her friends, nickels for movies, the simple pleasures of a neighborhood where everyone knew your name. “Saturday mornings, we’d ride bikes downtown and watch a movie for 15 cents. Then we’d buy a Coke and popcorn, get an all-day sucker from the machine, then head to Grants Five & Dime after the show. It was a full day for practically nothing.” “I still walk my dog around home and the store, and that’s how I meet people. That’s how community happens.” 5. David Chapman lived and taught in Homewood from 1990 to 2020, spending 30 years at Samford University while raising his family. When his grandkids moved out, so did he — but the Homewood he loved lingers in his memory. “It takes your grandkids moving to take you out of Homewood. You could buy a small house for a reasonable price. It was affordable, filled with teachers and people who valued community. That’s what drew us here.”
“I taught English at Samford University for three decades, and both the faculty and the students love and appreciate being in Homewood.”
6. Margaret Ann Shumace grew up going to Elmore’s Five and Dime store. Her childhood was Homewood itself: walking downtown from Our Lady of Sorrows church, eating breakfast or lunch, then riding bikes to the pool where everyone gathered in the summer. “We’d walk from church and stop for a hot dog or an egg sandwich. Then we’d ride our bikes to the pool, and it was always standing room only. We knew someone on every street. That was Homewood.” “Now we’re celebrating the store’s 75th anniversary, and my grandparents’ legacy continues. But I see how the neighborhood is changing. The world we grew up in — where everyone belonged — that’s what we’re trying to hold onto.”
7. Jessica Brasfield Mackin was born and raised in Homewood. She opened Nadeau Furniture in what used to be the movie theater in downtown Homewood, working with contractors to preserve its past: original ceilings, original doors and a balcony built during segregation that once served the African American community. “Working to preserve what’s left of the history, because it matters. We found the original ceiling, the balcony that was built for Black customers. This building tells the whole story.” “I remember going to school at Shades Cahaba, the YMCA, all of it made Homewood special. As the city gets larger and changes, we have to protect what remains — especially Rosedale. That’s where it all began. Our diversity is so important.”
HOMEWOOD AT 100
8. Janice Jackson has lived her entire life in Rosedale, growing up on 26th Avenue South in a neighborhood where church, school and community were woven together. She and her husband, Alprentice Jackson, raised their family there, and though the kids have moved away, Rosedale remains the place they call home. “I loved going to school in our neighborhood. We’d go to Sunday school at Baptist Union Missionary Church and eat breakfast. We loved Rosedale, and Rosedale took care of us.” “When someone moved in, everyone helped. When someone needed anything, we showed up. That’s Rosedale. That’s what it means to belong to a place, to let a place belong to you.” These memories are Homewood’s true record — the lived experience of a community told in the voices of those who built it, who stayed, who knew their neighbors block by block. They capture not just what happened but what it felt like to be home and what it means to build a place worth remembering.
9. Victor and Blanca Trejo own La Hacienda Supermarket off Green Springs Highway in West Homewood. The couple has lived and worked here for 20 years, and their three children attend Homewood City Schools. “We live here because the schools are so good, and our kids love it,” Blanca Trejo said. “And the people of Homewood have supported our store for a long time. We absolutely love it here. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.” Victor Trejo said the store is also a way of bringing something with them: “We are proud to represent our home of Mexico here in Homewood.”
