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Helen-Bess Mine, Birmingham Ore and Mining Co. BPL Archives.
Frederick Larkin had risen along the ridge. Several of the homes were built of the rock found on site. (In 1917, Rob- ert Meyer, owner of Birmingham’s Tutwiler Hotel—built in 1913 and 1914 by Jemison & Co.—and many other hotels, and his second wife, Lewis Barrett, purchased and continued to embellish the Seibels-Larkin estate.)
“Great boulders of stone protrude from the mountain side, and enough of the material is at hand to build many other homes. These residences undoubtedly occupy the most commanding view obtainable in Birmingham. . . .”
— The Jemison Magazine, July 1910
The Jemison Magazine touted the virtues of living on the mountaintop, a lifestyle endorsed by the Jemison & Co. offi- cers. In the early days, for those walking along the mountain paths to visit friends in Mountain Terrace, carrying a change
of shoes was necessary. That changed with the construction of a concrete stairway that connected Altamont residents to the lower elevations and to the streetcar stop. Cliff Road residents recalled miners carrying lunch pails ascending and descending the steps, which they thought followed a Native American trail.
Meanwhile, mining for red ore and quarrying of sand- stone continued at the Helen-Bess Mine below Valley View on the Shades Valley side. Opened c. 1901 by the McCrossin brothers and said to have been named for their wives Helen and Bess McCrossin, the mine was later operated by the Birmingham Ore and Mining Co., with activity continuing through the First World War. Soft and hard ores of both the Big and Irondale Seams and a vein of sandstone sandwiched between them were mined and quarried. The neighboring Kewanee Mine, which operated until 1907, reopened to sup- port the war effort.
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