Vestavia Hills Homes for Sale- Barry Lynn Miller "Your Complete Real Estate Professional" REMAX Agent in Vestavia Hills

                                                                                                           History of Vestavia Hills
is a city in Shelby and Jefferson Counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is an affluent suburb of the city of Birmingham.

Vestavia Hills is named for the 20 acre estate of George B. Ward former Birmingham mayor which was situated on the crest of Shades Mountain in what is now the northern edge of the city. Ward's mansion at the Vestavia estate became a landmark in the area as soon as it was completed in 1925. The two and a half story house was patterned after the circular Temple of Vesta in Rome with dark pink sandstone walls encircled by twenty massive white Doric columns surmounted by a carved entablature. The extensive gardens, populated by statuary and peacocks, featured a smaller domed gazebo, which was patterned after the Temple of Sibyl in Tivoli.

After Ward's death, the house, something of a tourist stop near the highway between Birmingham and Montgomery, was used as a tea-room and reception hall before being purchased by Vestavia Hills Baptist Church. The church met in the temple structure for several years before demolishing a portion of the building in 1971 to make way for a larger building. A center portion of the original building remains today. The gazebo was relocated by the garden club to a prominent outcropping closer to the highway to serve as a landmark gateway into the community.