HOW HOMEWOOD TURNS 100
Centennial Gala, October 15. Centennial Brunch, October 16, Homewood Recreation Center. Picnic in Central Park, October 17. Time Capsule Burial, October 29, the city’s 100th birthday. Photos by Karim Shamsi-Basha
The Homewood Star
TheHomewoodStar.com
HOMEWOOD AT 100
October 2026 • B13
A kindergarten class at Hall-Kent Elementary School in West Homewood during the school’s early years. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
Homewood High School principal Joel Henneke, right, with history teacher Frankie McKeown. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
The Homewood Way How a community built a school system that strives for excellence By KARIM SHAMSI-BASHA There is something intangible about Homewood’s schools, something that lives in the halls and classrooms. Teachers feel it when they walk through the doors for the first time, and students breathe in without quite knowing it’s there. It has no name on any document. It isn’t written into any curriculum. But everyone who lives it knows it exists. It is the reason teachers stay and the reason students exceed what they thought possible. It is also the reason a century of families chose to live in Homewood for the schools. Joel Henneke, principal at Homewood High School, calls it “The Homewood Way.” He speaks of it with something like reverence, knowing how difficult it is to describe something so fundamental yet so ethereal. “We call it The Homewood Way,” Henneke said. “When we hire teachers, they find out quickly about this Homewood Way that no one can identify. It’s what has defined us for a long time.” The Homewood school system includes Edgewood Elementary School, Shades Cahaba Elementary, Hall-Kent Elementary, Homewood Middle School and Homewood High School. Each school carries the same DNA. Each one asks the same question of every student: What can we do to help you become who you’re meant to be? Henneke has been principal at Homewood High School for 20 years. He speaks about his job with gratitude. “I’m thankful for what I get to do,” he said. “The community has high expectations, real community engagement and a partnership between education and the city government. And we are student-centered.” He has watched the school system evolve, but one thing has remained constant: genuine care that shows in high graduation rates, in students who feel known, in families who stay because they trust that their children are regarded and respected. “I see us continuing to improve,” Henneke said. “Our commitment is to prepare the students for what comes next. We don’t just have you pass a test. We help you go after your passions.” Those passions show up in athletics at the high school, where games are more than competition. Student athletes learn to push beyond what they thought possible, while the whole city shows up on Friday nights. Coaches demand excellence in both performance and character — a commitment that has defined Homewood.
B14 • October 2026
Hall-Kent Elementary in West Homewood was founded in 1928. It has expanded since then. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
The Rosedale High School band in 1947. Photo courtesy of Eddie Griffith.
Homewood schools regularly rank near the top in Alabama. Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
“It goes back to leadership,” said Rick Baguley, the high school athletic director. “From superintendent to coaches, we invest in students and guide them to achieve their goals. We honor Homewood’s tradition while pushing to new heights. In my 27 years, the community support has been extraordinary. They show up. Always.” Passions also show up in the performing arts and music. Band Director Chris Cooper has worked with The Homewood Patriot Band for decades. “People ask me all the time about retiring. Why would I retire? This is a dream job. I have wonderful students and staff and amazing administrators.” Under his direction, the band has traveled to extraordinary places. They performed in the Rose Parade. They performed in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Next year, they will travel to the Netherlands for the Corso Zundert flower parade. And his teaching philosophy reflects the essence of what makes Homewood’s schools
The Homewood High School Patriot Band. Photo courtesy of Chris Cooper.
some of the best in Alabama. “The students are our audience, and we always try to find out what is best for our kids and our community. There’s a difference between success and excellence. We want excellence.” Former band director Ron Pence now works part time with the students. “Homewood is a place where if you can dream it, you can do it,” he said. “Being part of a living, breathing group, ever changing, always growing but still holding the tradition of the Homewood Patriot Band. Working here for 33 years fills my heart with joy and pride. Go Homewood Patriot Band. Live the dream!” The band relies on students like Anna Peterson, the current drum major of the Homewood High School Patriot Band. She cried when selected. “This was a dream of mine,” she said. The position carries weight: standing in front of 300 musicians, commanding their respect, representing the community. Peterson understood the gravity of it.
HOMEWOOD AT 100
“I want to leave behind a great legacy,” Peterson said. “It’s an honor to showcase what this community does for us. And I want to carry on that legacy.” Peterson credits the leaders who came before her. “The leaders I saw in the past inspired me,” she said. “As a freshman, I was insecure and quiet. They pushed me out of my comfort zone and gave me confidence.” From academics to the arts to the band to athletics, the Homewood Way continues to unfold across generations. It appears in classrooms where teachers stay because they belong, in football fields where entire communities gather, in band rooms where young people discover what they are capable of becoming. It is the reason families choose to live in Homewood, the reason they stay, the reason they come back. The Homewood Way is absolutely real. It is the reason the city built its schools, and the reason, a hundred years later, the schools continue to build the city.
The Homewood Star
TheHomewoodStar.com
HOMEWOOD AT 100
October 2026 • B15
Congratulations
HOMEWOOD ON 100 YEARS.
Some places are more than a location. They are a community. A gathering place. A source of belonging. For 100 years, Homewood has been all of these and more. As one of Homewood’s longest-standing institutions, Samford University is honored to celebrate this milestone alongside the city we proudly call home. Together, we have helped faithfully educate leaders, serve our neighbors, strengthen our community and shape generations of lives. Thank you, Homewood, for a century of vision, character and community. Here’s to the next 100 years.
samford.edu
2026-27 Marketing Homewood Star 100 years ad_FINAL.indd 1
9/11/26 9:55 AM