Photo by Erin Nelson.
Loree Skelton and her nephew, Josh Council, stand beside a new historical marker outside South Haven Health and Rehabilitation on May 9.
The Hoover Historical Society in May erected a historical marker at one of the city’s earliest businesses – the South Haven Nursing Home.
The 101-bed facility, now known as South Haven Health & Rehabilitation, sits along U.S. 31 between the Hoover Southtown used car dealership across from Burger King and Taco Bell.
The nursing home has been there since before Hoover became a city and has historical value, said Jim Langley, who just ended a three-year tenure as president of the Hoover Historical Society.
Fred and Rheta Skelton started building the nursing home in 1962 when there was very little south of Vestavia Hills.
“Everybody told my dad he was crazy,” said Loree Skelton, one of four children of the couple.
“People told him ‘Nothing’s ever going to happen out there in the sticks.’”
But Fred Skelton Sr., who had been in the construction business, felt God was telling him to build a facility there along U.S. 31 to take care of elderly people, so he did, Loree Skelton said.
He and his wife opened South Haven Nursing Home in 1964, three years before Hoover incorporated in 1967, and the property has stayed with the family ever since in what became the birthplace and original heart of the city.
The Skeltons took South Haven Nursing Home through three major additions between 1964 and the 1990s, growing it from 64 beds to 111 in 1991 and later reduced the size to its current capacity of 101 beds, Skelton said.
Fred Sked Skelton Sr. died in 1979, but his wife and children continued operating it until 2005, when they decided to lease the facility to Northport Health Services, which took over operations.
All of the Skelton children — Fred Jr., Cynthia, Brian and Loree —worked at the nursing home at different times and to different degrees, but one of their children, Brian Skelton, worked most closely with his mother to run the facility until they decided to dispose of management duties.
Brian Skelton also served on the Hoover City Council for 17 years before being appointed mayor of Hoover in 1999 for a year after Mayor Frank Skinner resigned. After losing the 2000 mayor’s race, Brian Skelton sat out of office for four years, but he won re-election to the City Council in 2004 and stayed in office until his death in 2016.
Nobody there ever forgets that they are loved.
Loree Skelton
Loree Skelton is the only sibling still alive and continues as CEO and chairman of the board for South Haven Corp., which still owns the nursing home.
She said someone mentioned to her not long ago the idea of putting a historical marker up for the facility, and she liked the thought of it as a way to honor her parents and their lifetime of work and sacrifice to provide care for the elderly in a homelike environment.
Even though she’s not involved in day-to-day operations, she has tried to maintain that commitment of care, making sure every nursing home resident gets an Easter card and bag of goodies each year, she said. She also sends Christmas cards to residents who don’t have family or loved ones around.
“Nobody there ever forgets that they are loved,” Loree Skelton said.
Langley said the nursing home is an important part of Hoover’s history and the Skeltons certainly were among the “movers and shakers” in the early days of the city. Fred and Rheta also helped the city’s namesake, William Hoover, acquire land for one of the entrances to the Green Valley community, which Hoover developed, Langley said.
So, the Historical Society agreed to erect a marker along U.S. 31, and it was dedicated on May 6.
The marker cost about $2,500, Langley said. The Hoover Historical Society contributed $300, and South Haven Corp. covered the rest.
The marker is like other markers put up by the Hoover Historical Society. It’s made of cast metal, is painted green with gold letters, weighs 206 pounds and sits atop a 7-foot-tall pole.
There are about 15 to 20 of these markers around town, including one slightly north on U.S. 31 marking the original four-block city limits of Hoover, plus others at places such as Hoover City Hall, the Hoover Randle Home & Gardens, Hale-Joseph Home, Overseer’s House in Bluff Park, Bluff Park Historic District, Patton Chapel community and Ross Bridge.
