Holiday Tour of Homes - Bessemer

On Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4 the Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association will present it's 2011 Lakewood Estates Holiday Tour of Homes.

Historic Lakewood Estates was established in 1925 by Mr. William Harper Lewis, a Bessemer banker and civic figure. The "Original Seven" homes were built between 1926 and 1929. Several of these are among the homes you will see on display.

Here are three of the Original Seven homes that will be on the tour.

I don't think there will be any snow this weekend, but the pictures of the homes in the snow are Christmasy.

Lakewood Estates is just off of 4th Avenue (Old Tuscaloosa Highway) in Bessemer. Google Lakewood Drive, Bessemer for a map.

The tour is from 1 pm to 5 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Tickets $10 and are available at the tour.

The tour is sponsored by the Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association; Summer Classics; Milos; Brown Consulting, Inc; David Smith, Keller Williams Realty; and The Bright Star.

Here's what's going on

Camp Bessemer

The Bessemer City Council is running at full speed trying to make sure that Camp Bessemer takes place this year. A "hiccup" has caused a re-do in the process of awarding Camp Bessemer to an entity that will carry out the program. At both the City Council meeting and a Camp Bessemer committee meeting yesterday, new dates were discussed for submitting proposals and those are expected to be approved by the full council in a special called meeting.

Expect the RFP to be re-issued later this week...and the process begins again.

Here's a neat article about one aspect of 2010 Camp Bessemer.

Photo from that article

Bessemer Health Center

According to the Birmingham News (not yet online) the Bessemer Health Center, located at 2201 Arlington Avenue, will close. Services offered there will be relocated to a new clinic in Midfield. The consolidated clinic will take the place of the Ensley, West End and Bessemer clinics.

Construction of the new clinic, to be located on Bessemer Super Highway, won't start until 2012, so the Bessemer Clinic will not close anytime soon. Hopefully Jefferson County, or Bessemer, can come up with a use for the facility and it won't become just another vacant building.

After all, the south side of Bessemer is becoming a hot spot, what with new restaurants and a new DHR building in the business section, and a new push for Historic Neighborhood status for the residential section, and a somewhat renewed hope for saving Arlington School. (That link it to an old article with pics of the school, not the new info.)


Crime

As reported here earlier, Bessemer Police are implementing a new "zero policy" policy on crime. Residents might notice increased patrols and jailers might notice more mouths to feed.

Police Captain Mike Roper said, "We will fill the jail to capacity."

Police have already increased their presence in the city's parks, and we look forward to seeing more cops in the neighborhoods.

My only wish is that police in our area would park their car and walk around the block on occasion. From experience, I can tell them that you see a lot more when you are walking down the street than you do when you are driving down the street. This is something we have suggested for the past five years (since I ran for city council). Someday...

PetSmart

Shoppers at Colonial Promenade Tannehill may have noticed some construction going on. PetSmart will be opening a store later this summer.

Still on the wish list: a book store (Books-A-Million or Barnes and Noble), an office supply store, and an electronics store.

Historic Homes

Keep you calendar open for a home tour in historic Lakewood in late November. Details will be coming soon. Here's info from the 2006 tour of the area.

The changing look of Bessemer

This is picture day. A picture is worth a thousand words, and these pictures will show you how the south east corner of downtown Bessemer is changing. We have two new restaurants opening soon, a new DHR building going up, the oldest restored outdoor advertising in the state, the only brick street in the city, an expanded Simmon's Sporting Goods, and a building just waiting for somebody.

This is the old freight depot, now owned by the Hall of History, and this accurately restored sign is the oldest piece of restored outdoor advertising in the state. It was original in 1904. It has attracted the attention of historians across the state. The restoration was funded by the Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association. No, a saloon is not opening nearby, and you can't really buy alcohol here. (However you could throw a rock and hit a couple of beer stores, so don't worry.)

The building next door is privately owned, but it may be the next project for the Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association, which according to its bylaws, is charged with preserving and protecting homes, buildings and sites of historic interest; promoting and encouraging historical research; enhancing the cultural, social, educational and economic well-being of the Bessemer area; among other things that actually relate to the historic homes in the community.

There are more pictures, and an announcement, after the jump, so click "read more."

Bessemer Downtown south getting a facelift

There are some good things going on around Bessemer, not the least of which is our upcoming elections. Here's hope for a clean slate of elected officials. Hey, Jefferson County is going to start afresh, why can't Bessemer?

Elections are August 24. Just a few weeks of skirting this issue and grandstanding on that issue, for those already in office and seeking re-election. I ran into some of that recently.

In the meantime, on the southern edge of downtown:

Historic buildings in Bessemer

Have you voted? The unscientific Bessemer Opinions poll has Claire Mitchell winning the district 56 primary without a runoff! Low turnout is expected, so your vote could really make a difference. Go now!

I don't know the history of this building. I don't know when it was built. I don't know what it's original purpose was.

I do know that it is one of Bessemer's historic buildings.

But there's no preservation going on here. Yesterday the building came down, as you can see in this picture from the rear.

This is unrelated, but just a block away, the remains of this building sit on this corner for months. Why hasn't this been cleaned up?

Three blocks away, a burned building sat for months before the lot was cleaned off. And that didn't happen until the city decided to build the new DHR building there. Click here to see how the DHR building will look.

This building had an advertisement painted on it. The Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association is interested in it. More on this in a few days.

