If residents of the original c. 1900s mining town of Acton, Alabama, looked into the future, would they have imagined that the area would develop into the multimillion-dollar planned community it is today? In the late 1960s, John M. Harbert III (1921 1995), founder of Harbert Corporation, saw tremendous potential for land in Acton owned by the Chace brothers. In 1974, the Harbert Corporation partnered with Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States to form Harbert-Equitable Joint Venture, Riverchase. This plan was not a concrete jungle of homes and businesses. The venture called...