With the Art Show Rained Out, Bluff Park's Fall Belongs to Its Volunteers

On September 28, city leaders, the Hoover Historical Society and the Bluff Park Art Association met at Bluff Park Community Park to unveil a historical marker for the Bluff Park Art Show. Five days later, the 63rd show was gone. Organizers canceled the October 3 event because thunderstorms were forecast, and they said the safety of artists, patrons, vendors and volunteers came first, according to the City of Hoover's account. ABC 33/40 reported the cancellation on September 30.

So the ridge got its monument and lost the event in the same week. Bluff Park's best-known traditions weren't planned by a city department. Neighbors started them, nonprofits run them, and the next big one is moving through that same slow, volunteer-driven process on the crest of Shades Mountain.

The marker is really about a library fundraiser

The marker's history starts before Hoover was a city. In the early 1960s, parents at Bluff Park Elementary wanted to expand the school library. In 1964 they held an art auction with paintings and crafts donated by area artists and raised about $850. A year later, many of the same people formed the nonprofit Bluff Park Art Association and put on a show with 65 artists.

Six decades on, the show is one of the area's longest-running community events, and it still belongs to that association, not to City Hall. Jimmy Langley of the Hoover Historical Society said at the dedication that the show "has become a part of the history and character of this community," the City of Hoover reported. Mayor Nick Derzis described its origins in terms that fit most of what is on the ridge this fall:

"It began with people who cared. Artists who were willing to share their talents. Volunteers who gave their time. Neighbors who believed that their community was worth investing in. And that spirit continues today."

There's no makeup date. The association's notice on its website ends with "we'll see you next year." If you wanted a Saturday on the ridge in October, the next good option is this coming Saturday, October 17, and a neighborhood gathering runs it too.

The rest of October on and near the ridge

Here's what is dated and confirmed from today, October 12, 2026, through Halloween. Pay attention to where each event happens.

Only one of these happens on the ridge itself. The city's big Halloween event is at the Finley Center in the Stadium Trace complex. The library and YMCA events are elsewhere in Hoover too. Taste of Hoover is a city-promoted evening at Aldridge Gardens, and City of Hoover events coordinator Kristen Valentine described it to the Hoover Sun as a garden setting with local food, drinks, live music and conversation. Bham Now lists the October 29 event as "Spookfest: Heroes & Haunts," while the city calendar calls it HalloweenFest, so check the name before you search for it.

The ridge's own October event is Bash on the Bluff. Bham Now describes it as Bluff Park "bringing back their community-favorite" event, with face painting, a pumpkin patch, live music, train rides, a petting zoo, inflatables, a golf simulator and food trucks. Admission is free, and it runs at the Children's Fresh Air Farm on Park Avenue. With the art show canceled, this is the one big neighborhood gathering left on Bluff Park's fall calendar.

Two new storefronts in the Village

The everyday part of the ridge shifted a little this year too, and both newcomers are small.

The Park Nutrition, a tea and shake shop, opened at 585 Shades Crest Road. It sells protein shakes and energy teas for meal replacement, post-workout drinks or a quick refreshment stop. The space was Wild Roast Cafe and sits near Bluff Park Diner, so it took over a known morning address. The Hoover Sun reported that the owners want it to be a community gathering spot for Bluff Park and the rest of Hoover. Hours are 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

Little Luna Pizza opened in Bluff Park Village at 2142 Tyler Road. It does carryout and delivery only, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, according to the Hoover Sun's June business roundup. Neither report gives an exact opening date. That's typical for the Village, where new places tend to just appear.

Hale Springs is the next volunteer project, and it's halfway there

The ridge's biggest project right now isn't a festival or a storefront. It's 18 acres off Shades Crest Road.

Hale Springs is a triangular, privately owned site near the former Tip Top Grill. It runs down a steep, forested bluff over rocky outcrops and looks out over Shades Valley. BirminghamWatch reported in April that the view is uninterrupted by development except for the distant fairways of the Robert Trent Jones golf course. The land is technically in Birmingham and borders Hoover. Its two mineral springs supplied drinking water to Bluff Park's first settlers, according to Larry Rodick, president of Friends of Shades Mountain.

Rodick's nonprofit is leading the effort, and he told BirminghamWatch it matters because "it's the last great open space on the mountain." It's the art show model again: a private group does the organizing and asks government to sign on. Forever Wild Land Trust, the state program the Friends asked to buy the land, wanted commitments from each local government first. Here's where those stand:

The county step mattered because Jefferson County owns roughly 400 acres below Hale Springs, all the way down to Shades Creek. The preserve isn't on that land, but a trail from the crest to the creek, a trailhead and a parking area would need the county's permission. The commission's June 25 agenda listed it as Resolution 37, and it passed that day with a block of other resolutions. Afterward, Rodick told BirminghamWatch that the group still had "to get Forever Wild to buy the property," and he called the county's resolution the third government endorsement after Birmingham's and Hoover's.

So all three governments have signed on, and the Forever Wild purchase is the remaining hurdle. Forever Wild would first have to negotiate the purchase with the owner, and after that the trail would still have to be built. Rodick said in April there was "still a long way to go." His hope then was to get "some of the trail built, if not all of it" within roughly two years. As of today, Hale Springs is a proposal with growing support. It's not a park you can visit.

One quieter item for November

If the ridge feels thin after Bash on the Bluff, Aldridge Gardens has a free Nature Journaling class series with sessions left on November 7 and 11 and December 5 and 9. Space is limited and reservations are required, according to the Hoover Sun.

I watch projects like Hale Springs closely because protected open space on a ridge shapes the streets around it for decades. If you live along Shades Crest Road or nearby and want to know what the preserve could mean for your corner of Bluff Park, Roxanne Hale is happy to walk through it with you. Let's connect.