Bing Perrine of Billings, Montana collapsed last year because of congenital heart problems and needed open heart surgery. Can you imagine holding bake sales to fund your life saving surgery? That's what our country has come to, and that is what the Republicans (and Max Baucus) are fighting for. The status quo.

I'm fortunate, I guess. I know how to bake.

Three Things of Significance

Three things of great significance happened Saturday. Other things happened that are important as well. Barack Obama named a cabinet member. Joe Biden got a dog. Auburn named a coach. But these three things hit close to home, not in order of importance.

1. I graduated from UAB.
2. We had our Christmas Party.
3. My neighbor’s house burned to the ground.

1. I earned a Masters degree in Public Health, with an A in every course. I’m not trying to brag, but that is the best set of grades of all three of my degrees. What does the future hold? We will see.

2. We served up a bunch of Cajun food and desserts and raised several hundred dollars in gifts and money for two needy families. The final tally is not in, as we are still collecting donations through Monday, December 15.

3. This house was known throughout Bessemer as one of the premier historical homes. Known as the G. H. Stevenson House in the South Bessemer Inventory, the home belonged to Glenn Shadix who moved back to Bessemer about a year ago. Saturday it burned. Glenn thankfully was not in the house when the fire started, and is physically OK. The cause has not been determined.

Here is a picture of the fire in progress.

Here is what remains.

Here are some pictures taken after the fire. From indoors...you are not supposed to see the sky.
Still smoldering Sunday...the BFD returned.
The Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association members have you in our thoughts and prayers, Glenn.

Bessemer mourns the loss of this beautiful home and for Glenn, of the loss of so much of his personal belongings.

Things to do Tonight

There is too much going on.

Over the Mountain Democrats are hosting a forum tonight to discuss our outdated state constitution and what to do about it. They have even invited republicans to join in the discussion.

Constitutional Reform: The Next Generation
A Forum to Evaluate the Best Methods for Reforming an Unjust & Outdated Document
Tuesday, October 16, 2007, 6:30pm
Linn-Henley Lecture Hall, Birmingham Botanical Gardens

Keynote Address by…Albert P. Brewer, Jr., Governor of the State of Alabama, 1968-70

Followed by a Panel Discussion including…Former Governor Brewer, Rep. Paul DeMarco, Lynn Douglas, Board President, Alabama ARISE, Gary Palmer, President, Alabama Policy Institute, Lenora Pate, Shareholder, Sirote & Permutt, Co-Chair, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, Inc.

I am pretty sure that everyone who reads this blog believes constitutional reform is crucial, and I don't need to convince you of that. But finding a solution has been difficult because there are powerful entities that want to hold on to the outdated racist and class based document. You know who they are.

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The Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association is meeting tonight at 7:00 at The Bentley House, built in 1928, and home of Jason Kirby and Benjamin Faucher. This is an important meeting, at which the nominating committee will announce it's choices for next years officers, plus we will get to see the house which was added to the Jefferson County Historical register earlier this year. You can see the house at the above link. Blogger picture uploading is not working today.

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Finally, the final meeting of Auburn students and those wishing to bring life back to downtown Bessemer is tonight, 6:30 to 8:00, at the Foundry sanctuary, formerly First Baptist Church of Bessemer. At the last meeting the students presented preliminary ideas, and received comments from citizens and business owners, and now they share their final ideas. Restoring downtown is important if Bessemer is to retain its identity and have a future as anything more than a place to get your car tag and pistol permit. Here is an example of the groups work, and how it is being used to improve the downtown area in Fairfield.

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All three of these are important and interesting events. We all have different interests and priorities and committments, but we should all be involved and attend one of these.

Bessemer World and The Race For The Cure

George W. Bush says that he has read 87 books in 2007. (Insert you own joke here).

My sister in law Carol is running in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in October and is helping to raise money for the Komen Foundation North Alabama Affiliate. Go to Carol's page to help her raise money for this worthy cause.

The Mayor of Bessemer, Ed May came to the Bessemer Neighborhood Association meeting Monday night, then again to the Town Hall Meeting we sponsored Thursday Night. May is trying to get support for his Water Bond deal that the council authorized him to pursue, then voted against it once he got it.



Rumors are swirling, and I'm not going to repeat them here. But certain council members are being accused of major improprieties. One council member has even stated that we do not even have a contract to sell water to the city of Alabaster (I have a copy). Here is the mayor addressing our group.

ABC 33/40 reported on the issue Friday night as their lead story, showing our group protesting at the Jess Lanier game, and explaining the issue pretty well. She mentioned that if the water rates go up, not only will Bessemer be affected, but parts of Hoover, Helena, Midfield, Hueytown and Ross Bridge as well. If you live in any of these areas, you should come to the Town Hall Meeting tonight. For more information visit Bessemer Neighbors .

Tomorrow night is the Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association meeting at 213 19th Street South at the home of Jason Burnett, at 7:00.

These are two meetings at you need to come to if you are interested in preserving Bessemer and moving the city forward. The weather will be great both evenings, so come on out. Broken Vessel tonight, Jason's house tomorrow night.

I made a new friend the other day outside enjoying my deck.

Who can identify this bird?

BHHA Pool Party

Rarely do I post more than once in a day, but I really need to share this video that Richard created of The Bessemer Historical Homeowner's Association Pool Party.

BHHA Pool Party
See we aren't a bunch of old fuddy duddies. Thanks Richard.

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