Homewood is a city in southeastern Jefferson County, Alabama, United States.

It is a suburb of Birmingham, located on the other side of Red Mountain due south of the city center.

However, the area's population would not grow significantly until a cholera epidemic ravaged the city of Birmingham in 1873, an issue only made worse by the financial crisis brought on by the Panic of 1873.

Seeking new beginnings and safer living spaces, many Birmingham residents began moving out of the city, buying up land and developing communities in the surrounding areas.

The community had an electric railway leading to downtown Birmingham by 1911 and a man-made lake by 1915.

On December 29, 1926, a local attorney named Charles Rice started a movement to merge several of the communities surrounding Birmingham.

In September of the same year, Rosedale, Edgewood, and Grove Park voted to incorporate under the name Homewood.

In July 1964, a second annexation attempt allegedly succeeded, but voting issues and lawsuits caused the Alabama Supreme Court to rule the election null and void on September 9, 1966 (See "City of Birmingham v. Bouldin").

[8] Homewood avoided the worst of the turmoil associated with the Civil Rights Movement and, more specifically, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's 1963 Birmingham campaign.

[8] However, in September 1963, the Shades Valley Sun newspaper reported on a racially motivated bombing on Central Avenue in Rosedale.

He employed a sales force of 75, armed with the memorable slogan "Out of the Smoke Zone, Into the Ozone", to entice Birmingham residents over Red Mountain.

Architect George P. Turner designed many of the new homes in the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, which had become fashionably linked with the glamour of Hollywood, California in the early days of the motion picture industry there.

In order to support his new development, Nelson created the area's first autobus line and extended the first natural gas pipeline into Shades Valley.

[11] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.31 square miles (21.5 km2), all land.

[3] The city, along with the rest of Jefferson County, lies atop iron, coal, and limestone deposits.

[12] Shades Creek, which is part of the Cahaba River system, runs through Homewood.