Avondale

Avondale was a company town built around the Avondale Mills east of Birmingham, Alabama in Jefferson County. The town was incorporated on March 18, 1887. The city was annexed into Birmingham and is now divided into three separate neighborhoods, North Avondale, East Avondale and South Avondale. The first residents of the area were clustered around "Kings Spring" on the slopes of Red Mountain, now the site of Avondale Park. There was once a small skirmish near the spring when Union soldiers were watering their horses and Confederates fired on them, chasing them away. The wife of Jefferson County sheriff Abner Killough was struck in the breast by a stray shot while sitting on her porch. Her wound is believed to have been the only blood...