New Historical Society book documents Shades Creek’s flow through Homewood

After more than three years of work, the newest book from the Birmingham Historical Society, “Shades Creek: Flowing Through Time,” will be released in February. The book, which documents the creek’s relationship over the years with the communities it runs through, is authored by Marjorie White and will be the first major identification and research book done on Shades Creek. 

The research for the book found a total of 57 crossings or “gaps” through Shades Creek’s 55.8 miles, spanning over three counties and  into cities such as Birmingham, Irondale, Mountain Brook, Homewood, Hoover and Bessemer to its confluence with the Cahaba River. 

Over the course of 216 pages, local contributors, editors, landscape architects, geologists, geographers and historians take the reader through the ways the creek has shaped many areas of Birmingham, in addition to how people, including those in Homewood, have played a role in shaping it.

The majority of the people on the creek live in the city of Homewood, White said.

White said the book includes the history of Homewood’s management and treatment of the creek, including Shades Creek Park. It also documents how Samford University and Brookwood Mall was created, which led to channelization and damming of the creek along University Park. 

“Many people don’t know this history, or about the Homewood Forest Preserve,” White said. “The development forces in Homewood were very strong. They had major lands that attracted developers, which places like Mountain Brook didn’t have.”

The Friends of Shades Creek play a huge role in present-day preservation of the creek, she added, as well as saving the salamanders native to Homewood. This is the first book she knows of, White added, to chronologically list the environmental steward groups who evolved to preserve and protect the creek, in addition to a list of the many preserves and parks that have been created over the years. 

“We tell the story of the people that advocated for the creek,” White said. 

After years of exploring the creek’s path from mountaintops and underground passages, and then a few more years of fact checking, White said, “this has been a journey of discovery where you might think twice about dropping your bottle, so it runs down the stormwater after seeing these pictures and coverage of the creek.” She said the book documents the many places along the creek that people in Homewood can easily visit. 

“We have all these gorgeous recreational areas, which live in close proximity of where people live, and it’s an incredible blessing,” White said. 

Even though biologists had written off the creek as heavily polluted, White said, they have discovered through research for the book that in the lower regions, the biodiversity is slowly increasing. Through groups like Friends of Shades Creek, they hope to continue that trend, she said. 

In Homewood, the book is available for purchase after Feb. 25 at the Homewood Senior Center and Alabama Outdoors. To learn more about the Birmingham Historical Society, go to bhistorical.org.