Vestavia's Little Red Barn

One of our longtime friends is Druscilla Defalque, a fiber and mixed-media artist who lives in Hoover. She is a member of the Artists Incorporated Gallery on Morgan Road in Vestavia, just across from the Western Supermarket off Rocky Ridge Road. Each year she is one of the featured artists for a month, and I recently attended the opening reception for her month. The gallery is located in an interesting building, which is fodder for this blog post.

The place is known as the "little red barn" in keeping with its history. The area was once the Joe Beardon dairy farm; the barn was built in 1926. Once the structure ended its original use, various other businesses have operated there over the years, including the Jackie O'Neal School of Dance. The gallery opened in 1999, and features striking art in various media by a number of local artists.

I think I've read somewhere that the "barn" is the oldest remaining commercial structure in Vestavia. You can see a much older photograph on page 44 of Rebecca Walden''s 2014 book, Vestavia Hills. 

The gallery has recently opened a second location in the Shops at Grand River in Leeds. That location is not yet historic. 



UPDATE 9 February 2019

The Artists Incorporated gallery in the Little Red Barn has closed; the gallery is now located only in suite 114 of the Shops at Grand River. Good luck to them there!

Source: Artists Incorporated