The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-21


 turns and winds through Woodlawn much | as fertilang stream flows through rich 1 meadow land The other line, the famous l Brmingham- East Lake division of the | Birmingham Railway Light and Power
 company, runs along First avenue, the | main and central thOroughfare from the western to the eastern limits. Thus ev- | cry lot in Woodlawn either abuts upon rapid transit or is in easy walking dis | tance of it. The man who works in Bir- mingham and lives in Woodlawn has two ways to get home, a privilege of which | the residents of few suburban communities
 can boast. The East Lake line is double 1 tracked and tlle cars run on a headway 1 of five to ten minutes. This service is | practically continuous day and night, 1 there being only about three and a half | hours in the dead of night" or rather | very early in the morning, when the 1 service is suspended The average time | of transit in the busiest hours from the central station to Birmingham is about | twenty minutes. At other periods in the day and night the run is made several minutes quicker.
 Residents in the western portion can
 reach Birmingham in fifteen to twelve
 minutes Which is to say Woodlawn IS | Birmingham in the sense of time-near-
 ness to the center of the city; in fact, | u IS 'clOSef III Dy lue measurement ol
 rapid, frequent car service than most of
 the residence communities within the
 limits of Birmingham.
 | How 1t Invites the Homeseeker. | Another reason for the growth of Wood
 lawn is the peculiarly inviting nature of
 it's location to the homeseeker. It is | in the higher portion of the valley, in the 1 altitude of pure air and at sufficient dis 1 tance from Birmingham and manufactur- 1 ing points to have immunity from smoke
 and dlstracting noises This is a consd
 eration which appeals powerfully to the
 woman, who in seven cases out of ten
 says where the home shall be. As for
 the man. he can have his garden and
 orchard-the soil is fertile and yields gen 1 erously of fruits and vegetables. A place | which thus captures the suffrages of
 husband and wife is invincible as d resi- l dence proposition l want to sas' in pass 1 ing that Woodlawn in spring and sum
 mer is panorama of fruits and flowers.
 A Specialist In Homes.
 ] This Is the age of specialization and
 the highest results are attainable only | by q concentration of energy upon some | specific purpose. Woodlawn is special
 ist--in homes The ambition of her peo- | pie is tc make WoodlaWn the model home 1 city of Aabama-a1l their thought is to ] this end, making It the most UNABLE : community one may find in a days jour 1 ney in this age of swift travel That is the policy mapped out by her leading citi-
 zens and executed faithfully by the men whom the people have placed in office. | Woodldwn has some manufacturing { plants. They came on their own initia- 1 tive and have prospered and earned a
 welcome. But no ilamboyant sign has ever been hung on the city walls, inVit-
 in smoke bechers. Woodlawn has 1 business district built up of solid stores and her merchants are enterprising to a | degree--they draw trade from all the sur | rounding country and have the hardihood
 to invade Birmingham and to reach out
 as far as Ensley. But Woodlawn cher
 ishes no illusions of becoming a commer- cial city. The stores are all right-they l contribute to the comfort of the com 1 munity they add something to the gen.
 eral sum of attraetiveness, but the finger
 of destiny points over and beyond them
 to the home the American. God-fearing
 home, and Woodlawn's eyes do not wayer. Always Noted for Good Citizens. l And here we are, after circuitous jour ney, back to the starting pont-my or | iginal proposition, that cleanliness is the
 req. secret of Woodlawn's phenomenal
 growth-that the character of her citl-
 zenship is, when the last word is said. ths main spring from which has flowed all of her prosperity, anC is the reason
 whether they know it or not-that multi tudos of men are beating at her gates to- day and clamoring to be admitted with
 their families.
 Now you should know that this felicity of citizenship is no accident The germ of it was there years and years ago. for some of the first settlers in Jefferson county located in and around the present
 site of Woodawn. They were people of
 good lineage and noble aspirations and their influence is dominant today long aft
 CT they have been gathered to their fla thers. The church and the school house
 went up side oy side with the homes which they built, and the privileges of
 education and worship thus provided drew more families to the spot, and Woodlawn | has been growing ever since. good | start is more lnan half way, says the 1 proverb-and Woodlawn had that good | start.
 | Now, says the impatient and practical | reader, suppose you quit preaching and | give us some facts and figures. Show us | wherein Woodlawn Is cleaner than any l other town in the district. Tell us how l much it is growing. what has been done | in the way of improvements, how the i towns affairs are managed, what Is the ] price of real estate, and all the other | things which a man from Joplin or Se- dalia, Mo, would like to know before | he went out there and located"
 l Softly, dear sir. am going 10 do that but first I wanted to make one fact very eiear-which is not clear al all in the 1 public mind-and that Is the law abiding | community Is the progressive community | Woodlawn is strict in its morals, old | fashioned in its religion and all that. 1 but if you can find a community with | more of the outward and visible signs | of progress. I'll take the word out of | your Missouri mouth and say, show me, First "Gibson Way"
 | Suppose you get on q car and see for | what l learned on my visit.
 | Forty seventh street. shouts the con-