Birmingham Stories

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The Birmingham Museum wants to know your Birmingham love story!

Did you meet a special someone through a family member? When Margaret Prindle Hunter and her husband, John West Hunter, moved to what would become Birmingham in 1819, she brought along her younger sisters Olive and Sarah Marie (sometimes referred to as Mariah). Olive would marry fellow early land-owner John Hamilton in 1819 and Sarah Marie would marry John West’s brother Daniel around 1820.

Sepia tone photograph of a young couple standing up in 1890s clothing.Did you meet elsewhere but moved to Birmingham to open up a business? Gitel and Morris Levinson married in Detroit in 1894 andBlack and white portrait of an older couple, looking at the camera and posing side by side. a few years later moved to Birmingham to open up Levinson's Department Store, the first department store in Birmingham.

Were you hired to care for someone's pony? Fenton and Florence Watkins met that way.

"We were in Birmingham; there wasn’t anything going on or anywhere to go." Marion Clizbe Allen said, when referring to the activities she and her future husband, Harry (first mayor of Birmingham), didn't do during their courtship in 1913. Thankfully, now there's a ton of places to take a date in Birmingham!

Tell us your Birmingham love story or your favorite place to take someone on a date in the city. And, if your idea of a perfect date is a trip to a local museum, the Birmingham Museum is open Tues.-Fri. from 1-4 pm.


The Birmingham Museum wants to know your Birmingham love story!

Did you meet a special someone through a family member? When Margaret Prindle Hunter and her husband, John West Hunter, moved to what would become Birmingham in 1819, she brought along her younger sisters Olive and Sarah Marie (sometimes referred to as Mariah). Olive would marry fellow early land-owner John Hamilton in 1819 and Sarah Marie would marry John West’s brother Daniel around 1820.

Sepia tone photograph of a young couple standing up in 1890s clothing.Did you meet elsewhere but moved to Birmingham to open up a business? Gitel and Morris Levinson married in Detroit in 1894 andBlack and white portrait of an older couple, looking at the camera and posing side by side. a few years later moved to Birmingham to open up Levinson's Department Store, the first department store in Birmingham.

Were you hired to care for someone's pony? Fenton and Florence Watkins met that way.

"We were in Birmingham; there wasn’t anything going on or anywhere to go." Marion Clizbe Allen said, when referring to the activities she and her future husband, Harry (first mayor of Birmingham), didn't do during their courtship in 1913. Thankfully, now there's a ton of places to take a date in Birmingham!

Tell us your Birmingham love story or your favorite place to take someone on a date in the city. And, if your idea of a perfect date is a trip to a local museum, the Birmingham Museum is open Tues.-Fri. from 1-4 pm.


Birmingham Love Stories

Share your Birmingham love story or favorite date spot of yesteryear with the Birmingham Museum.  Sharing historical photos of you and your loved ones in Birmingham is encouraged. You may submit as many stories as you would like, but please remember that inappropriate stories will be removed at the City's sole discretion. 

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  • Share Music, Love and Marriage (Amanda & Joe Tackett) on Facebook Share Music, Love and Marriage (Amanda & Joe Tackett) on Twitter Share Music, Love and Marriage (Amanda & Joe Tackett) on Linkedin Email Music, Love and Marriage (Amanda & Joe Tackett) link

    Music, Love and Marriage (Amanda & Joe Tackett)

    by ATackett, about 4 years ago

    My husband, Joe, and I met in July of 1986 when he was a musician playing at the Midtown Cafe on Old Woodward Avenue. It was a warm summer evening, and a good friend and I were upstairs at the Midtown, enjoying a cocktail. We soon noticed that nearly everyone who entered the restaurant went immediately downstairs to the lower level. We asked our server what was there, and he told us entertainment. So we joined the crowd! We soon found ourselves in a cellar filled with people enjoying some terrific music performed by a duo playing guitars and singing... Continue reading

    My husband, Joe, and I met in July of 1986 when he was a musician playing at the Midtown Cafe on Old Woodward Avenue. It was a warm summer evening, and a good friend and I were upstairs at the Midtown, enjoying a cocktail. We soon noticed that nearly everyone who entered the restaurant went immediately downstairs to the lower level. We asked our server what was there, and he told us entertainment. So we joined the crowd! We soon found ourselves in a cellar filled with people enjoying some terrific music performed by a duo playing guitars and singing. My eye went to one half of that talented duo... and that night I met my future husband and the love of my life. The Midtown Cafe remains a large part of our love story, and we were married 15 months later at the Birmingham Museum (then the Allen House) in October of 1987. Birmingham is very special to us because it's where we met each other and began our lives together. We'll celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary later this year.

