By Anna Grace Moore
Photos by James Culver & Anna Grace Moore
Jimmy Black recalls the crisp autumn air sharply slicing his cheeks as he pedaled harder, faster, racing his friends up and down the hills through his neighborhood on the way to school. Another Monday morning had made its debut, yet excitement ran rampant in his heart.
Watching swarms of students riding gleefully by, neighbors waved and cheered, most still in their robes, holding the morning paper. Over the bridges and around the corners did Jimmy and his friends whiz by, bellowing out whoops and hollers, laughing as they raced.
Not a care in the world ever graced his mind. Those were the good days, he says.
A Centennial Celebration
On Thursday, Oct. 24, Bluff Park Elementary School (BPES) held its 100th Anniversary ceremony, inviting current and former students, teachers and staff to celebrate this momentous occasion. BPES Principal Ami Weems opened the ceremony with an introduction on the school’s history, leading up to present day.
The ceremony also featured remarks from Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, Hoover City Schools Superintendent Dr. Kevin Maddox and a video from Gov. Kay Ivey. iHeartPodcasts President Will Pearson, a Bluff Park resident, hosted a game show with student and teacher teams, quizzing them on elementary-age trivia.
Will, who is actually a Hoover High School graduate himself, attended Gwin Elementary School. His wife, Georgia Pearson, went to Shades Mountain Elementary School.
“When we moved back to Birmingham, we knew we wanted to be in the Bluff Park area,” Will says. “We knew the reputation of this school. We knew the reputation of the community. We couldn’t have been happier with that decision.”
For more than 120 years, the Bluff Park community has been a safe haven for growing families. Many have never left or have returned to their childhood neighborhoods and are now raising their families here.
“I was born here in 1943,” says Marshall Morgan, a member of Bluff Park School’s last eighth grade graduating class in 1958. “We now live on Craig Lane in a house that will be 100 years old in four years. It was originally the Craig House for which Craig Lane is named.”
According to Ami, on May 12, 1898, just before the turn of the century, two community patrons donated land to build a school for the local community. The property was known as the “Summit” and rested on the corner of what is now Valley Street and Tyler Road.
The one-room building soon earned the moniker, “Hale House,” as Mrs. Hale was the first and only teacher at that time. Tuition was only 50 cents a month.
In 1912, a second room was added, and the building housed a potbellied stove that provided warmth during the colder months and allowed for cooking soup for the children’s lunches. Twelve years later in 1924, the school moved to 569 Park Avenue and became known as Bluff Park School.
This new school had two rooms and two teachers. One taught first-fourth grade, and the other taught fifth-eighth and was also the school’s principal. Attendance had grown to 50 students, yet Park Avenue was still a dirt road.
“Up until 1939, not many telephones were located in the Bluff Park area,” Ami says. “The mountainous area was still relatively isolated…After 1939, the telephone service greatly improved. The improvement was the result of the hard work of the Shades Cliff Civic Club.”
The Shades Cliff Civic Club was integral in the school’s development and growth of the local community. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, more land was given to the school, giving way to new classrooms, a playground, a small library and a cafeteria.
“Bluff Park back then was kind of like a large family,” says Carolyn Howton, a member of the last seventh grade class at Bluff Park School. “The whole community was like a large family. You not only had your parents, but your neighbors parented you also when there was necessity.”
Carolyn finished seventh grade in 1958, which was the last year the Bluff Park School taught grades 1-8. Because the school had outgrown its capacity, in 1959, students in seventh-eighth grade went on to attend Homewood Junior High School, and afterwards, grades 9-12 at Shades Valley High School.
“It was nice to go to school in a small area,” Marshall says. “One of the things that was important back then was perfect attendance.
“When you were in the first grade, if you got perfect attendance, they issued you a certificate. Then, every year after that if you got perfect attendance, you got a seal to put on that certificate. I went for eight years without missing a day of school.”
That year, Bluff Park School began only teaching grades 1-6. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, the school saw tremendous growth as enrollment skyrocketed to more than 200 students.
