West Jefferson, AL

West Jefferson is a town in west-central Jefferson County, in the wooded western reaches of the Birmingham area. It incorporated in October 1964, making its municipal history relatively recent even though the surrounding county has much older settlement and industrial stories. The 2020 census counted 417 residents. The town’s roads connect homes and rural stretches with the larger Jefferson County network, while the name itself tells you where it sits: west of the county’s better-known urban core.

Students in West Jefferson are part of the Jefferson County school system, with one elementary school in town. That school, the town government, and the surrounding road network give the community its basic shape. West Jefferson is a small municipality inside a large and varied county, close enough to Birmingham-area jobs and services while retaining a more rural setting. Its story is less about a single landmark than about a late twentieth-century town taking form within a county shaped by mining, manufacturing, transportation, and older settlements.