Where are the Lakes? (Birmingham, Montgomery: lease, hotels, to buy)

[HipLib]

The Lakeview district? Lakeshore Drive? I haven't seen a lake in either location. If there's no lake why do these areas have these names?

[jakabedy]

The lakes are gone. As for Lakeview, there was a lake in the area before it was more heavily developed. As for Lakeshore Drive, there was a lake on the south side of Lakeshore, sort of between 31 and 65, where the walking trail and wet-weather creek are now. Again, development trumps moisture every time.

[harry chickpea]

Remember that story about the ducks in "Fried Green Tomatoes?"???

[pennquaker09]

LMAO! There's a pond in Greystone behind Garland Cove . . .

[Southlander]

I understand there was a lake there many years ago - early part of the 20th century. The lake is gone but the area retains the name(s).

[Nana Funks]

Let me help answer the question "Why is there a Lakeview District if there isn't a lake?".

The answer is... there used to be!

FACTS:

The Lakeview Hotel opened on July 12, 1887. Although it was called The Lakeview Hotel, it was actually more of a resort... with summer cottages, a CASINO (yes, I said it) and the lake!
However, by 1891 the hotel closed (I'm not sure of the reason why). And a fire in 1893 destroyed the hotel.

Another intersting fact about the former lake in Lakeview... on December 8, 1888 a mob in Birmingham tried to lynch Richard R. Hawes after he killed his wife and two daughters and dumped their bodies in Birmingham's two lakes - East Lake and LAKEVIEW! Although he wasn't lynched on the night of December 8th, he was found guilty at his trial and hanged on March 1, 1890. He made a full confession before his death!

If you go to the Birmingham Public Library or pick up a book on the history of Birmingham you can find a picture of the hotel (c. 1880's). It was beautiful! I've also seen another picture of the electric trolley running in front of the lake (c. 1895).

POSSIBLY NOT FACT - BUT RUMOURS THAT MIGHT BE TRUE:

Obviously, the lake is no longer in Lakeview. I have heard that it just simply dried up over time. And I have also heard that some of the ground in areas of The Lakeview District are very soggy if you dig down far enough (although I haven't tried to prove this theory myself).

Rumour has it that when Brassfield & Gorrie build their offices in Lakeview that they had to pump an obscene amount of concrete in the ground in order to build a stable foundation. I have also heard that (because of the former lake) underground parking in the area would be almost impossible to accomplish. But I suppose anything is possible for a price...

Anyway, I hope this helps answer your question and that you find the info as interesting as I did! And we hope you come to visit The Lakeview District... even without the lake! LOL!

Nana

[harry chickpea]

A map from the 1800s:

http://cartweb.geography.ua.edu:9001...view-dhtml.xsl

Judging from the map, Lakeview Park looks like a typical trolley company engineered destination park. It was typical of the trolley companies to buy cheap land at the end of their line, and convert it into a park or fairgrounds for family outings, thus creating ridership at the maximum fares, and benefiting from the increase in value of the land, which could eventually be sold off to developers. Any "lake" could have been an engineered pond or two. FWIW, when you find a winding street that is fairly level, like Highland Avenue, you can make a sure bet that at one point it had a horse trolley, or it was made with that in mind.

[Nana Funks]

Harry,

What an interesting map! If it's correct, then the Lakeview "lake" appears to have been located about 1/2 mile from The Lakeview District in what is now the Forest Park subdivision - perhaps where the park is today?

FYI - The picture of the trolley (c. 1895) I saw was electric. The caption with the picture said the electric trolley debuted 7 years prior to the picture... so that would have been in 1887.

Great info and thanks!

Nana

Here is some other info I found on The Lakeview Hotel. It explains why it closed...

After Birmingham was established by the Elyton Land Company in 1871, Highland
Avenue and Lakeview Park were constructed. Lakeview was located on the east
end of Highland Avenue. As part of the Lakeview Park development, the
Lakeview Hotel was opened to the public on July 12, 1887. The 60 by 250 frame
structure was on a rise overlooking the park and lake. It was a two-story
building with seventy-two rooms, sixty more rooms being added in 1888. Rooms
on the front, both upstairs and downstairs, faced a porch that ran the length
of the hotel. The building had a spacious dining hall, elaborate parlors, a
large ballroom and billiard rooms. Electric lights, running water, and steam
heating completed the setup. However, the Hotel was unable to compete with
other resort hotels in the state, being meant only as a pleasure resort during
the summer months, and it closed on August 21, 1891.

In 1891, the president of the Elyton Land Company invited Hawthorne College of
Florence, Alabama, to move to Birmingham and occupy the Lakeview Hotel
building. That same year the members of the faculty and many of the students
arrived at the Union Station in Birmingham, and were met by 10,000 people
there to welcome the train which "brought in the school." The school became a
ladies' seminary named Southern Female University.

On December 6, 1893, the building burned and one student, Minnie Dean, lost
her life. The following year, the school opened in Anniston. Lakeview Park
in 1903 was leased to the Country Club of Birmingham, which remained at the
site for 23 years. Later the property passed to the City of Birmingham and
was operated as a municipal golf course under the name of the Highland Park
Club.

[jakabedy]

The lake/park was actually on what is now the Highland golf course, along that last stretch of Highland Avenue, between the Mormon church and the Compass Bank building.

[harry chickpea]

Electric trolleys burst onto the scene quite suddenly. For whatever reason there is a HUGE amount of misinformation about them, spread all over the net and in books and articles. The general agreement is that the first working electric trolley was by Frank Sprague in Richmond, in late 1887. This one became the standard, as Sprague's company was taken over by Edison and the publicity mills kept churning the legitimacy of the claim out.

In fact, Montgomery had a Van Depoele system about that time, and there was a third rail system in Maryland in operation around 1885, and there are records of trolleys as early as 1882.

I've not come across a reference to Birmingham having an ELECTRIC system this early, although it is possible. There is a lot of confusion. A "streetcar" does not have to be electric. Note that the map is dated 1887 and shows the street trackage already in place. A company that started with horse-drawn streetcars could add "electric" to the name, or simply electrify the system, and the casual researcher could be led to believe that the electrification happened years before it did.

You can see a "lake" on the golf course at the end of S Highland Avenue, using google maps and street view.