“Who’s that?” How 5 Birmingham roads got their names

Have you ever wondered exactly how the local roads we travel daily got their names? Who were those people that rated a highway or street? Bham Now has the info, in fact, we try to get to the bottom of all things in The Ham.

Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd

Arrington was the first African-American Mayor of Birmingham. He moved to Fairfield, AL at five years old when his father started working for U.S steel.

Arrington attended Miles University and majored in biology, later receiving his doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. In 1971 Arrington became interested in state politics and ran for city council of Birmingham. By 1979 he was elected mayor of Birmingham and held that position until 1999.

 Cullom St S.

Edward Northcraft Cullom (1858 – 1924) was a business person who developed real estate in Birmingham. Cullom built hundreds of homes in north Birmingham and the south side,  helping develop the area as street-car serviced neighborhoods. He served as president of the Alabama Abstract Company, The North Birmingham Land Company and the Alabama Trust & Savings Company.

Elton B. Stephens Highway

Stephens was born in Cilo AL. He was a Birmingham businessman and founder of EBSCO Industries, which grew from a modest military magazine company he began in the 1940’s.

Throughout his life, he and his wife Alys, did a lot of philanthropy work, donating $15 million to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. The Stephens’s founded the Metropolitan Arts Council of Birmingham and donated another $15 million to UAB to build the Elton B. Stephens Science Center.

Supporting education, art and science causes, the Stephens family also made several large charitable donations to United Way and the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Tim Dison Memorial Bridge

Tim Dison was a big-rig truck driver from Killen, Alabama. On Saturday, January 2, 2002, Dyson was killed in an accident at what is known as Birmingham’s  Malfunction Junction.

Driving an 18-wheeler for Baggett Oil Company of Lynchburg, Tennessee, Dison lost control of his rig while trying to avoid another motorist who had cut across his lane to get to the ramp. His truck  crashed into one of the main bridge supports. After the reconstruction of the bridge, it was named in his honor.

Lloyd Noland Parkway

Noland was a physician who served in the Panama Canal Zone and worked to control mosquitos that carried yellow fever and malaria.

After returning to Birmingham, Noland  went to work for the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company in Birmingham where he worked to improve the public health and medical care of the company employees and their families.

Noland founded the The Employees Hospital which had 350 patients when it opened in 1919 in Fairfield. When he died, the facility was renamed the Lloyd Noland Hospital. After 85 years in operation, the hospital closed in 2004, and was demolished in 2009.

It’s safe to say these influential people from Birmingham live on through the roads and streets we travel daily!