In 1924, George Ward, a former mayor of Birmingham from 1905-1909 and 1913-1914, visited Rome, Italy, and was so impressed by the beauty of the Temple of the Vestal Virgins on a Roman hilltop that he resolved to build a replica near Birmingham. He chose a site on the crest of Shades Mountain about two miles east of here, and the temple was completed in 1925. In Roman mythology, Vesta was the goddess of fire and the family hearth and the guardian angel of mankind, and six Vestal virgins guarded her temple and kept its eternal flame. Ward named his temple Vestavia, and the area around it soon grew into a thriving suburban city whose name naturally became Vestavia Hills. The structure above was originally a summer house called the Temple of Sibyl the Prophetess. After the Vestavia Temple was destroyed, the Vestavia Hills Garden Club moved the Temple of Sibyl to its present site. The rendering above is a replica of Ward's Vestavia Temple, and the Temple of Sibyl was donated by Vestavia Hills Baptist Church and listed in the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 1985.