Originally settled by the Samuel and Mary “Polly” Fields family in the 1820s, Brookside remained a quiet agricultural community until rich coal deposits led the Sloss-Sheffield Iron and Steel Company to mine the area for coal used in Birmingham’s blast furnaces. Brookside differed from other similarly founded Alabama towns because Slovaks became its dominant ethnic group, with immigrants arriving from Nieletz, Saros, and other villages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1890s. By 1910, Slovak families made up approximately 37% of Brookside’s population, and they established two churches, a school, and a social organization that rooted eastern European traditions in daily life. Brookside’s Orthodox congregation founded the first Russian Orthodox Church south of the Mason-Dixon line and built three temples over ten years. A tornado destroyed the first, dedicated to Saint George, with townspeople recalling hymnals hanging from nearby trees, and the second, dedicated to Saint Mary, burned in 1912. The present church, built in 1916 and dedicated to Saint Nicholas, reflects eastern European roots through its standard Byzantine style. The early congregation brought three bells and a Gospel Book from Russia and candelabras and a ceremonial knife from Kiev, and, in keeping with tradition, the church has few pews because congregants stand during services. Improved with exterior brick and interior paneling in the 1960s, the Saint Nicholas cupola dome dominates Brookside’s skyline, and regular services still take place there.