Bluff Park School, built in 1923, serves as a home to various businesses and organizations,
including the newly formed Artists on the Bluff.

For many who grew up in Hoover’s Bluff Park neighborhood, the historic Bluff Park School is the image they most remember from their early years. The building has become a haven for artists since those academic beginnings.

Two institutions stand side by side on Park Avenue. The first is the original building with its columned portico entrance and distinctive red brick. The second is the more modern campus built into the terrain that serves the area’s students, kindergarten through fifth grade.

Built in 1923, Bluff Park School began as a two-room schoolhouse with no indoor plumbing, according to “A History of Hoover, Alabama, and Its People,” by Marilyn Davis Barefield. It did have a small park in the “backyard.” The school added classrooms as the population increased.

Prior to that, the Summit School served the neighborhood. It opened in 1899 with one room, one teacher and one potbelly stove for heating. The building had multiple identities: school, church and community center. It expanded to two rooms in 1912, one for first through fourth grade and one for fifth through eighth grade.

When the modern Bluff Park Elementary School was built in 1993, the Hoover Community School took over the historic building, offering after-school care among other things. The Hoover Historical Society and the Soon-Bok Sellers Lee Art Gallery also moved into the old building. This year, a startup arts project gave it another new life.

Tricia Robinson Studio
in the Bluff Park School

As the Community Education Program wound down, its director Linda Williams said she envisioned the evolution of the building into a home for arts programs as well as studio space for artists. The concept for Artists on the Bluff was born.

The joint project of the City of Hoover and the Hoover City Schools board will provide administration for the gallery and offer art instruction in four teaching studios. The gallery recently held the Alabama Pastel Society’s member exhibition, “You’ve Got That Magic Dust.” The society is in the planning stages to have permanent gallery space at Artists on the Bluff. The Sellers gallery will also hold national shows, such as the National League of American Pen Women.

With practically no advertising, Artists on the Bluff has leased every available studio space to photographers to sculptors and everything in-between. In addition to Williams, Rik Lazenby, owner of Lazenby’s Decorative Arts Studio in North Shelby County, serves as director. His studio will also be located in Artists on the Bluff.

The building is still home to the Hoover Historical Society, the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club and the Seasoned Performers.

The teaching studios at Artists on the Bluff

Blue Moon Photography Studio, inside the Bluff Park School

Investing in the Past is an occasional look at renovation and preservation projects in the metro area.

Also:

• More on Artists on the Bluff at BluffParkAL.org
• More Investing in the Past

• MCers: If you know about a preservation or renovation project in the metro area, e-mail us.

• More Rebecca Dobrinski at The Scribe and The Scrum

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