Leeds, Alabama: Named for Yorkshire's Iron Country
Near Birmingham, Alabama
Leeds sits at the eastern edge of the Birmingham metro, straddling three counties. It began as a settlement called Cedar Grove, was renamed Oak Ridge in eighteen sixty-nine, and in eighteen eighty-four took the name Leeds, after Leeds in Yorkshire, England, the iron and textile capital of northern Britain. The comparison was deliberate: Alabama's mineral-rich hills were being marketed to Northern and British investors as a second Birmingham, a second Sheffield, a second Leeds.
The town incorporated in eighteen eighty-seven. Today Leeds is best known to highway travelers for its outlet mall, but the name carries a reminder of the industrial ambitions that once drove the entire Birmingham district.
