The Early Mountain Brook Village Area

The Early Mountain Brook Village Area. . , Once an Indian hunting ground, this land was opened for settlement after the War of 18 12. The first settlers, who fought in that war under Andrew Jackson, came here in the early 1820’s after the U.S. acquired the land in the Creek Cession of 1814. Among the pioneer families were the Beardens, Frankes, Hickmans, Holcombes, Pullen, Rowans, and Watkins. An early merchant was Stephen Sanguinetti., In the mid-1920’s real estate visionaries Robert Jemison, Jr. and Will Franke selected this area as the site for “Mountain Brook Estates.” Jemison Realty bought about 400 acres of farm and woodlands and divided them into estate lots for a country home community. Included in the development were the Mountain Brook Village shopping center, The Old Mill tea room, a riding academy and 25 miles of riding trails. The plan preserved the site’s natural beauty, with its meandering streams, rolling hills and virgin timber., The area was originally referred to as “Watkins Branch”, for early landowner Daniel Watkins, Jr. Around the turn of the century the name became “Waddell”. Finally “Mountain Brook” was the name selected by the developments in the 1920’s.