…a 5,000 student branch campus of Auburn University, is situated on a 500-acre campus seven miles east of downtown. It was officially founded by an Act of the State Legislature in 1968, but its roots go back to 1936, when the University of Alabama operated the entity as an extension program in a building on Bell Street, not far from its I-85 intersection of today. In the mid-1960s, a group of Montgomery civic leaders, led by powerful State Senator Joe Goodwyn, wanted to turn it into a real 4-year, degree-offering university. But the U of A had no interest in such an expansion of its system. So Auburn bought the property and backed the plan. The pic is of AUM’s library tower, the profile used in the school’s current logo, depicted below.
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- The new AUM logo featuring the Library Tower
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- This is where it began. This empty structure (below right), which stands ingloriously on Maxwell Boulevard (nee Bell Street) directly opposite Overlook Park, once held the extension center started by the University of Alabama in 1936, and which ultimately became AUM.
-Charles Humphries
I stumbled onto this marvelous site while trying to find, of all things, St. Margaret’s Hospital, where I was born in 1958. Finding the page with Dr. Harris Dawson’s home on it fairly catapulted me back in time…
Perhaps only true southerners can reminisce about decades that happened before we were even extant.. Although my family lived in Tuskegee, I’ve always been proud of having been born in Montgomery. Your Granddaddy must be mighty proud seeing his beloved city and stories woven together so beautifully and with such wit.
Btw, Dr. Dawson actually authored a book about his experiences as a pediatrician. (When I get to Googling, I really get to it.). I’m going to try and find a copy.
Thank you so much for these pages.
Sincerely,
Brett Butler
(Not the ballplayer, the comedian : )