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Valley View, 1910
After extending Altamont Road through the “Grand Can- yon” (today’s Altamont Road) and along the mountainside, Jemison & Co. proceeded to subdivide and sell estate lots along the crest. In July 1910, the first mountaintop estates were platted into 14 lots as “Valley View,” today’s 4200 and 4300 blocks of “upper” Altamont Road.18 A story is told that close associates of the developers bid for the prospective lots, with Donald Comer gaining the highest point along the ridge for his residence. All residences here enjoy cool, mountain breezes and views of both Birmingham and Shades Valley.
The lots extend from Altamont Road to the crest and then cascade down the ridge toward Shades Valley. Charlestonian Mrs. David Roberts, widow of the Englishman who chan- neled English investment capital into the development of Bessemer, completed the first residence here in 1910. (Nine years later, the Roberts House became the home of Eugenia and Robert Jemison Sr.) By 1912, residences for Jemison’s brother-in-law Hill Ferguson and his wife Louise; Donald Comer, head of the Avondale Mills, and his wife Gertrude; and Jemison associates and bachelors H. G. Seibels and
Residence of Belle Sumter (Mrs. David) Roberts, the first built atop “Upper” Altamont, Valley View. 1910. BPL Archives.
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