During the month of November, I will be blogging like crazy to bring you great tidbits on 30 neighborhoods in Birmingham. Check in daily to see if you learn anything new about where you live.

Neighborhood Highlights

• Titusville was founded by freed slaves after the Civil War.
• Home to one of the city’s first steel blast furnaces – Alice Furnace
• Birmingham’s first airport was located in Titusville (where the current Loveman Village development stands).
• Home to Our Lady Fatima Catholic Church, the oldest African-American Catholic Church in the Birmingham Catholic Diocese
• The Birmingham Black Barons trained at a local park during their heyday. (Can you imagine racing down to Memorial Park to catch a glimpse of Satchel Paige, Piper Davis, and Willie Mays in action?)

Willie Mays

Notable Residents

• Wallace Rayfield – the second formally educated practicing black architect in the United States. Rayfield designed Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, and several other local landmarks
• Condoleezza Rice – former U.S. Secretary of State
• Harold Jackson – Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist
• Carole Smitherman – Jefferson County circuit court judge

Condoleezza Rice

Former Sixth Avenue Baptist Church (designed by Wallace Rayfield)

Source: Titusville Community Framework Plan