Mr. Hoover: The man with the plan

The city of Hoover celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. But what’s in a name? And how did this growing city come to be?

The vision for Hoover goes back to one businessman, William Hoover Sr., founder of Employers Mutual Insurance of Alabama (1922). His children and grandchildren describe him as a man of great character, personality, inspiration and vision. 

Some of the Hoover family still live in or near the city that bears their family’s name. William Hoover Sr. (1890-1979) and his wife, Helen Carnes Hoover (1902-87), had four children: Jane Hoover Parrish, twins Bill Hoover Jr. (1936-2009) and Helen Hoover Holmes, and Thomas Hoover. 

Hoover’s children went on to have families of their own with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Parrish and Holmes still live in homes that were built in the Green Valley community’s early years. Elizabeth Holmes, Holmes’ daughter and Hoover’s granddaughter, also lives in the area, and Thomas Hoover and his family live in Birmingham. 

On this milestone anniversary for the city, the family reflected on how the city started and where it is today, but it is the personal memories between father and child, grandfather and grandchild that illustrate that the name behind the city was also a much loved family man. 

“My father always took time for us to do things together as a family. He was the wheel and my mother the hub,” Parrish said.

Helen Holmes remembers her father’s pet names for his children and grandchildren. “My twin brother [the late Bill Hoover Jr.] and I were simply called ‘Sister/Brother’ or he would call me ‘Tiddlem’ sometimes, which we are not sure how to spell,” she said with a laugh. Jane, whose full name is Dorothy Jane, was called “Doshie” Jane. 

“One of my fondest memories with my father is a time when he was changing his shoes in our parents’ room, and I was leaning on the chair. We were all going to a movie (a ‘picture show’ as we called them back then). He asked where I wanted to go, and I said the Ritz, and he said, ‘You don’t want to go to the Ritz; it will make you have fits!’ To a 5-year-old that is funny,” Jane said. “It is memories like that, the funny man our father was, that I remember the most.” 

Elizabeth Holmes said she remembers the time the family patriarch spent with the youngest of the Hoover family.

“He always made time for us, the grandkids, no matter what he was doing,” she said.

As a child himself, Hoover looked to his own father as inspiration. Hoover’s father had a brick manufacturing business near Russellville, and it was his intention to build a town for the workmen and name it Hooverville. When it did not happen, it became the dream of his son, William, to make it a reality. This vision started with the courage, planning and foresight to step out and start his own business in 1922. 

It was a monumental task forming Employers Mutual Insurance of Alabama in downtown Birmingham, and Hoover did it without taking a salary. The company emerged from the Great Depression as one of the most sound casualty companies in the nation. In 1929, the company was converted from a mutual company to a stock company — Employers Insurance Company of Alabama, Inc. 

In 1944, Hoover purchased 160 acres on what is now Tyler Road. Being quite the visionary, Hoover began buying land on U.S. 31 under the company “South Jefferson Company” in the 1950s after learning the state planned to start widening U.S. 31. Hoover realized this would cause movement south toward U.S. 31 and would bring opportunity to the area. This area became known as the Hoover community, and with that, he also brought his company to the area. 

The groundbreaking for Employers Insurance Company of Alabama’s new home office building in the community was in December 1957, and it was completed in September 1958. The business was in what is now the Hoover Court shopping center. 

The Hoover family often says the city was built and managed from this location in the early days. Hoover died in 1979 as the city of Hoover was expanding and growing.

If he could see the city today, would it be what he envisioned?

“I get asked all the time if my dad would be surprised at the size and scope of his namesake city, and the answer is no, he would not be surprised at all,” Thomas Hoover said. “He envisioned, as he told me many times, not only the growth of the city of Hoover but the entire area south of Shades Mountain to Double Oak Mountain and beyond.”

Much of the land Hoover acquired he sold or gave away for those schools, churches and city government facilities. Hoover gave the land for Green Valley (now Hoover) Country Club, and the original city hall and police station were built on Hoover’s land. Elizabeth Holmes said that giving spirit is one of the qualities that she seeks for her own life.

“His spirit of giving and caring about the interest of others has inspired me to give back to my community, as well,” she said, “whether it is giving artwork to charity or teaching art to inner-city children or to the kids at the school where I work.”

Elizabeth Holmes, an artist and painter, credits her grandfather and grandmother with helping her realize her dream.

“When I was young, it was fun to tell people who my granddad was, but as I grew older, it affected me in a deeper way,” she said. “He accomplished his dreams to start a city. It took hard work and sacrifice. His determination spurred me on my own path to achieve my own dreams to become a working artist. That, coupled with my grandmother’s love of art and the way she fostered that love and creativity with me, greatly influenced my dream.” 

As the city celebrates its 50 years, Helen Holmes reflected on the anniversary.

“I feel even more proud of its founding as I watch the growth and quality of its businesses, school system, police and fire and parks,” she said. “I am once again reminded of my father’s dream to carry on his father’s dream to have a city. Even today, as I walk around Star Lake and children playing in the park, I think about the reality of my father’s dream and how pleased he would be today to see how the city has flourished.”

Parrish agreed. “It makes me feel very honored to be a daughter of the founder of Hoover. It has really grown from just the small community of 406 people it started out as,” she said. 

Elizabeth Holmes looked to the future of the city and, at the same time, recognized its impact of the last 50 years.

“My grandfather’s name on the city reminds me of the responsibility and the privilege it is to leave a positive legacy for others,” she said.