Mountain Brook: Mountain Brook Village

Planned communities are common these days, but were a novel idea back in 1929 when local real estate businessman Robert Jemison Jr. developed the affluent Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook. Noted Boston-based landscape architect Warren Manning was commissioned to create a naturalistic plan to integrate building sites and infrastructure into the wooded landscape to create a park-like setting. Built around three villages – English Village, Mountain Brook Village and Crestline Village – most of Mountain Brook’s development preserved the existing trees with 92 percent of the suburb under tree cover, considered to be among the highest ratios in the United States.

Photo Credit: Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce