on Madison Avenue between the old curb market and Cramton Bowl, was built around 1935 as a National Guard Armory to replace the drill hall of the renowned Montgomery Grays. Their drill hall was located on the third floor of city hall, and the building burned down in 1932. WPA funding to replace both city hall and the drill hall was secured thru political pressure by then Mayor Bill Gunter, Governor Bibb Graves, and Alabama Senator Hugo Black. The structure was named for Dixie Graves, wife of the governor and the only female Senator ever to represent our state (she was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Hugo Black when Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1937. . . see how it all fits together). The armory was designed in “Streamline Moderne Style”, and some 25 years ago was converted to its present use as a teaching arm of the City Parks and Recreation Department.

-Charles Humphries