Griffin Park Amenities
It reads like an advertisement, but the fact is that the Griffin Park subdivision has two sets of amenities: One group includes a variety of features within the subdivision itself. The other is Griffin Park’s proximity to a wealth of conveniences that enrich the lives of its residents.
Within Griffin Park
• Sidewalks and gentle terrain make Griffin Park a neighborhood for walking, for the older strollers, the younger joggers and everyone in between.
• Paved walkways circle lakes, allowing scenic detours. The builders refer to them as walking trails.
• When Griffin Park was a golf course there were several attractive stone buildings associated with the course. One of them is now a clubhouse for community meetings. It also has proven popular for parties, receptions, family reunions and other community and family gatherings.
• Just outside the clubhouse is the community pool with lounge chairs, tables, a grill and a soft drink machine. A homeowners’ association committee sets the operation dates, but the tendency is to open the pool as soon as it gets warm enough for the hardiest of swimmers and to close only after it gets too cold for them.
• Five lakes are scattered through the community, most of which already were home to bass and bream from the golf course days. Plans are for stocking programs so residents who like to fish will have plenty to catch. One lake will include a small boat ramp for the launching of kayaks and canoes (no motorboats). That lake also will be managed as a bass fishery.
• Construction of a playground has been announced but remains to be built.
• Committees of an active homeowners association host pool socials, activities around such holidays as Christmas, Halloween and Independence Day, plus girls-night-out socials. As a new community, the homeowners’ group regularly offers events that pull residents together to meet each other and have fun.
Amenities of Being in the Right Place
• For the parents of school-age children, the Oak Mountain School District is an important amenity. All of the schools are consistently ranked among the top-performing in Alabama. The Elementary and Middle schools are on Alabama 119, while the Intermediate and High Schools are on Caldwell Mill Road. All of them are only minutes away.
• The proximity to an abundance of shopping and dining is also a top consideration. Within minutes are the shopping areas of Greystone, Brook Highland, Inverness and the Summit. Almost in Griffin Park’s backyard is Lee Branch, a shopping development that includes a grocery, restaurants, banks, doctor and dentist offices, furniture stores, sporting goods stores, multi-screen theater, salons and other specialty stores. It is reached by neighborhood streets and does not require driving on U.S. 280 or Alabama 119. There also is a route to Brook Highland/Wallmart that does not require driving on U.S. 280.
From late spring to early fall, farmers and other skilled artisans offer field-fresh food, canned and packaged goods at an open-air market at the movie theater end of Lee Branch. The market operates the morning half of each Saturday.
• Every mainstream denomination, several non-denominational and other smaller denomination churches are within minutes.
• Abundant health care includes multiple family physician and dentist offices, physical therapy, Grandview hospital, St. Vincent’s 119 physical therapy and outpatient clinic on Alabama 119, a Brookwood diagnostic center and a number of medical specialists from one to ten minutes away.
• North Shelby Library is ten minutes away on Alabama 119, less than a quarter-mile east of Heardmont Park.
• Heardmont Park is home to 74-acres that include the Oak Mountain High School football stadium, youth baseball and soccer fields, tennis courts, pickleball courts, children’s playground, a senior center and walking trails that meander near a picturesque stream. There are restrooms and a picnic shelter.
* Oak Mountain State Park is almost 10,000 acres of lakes and woodlands that sprawl across Oak Mountain, with the fishing-lake entrance less than 10 minutes southwest of Griffin Park. A second entrance is off Alabama 119 near I-65. The state park, Alabama’s largest, is home to the Alabama Wildlife Center, Oak Mountain Interpretive Center and Oak Mountain BMX Track. Activities at the park include hiking, swimming, camping, fishing, horseback riding and golf. In addition to its swimming area, Double Oak Lake offers picnic areas, covered pavilions for rent, volleyball courts and paddleboat rentals. There are 25 miles of hiking trails throughout the park, 15-miles of riding trails and 22 miles of mountain biking trails. Two fishing lakes total 230 acres. Fishing boats are available for rent. From time to time, permits are issued to bow hunters for the purpose of thinning the abundant population of deer, some of which range out the state park all the way to Griffin Park and beyond.
• Lake Purdy, the primary drinking water source of Birmingham Water Works, is ten to fifteen minutes east on Alabama 119. It includes a bait and tackle shop and boats for rent. Bank fishing from several locations also is possible. Fishermen catch bass, bream, catfish and several other species.