Smithfield

Smithfield. . This residential area was carved from the Joseph Riley Smith plantation, a 600 acre antebellum farm, one of the largest in 19th century Jefferson County. Smithfield lies to the west of Birmingham's city center on the flat land and hills north of Village Creek and has the city's earliest and most substantial concentration of black, middle-class residences, small commercial enclaves and churches. The neighborhood illustrates the lifestyles of a wide spectrum of black Birmingham citizens in the early 20th century, and provides an exceptional view of the emergence of a black white-collar class in the city. Residential structures include a variety of industrial housing types, as well as examples of the fashionable styles built for community leaders , Dr. A. M. Brown, Prof. A. H. Parker and Rev. R. T. Brown, and the fine work of black architect Wallace A Rayfield and black contractor T. C. Windham. First lots were sold in 1882 and land formally subdivided in 1886 with streets and avenues named for the Smith family. Physician - planter - entrepreneur Smith deeded lots to family members who built homes on the ridge to the north, later known as College Hills. , The Smithfield and Joseph Riley Smith Historic Districts were entered into the National Register of Historic Places in October of 1985.