The Town of York Bluff

The story goes that in 1815 when General Andrew Jackson was returning to Nashville after the New Orleans campaign against the British in the War of 1812, his army crossed the Tennessee River at what is now known as Jackson Hollow.  On the map, it looks like the wooded ravine that goes down to the river from the Recreation Center across the street from SHS.  The Jackson Military Road was subsequently constructed over this route.  In 1817, after the Indian ownership of these lands had been abolished, Generals Jackson, Coffee and Sannoner, on their way to put down Indian unrest in Florida, camped on the river bluff near Irelle Dunning's childhood home.  Over the campfire, the generals decided that this site was a great place for a city.  They were so gushing over this site that Jackson even dared to propose that the seat of the United States government should be relocated here.  In August of 1817, Jackson recommended the establishment of a town here, and the Secretary of War laid off a town precisely at that point, naming it "York Bluff."

The map of Town of York Bluff is superimposed on a map of present-day Sheffield.  The York Bluff map was laid out by Gen. John Coffee of the Cypress Land Company (founder of Florence, Alabama, too), and is dated March 18, 1820.  This map was prepared for the land sale by the United States Land Office at Huntsville.

The map shows 210 acres on the west side of the townsite and 78 acres on the east side of the townsite which were sold to James Jackson (reputed to be a cousin of Andrew Jackson).  Andrew Jackson purchased most of the land between what is now the railroad tracks and the city of Tuscumbia.

The unshaded central area was designated to be the township and was situated over the areas now occupied by downtown east of Montgomery Avenue and the older residential areas.  The site which was to become the location of Sheffield High School was at the eastern edge of the township. 

The eastern property that James Jackson and John Coffee bought has become a portion of the residential areas around Blake Elementary School, the SHS baseball field and the new cliff-side residential area where Jim Holland and Peggy and Frank Bishop now live. York Terrace grew up on the land east of the Jackson-Coffee property.

The western property purchased by Jackson & Coffee was in the area which is now downtown Sheffield from Montgomery Avenue over to Little Rock Avenue.  It extended to the river and included what is now Park Boulevard and the head of Montgomery Avenue with the Standpipe.

Andrew Jackson's first purchase of property in 1818 covered the area now containing the southern-most blocks of downtown Sheffield and extended to the township of Tuscumbia covering the current locations of "Baptist Bottom," Keller Hospital, Southland Restaurant and Shop Pike.  His second purchase of 578 acres brought him the areas west of town: present day Furnace Hill, Nitrate Plant No. 1, George Carter Park and the northern half of Village One.  Stan Brook would have a fit about Jackson's purchase price of $2.00 per acre.  He tried to operate a plantation which ultimately failed to produce profits, and he eventually disposed of this property.

Although the Huntsville Land Office sold the properties in parcels and in lots, no settlement ever occurred and it remained farmland while the nearby towns of Florence and Tuscumbia experienced normal growth with their economies based on agriculture and river trade.  This municipality had to wait until 1884 when the City of Sheffield was founded to develop an industrial economy based on steel.

                                                                                 Taken from Friends of Sheffield Public Library, Sheffield--City on the Bluff, 1885-1985, Sheffield, Alabama, 1985