Elyton Elementary School

Originally, Jefferson County’s seat of justice was at Carrollsville, located on the Huntsville stage road, where Powderly is today. The small crossroads village, also called Carrollton, was known for its blacksmith shop, watermill, and beautiful Lombardy poplar trees. The village was named for early settler Thomas Carroll, who built the county’s first schoolhouse. A few miles from Carrollsville, Congress designated 2,560 acres for use by the Connecticut Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. In 1820, Captain William Ely, an attorney and agent for the asylum, arrived in Jefferson County, Alabama. He was sorely disappointed to see the lands, considered them “broken, poor, and barren,” and recommended to his board in Connecticut to sell the property immediately. Despite Ely’s belief that the lands were worth less than $1.50 per acre when sales began in February 1820, they brought a respectable price of $15 to $100 per acre. During the early 1820s, Ely donated several acres to the county for the construction of a courthouse and a jail. Residents named the new county seat Elyton in honor of his efforts.

In 1821, the population of Elyton was 300. By 1870, Elyton was a thriving community of 1,000 residents and the transportation hub of Jefferson County. At that time, the total population of the county was 12,345. In Elyton, three important pony express and stage lines crossed, connecting north and south Alabama and the eastern and western parts of the state. Known as the Huntsville, Georgia, and Montevallo Roads, they were continuously traveled by wagons loaded with mail, cotton, corn, and other merchandise destined for transport on steamboats up and down Alabama’s waterways. In the late 1860s, a railroad extending to Selma, Montevallo, and Rome, Georgia was built through Elyton. By 1871, the South and North Railroad, from Montgomery to Decatur, was nearing completion. Elyton, the trading and transportation center for several counties and the administrative seat of Jefferson County, would become the railroad center of the Alabama mineral region.

The city of Birmingham was incorporated on December 19, 1871. In 1873, promoters of Birmingham called a referendum to determine the site of a proposed new Jefferson County courthouse. Ingenious promotional schemes, including excursion trains and free barbecues, enticed the majority of voters to support Birmingham as the new county seat. When the county seat moved, most of Elyton moved with it. Col. T. D. S. Smith and Rufus H. Hagood bought the abandoned courthouse, and, for a time, operated a mineral paint factory in it. Eventually, it was torn down, and, in 1907, the first unit of Elyton Public School was built on the lot.

In June 1908, the Elyton Board of Education solicited plans for two new schools and accepted a proposal from notable architect David O. Whilldin. He designed the larger of the two school buildings as a two-story structure with a basement, a red brick and stone trim exterior with a main entrance faced with stone. The design included a dozen classrooms, two teachers’ rooms, and a principal’s room with a lavatory at a total cost of $25,000. Whilldin also designed the four-room Alley School, built in Green Springs and later demolished for interstate construction. Similar to Elyton, it also incorporated classical decorative elements later found at another school he designed, Ensley High School.

Once construction was completed in 1909, Elyton School became a three-story, brick-and-stone, Jacobethan-style building. The building has front and side entrances set on split levels between the basement and the first floor. In contrast to the red brick walls, horizontal and vertical stonework make a striking statement. The basement-level podium consists of ashlar masonry and brick, with a wide string course setting it apart from the upper two floors. The facade consists of three parts: a recessed center containing the primary entrance, decorative embellishment, and flanking wings. A stone sill, lintel, and jamb surround each group of windows on the outer faces of the slightly projecting wings; the outer jambs are irregularly shaped and rise from the string course to the entablature. Diamond-shaped brick panels fill the space between the two stories of windows. An entablature of an architrave and two molded courses above it encircle the building; above the roofline, decorative stone panels are inset into a crenelated parapet.

In 1910, Elyton became a residential suburb of the City of Birmingham. The Elyton school playground opened in July 1920. In 1926, an addition was made to Elyton School that included more classrooms, restrooms, lunchrooms, and an auditorium, but no gym. At the time, the school had 800 students. The gym, which was in the blueprints, was delayed due to financial reasons, but only temporarily officials thought. It would take another 27 years for the gym to become a reality. The same blueprints were modernized and brought up to date when the gym was constructed in 1953. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, it was announced that the school’s PTA provided the basketball goals, and had money earmarked for other gym equipment including a record player.

In 1941, The Birmingham News reported on the mysterious death of a WPA worker at Elyton School. Tildon T. Stewart, a 63-year-old school custodian died April 16, 1941, at a local hospital. Detectives McCoy Helton and Henry Darnell said they had evidence to show that Stewart had been severely beaten in the head and face at Elyton School on April 10. Stewart was sent home to recover from his injuries. In their report, the detectives stated that the incident happened in the presence of the school’s principal, George Hendricks, who told the detectives that he tried every means at his command to prevent the beating. While the death certificate showed that Stewart had died of pneumonia and asthma, an insurance claim noted that a contributory cause of death was a blood clot on the brain.

Following his injuries, Tildon Stewart was treated at the home of Mrs. J. E. Hays, where he rented a room. A WPA physician ordered Stewart’s transfer to a hospital when pneumonia developed. Hendricks told officers he reported the beating to WPA officials when it happened, but no report was made to the police. Chief of Detectives Luther Hollums heard of the case when Mrs. Hays reported it to him after Stewart’s death. Chief Hollums said Mrs. Hays had told him Stewart had declared when he was dying, that his death was due to the beating he had suffered. The investigation showed, the detectives said, that Stewart had been beaten by a parent who came to the school on April 10 and demanded to see him. He took the custodian into the band room and beat him over the head and face over an argument about the man’s 9-year-old child. The case was set to go before the Jefferson County Grand Jury in June 1941. However, Solicitor Robert E. McAdory announced in May 1941 that Stewart’s family had decided not to pursue the investigation. Furthermore, McAdory stated that detectives Darnell and Helton produced no evidence that the assault was responsible for Stewart’s death.

For more than 90 years, Elyton School served as an elementary school for the Arlington-West End neighborhood. The school was permanently closed in 2003. In 2005, a proposal was made to convert the vacant school into senior housing, but the City of Birmingham, who owns the building, and the Birmingham Board of Education couldn’t agree on a price. After closing, the school was never properly secured. Neighborhood residents were upset with the city for allowing the building to become a haven for squatters and vandals.

In 2012, Dekalb County-based Vantage Development submitted a proposal to demolish the school to build a four-story, 56-unit senior citizens apartment building known as Elyton Station. Before approving the demolition of the property, the city council members wanted more information. Mayor William Bell supported the proposal. Nearby neighborhood associations also supported the demolition and reuse of the land, saying the shuttered school was a blight on the neighborhood.

A tour by city council members refuted Vantage Development’s claims that the building was beyond repair. The council members agreed that the original 1908 facade could be preserved. The committee suggested they gut the building, demolish the 1920s addition, and incorporate the oldest part into their project. After Vantage Development failed to provide the requested reports, the city council denied the rezoning request, and the project was abandoned. The City of Birmingham boarded the windows and welded the doors shut in 2013 to secure the building and stop vandalism until something could be done with the property. Today, Birmingham’s second-oldest school building remains shuttered.

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