Crestline Village
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Watercolor illustration of Crestline Village by Bob Moody (link)
Crestline Village (formerly Club Village) is one of the three original commercial "villages" in Mountain Brook. Centered on Church Street between Montevallo Road and Euclid Avenue just east of the Birmingham Country Club, the village is a post-war example of the typical small-town main street. The district includes Mountain Brook City Hall, the Emmet O'Neal Library, Crestline Elementary School, and numerous small businesses.
Although part of the original 1926 plan for Mountain Brook, Crestline Village took off commercially much later than Mountain Brook Village and English Village, with most of the business development taking place after World War II. The area was originally the center of the community of Crestline Heights, which later was annexed into the City of Mountain Brook. Unlike the curvilinear winding roads throughout Mountain Brook, Crestline Heights features a gridded, square street system with service alleys. A fire station has been located there since the 1940s.
Ben Levio's Club Village Market was one of the first commercial strips to be built in the vicinity. A. D. Brown opened a hardware store nearby and the Waters Theater Company bought two lots for a planned movie theater in 1946. John Strange developed the Crestline Heights Shopping Center, which opened with an A&P Super Market and three other tenants in 1947. A New Crestline Heights Shopping Center developed by Joe Scotch brought seven tenants to Oak Street in 1955. The Emmet O'Neal Library was constructed in 1965 and a new Mountain Brook City Hall was completed in 1967. Crestline Elementary School was completed in 1973.
In 1995 Mountain Brook hired Nimrod Long and Associates to develop streetscape improvements for all three villages. The Crestline Village Clock Tower and a landscaped plaza in front of City Hall were added at that time. The library was replaced with a new 40,000 square-foot building in 2001. A new headquarters building for the Mountain Brook Board of Education was completed in 2007. In 2010 City Hall and the original fire station were demolished to make way for a new Mountain Brook Municipal Complex.
"Crestline: Other Stores To Be Erected Also" (August 31, 1946) Shades Valley Sun - via Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections
Snell, Helen Pitman (1990) Crestline: A Timeless Neighborhood. Birmingham-Jefferson Historical Society
Crestline Village at welcometomountainbrook.com
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