A farming community in the Cahaba Valley along what is now Alabama Hwy. 119 became the birthplace of the city of Leeds.
The first U.S. Post Office in the area was established in 1828 at Cedar Grove, located near the intersection of current-day Alabama Hwy. 119 and Ziegler Road. The post office was located in Shelby County until the county line was changed in 1830, placing it in Jefferson County.
At that time, most of the settlers were living in the Cahaba Valley along Alabama Hwy. 119, the historic corridor through Leeds.
In 1869, a post office called Oak Ridge was established in the area in Jefferson County. A new post office opened for the town of Leeds on Jan. 23, 1885, two years prior to the town's incorporation in 1887. The town was named after the industrical city of Leeds, England.
The population and economic growth of Leeds rapidly increased following the construction of the Georgia Pacific Railroad from Birmingham to Atlanta, the Central of Georgia Railroad from Birmingham to Savannah and the opening of the Standard Portland Cement Co. in 1907.
The first map of Leeds was drawn by an engineer with the Cahaba Valley Land Co. who laid out the streets, avenues and roads that extended outwards for a distance of one mile in each direction from the Central of Georgia Depot. | 