  • Share Love in second grade at adams school on Facebook Share Love in second grade at adams school on Twitter Share Love in second grade at adams school on Linkedin Email Love in second grade at adams school link

    Love in second grade at adams school

    by Thesinger1, about 4 years ago

    My husband and I had a crush on each other in second grade,at Adams school.

    in the sixth grade he gave me a cowboy ring from a Cracker Jack box to another classmate. I was crushed.

    We continued to be good friends throughout our lives but married other people..we always joked about that cowboy ring. In 1980,we were both divorced and started dating……..we fell madly in love and were married in 1982. At the reception in my father-in-laws restaurant,he presented me with a cowboy ring. I treasure it today.

    Nina and Bob Machus

    My husband and I had a crush on each other in second grade,at Adams school.

    in the sixth grade he gave me a cowboy ring from a Cracker Jack box to another classmate. I was crushed.

    We continued to be good friends throughout our lives but married other people..we always joked about that cowboy ring. In 1980,we were both divorced and started dating……..we fell madly in love and were married in 1982. At the reception in my father-in-laws restaurant,he presented me with a cowboy ring. I treasure it today.

    Nina and Bob Machus

  • Share Happily Ever After (Amy and Jesse Berline) on Facebook Share Happily Ever After (Amy and Jesse Berline) on Twitter Share Happily Ever After (Amy and Jesse Berline) on Linkedin Email Happily Ever After (Amy and Jesse Berline) link

    Happily Ever After (Amy and Jesse Berline)

    by aberline, about 4 years ago

    While my husband and I met in New York City, Birmingham is a huge part of our love story. It is where Jesse proposed to me, where we got married, bought our first home together, and had our first baby (with one on the way). But first I need to begin with how we got here. Jesse and I met in New York City in 2013. We were friends first (actually for two years before we started dating)—who became best friends—until we realized we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together (well, I knew this long before Jesse... Continue reading

    While my husband and I met in New York City, Birmingham is a huge part of our love story. It is where Jesse proposed to me, where we got married, bought our first home together, and had our first baby (with one on the way). But first I need to begin with how we got here. Jesse and I met in New York City in 2013. We were friends first (actually for two years before we started dating)—who became best friends—until we realized we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together (well, I knew this long before Jesse did…more on this later). It was the summer of 2015 when I first visited Birmingham. I came here for what was supposed to just be a weekend with Jesse while he was here visiting family. That long weekend turned into two whole weeks (and was when Jesse started to realize that I was “the one”). Not only did we fall in love with each other, but we fell in love with Birmingham. Jesse grew up here, but before us moving here in 2019, he hasn’t lived in Birmingham since he was in high school (when he left and went away to boarding school, college, and then spent the next 20 years in NYC). So, the Birmingham he knows now is very different than the Birmingham he knew as a teenager (back in the early 1990s). I grew up and went to school in Buffalo and moved to NYC after college where I spent the next 17 years. After us both spending nearly two decades in NYC, we knew we were ready to settle down and for a more relaxed lifestyle – we’d “been there, done that” long enough in the big city. The idea of living in a cute and charming, family-friendly “small” town – but one that is walkable and close to “civilization” (as a New-Yorker would put it), was way more appealing to us at this point in our lives. We got engaged in December 2017 (Jesse proposed to me at Café Via and then we went across the street to Social to celebrate) and married in August 2018 at The Community House. Here we are now four years later living in Poppleton Park with our one-and-a-half-year-old little boy Blake, and are expecting another baby in September. And while we’ve only been living here for four years, we have already created so many wonderful memories everywhere around town. Birmingham is our happily-ever-after.

Page last updated: 21 Feb 2022, 01:14 PM