Parents of students often held school dances, Halloween carnivals, fashion shows–any event that involved the community’s support and bettered the lives of their students. The community also helped raise money to fund the building of a new playground, various classrooms, a new cafeteria, a gymnasium, restrooms and a new library.
During the early ‘80s, the math team won first place at a county competition, and the chess team secured their third, first-place finish in a row at the county tournament. The State Legislature donated thousands of dollars for computer equipment.
The school population also grew so much that 16 trailers were added on site for extra classrooms. In 1985, Bluff Park was annexed into the city of Hoover; shortly thereafter, the Hoover City Schools district was created in 1987, meaning Bluff Park School was now a part of the new school system.
In 1988, the school had expanded to 32 classrooms, prompting the city to begin phases for a new school building next door to the old Bluff Park School in the mid-1990s. During this time, the school received lots of praise from the community for its efforts in providing students with a quality education.
Individuals such as Bob Finley were honored for their positive impact.
“The emergence of the Finley Character Award Recognition Program began in 1996,” Ami says. “Sara Bryan, fifth grade teacher, was selected as the first teacher representative of the Bob Finley Character Award.”
More and more families moved into the Bluff Park area, further growing the community. As the new Bluff Park Elementary School was phased into fruition throughout the mid ‘90s, the old Bluff Park School became a hub for courses on community education, after-school care programs and meeting spots for the city of Hoover.
It closed in 2010 and was refurbished in 2011, opening up the following year as the new building for both the Artists on the Bluff and the Hoover Historical Society in 2012. The old Bluff Park School was majorly demolished in 2017, but the original, two-room classroom still stands to the delight of local patrons.
In 2018, Bluff Park Elementary School was recognized as one of 50 Alabama schools that made significant reading gains among third grade students. That same year, Ami was appointed as principal.
“I have taught at Bluff Park for 21 years,” Geri Evans says, later adding, “my granddaughter started attending Bluff Park last year, and seeing her eagerness to learn and excitement to be here has been so rewarding.”
Today, BPES has 12 National Board Certified teachers, plus an additional three who are pursuing National Board Certification. In the past decade, four teachers were chosen as Hoover City Schools’ Teachers of the Year, and in 2022, Geri made the top four for the Alabama State Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year.
“We have phenomenal teachers in this school, and I’ll bet you, that’s been the case for 100 years,” Kevin says.
Jimmy, who was a part of the last eighth grade graduating class at Bluff Park School, agrees. He believes some of his elementary school teachers made the biggest impact on his life.
“Mrs. Hart, she was a wonderful teacher–seventh grade, and she taught it all,” he says. “You didn’t go to this one for math and this one for English and this one for geography. It was all in one class, and it was great. It was all in the old building.”
Jimmy says riding his bicycle to and from school or to his friends’ houses are some of his most cherished memories. Everybody knew everybody else, and no one bothered to lock their doors during that time period.
“It was a treat to live up here and do the things that the kids now don’t know anything about,” he says. “We called it exploring.
“We would ride our bicycles. I’ve climbed everything up here on the Bluff and down all the way to Shades Creek and gone up the fire tower many, many times and played Dominoes.”
Marshall, Carolyn and Jimmy were just a few of the former students at the ceremony and some of the only ones who remember when school was held in the old building. Although many changes have been made, they say one thing remains: The heart of the community.
Raising Legacies
“I love the fact that even though it’s 100 years later, this is still a community-sponsored school,” says Mary Beth Hall, a former Bluff Park Elementary School teacher. “I think it says something about this community and the exceptionality of the fact that it’s lasted 100 years.”
So, what’s the secret to 100 years of excellence? BPES teachers say the community is to thank.
A pioneer for education, BPES has cultivated such success because of local patrons’ generosity and support over the years. Students are receiving a quality education because each one is treated as the next wavemaker–a legacy in the making.
By teaching students that their character, their legacies begin in school, BPES will foster future generations of change. Their mentality? A legacy is born in the classroom.
Leaving a Legacy
“You don’t have to wait till you’re a grown-up to leave a legacy. It’s not just about being a great math student or a great reading student. It’s about being a good kid. It’s about character, and that’s what counts.”
-Ami Weems, Principal of Bluff Park Elementary School
