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- Rumsey Farber’s landscape design. The park is technically at the top, as Blount’s residents is near the center of the picture.
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- You can see this was baron land before Blount turned it into a beautiful park.
This 250-acre park is home to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, The Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Hannah Daye Ridling Bark Park. The park features ponds, miles of walking trails, a natural amphitheater and picturesque scenery. The park is open seven days a week and closes at sundown except for Museum and Theatre functions. The city now owns the park, and as you can imagine, the upkeep is very minimal.
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- Winton M Blount . . . 1921-2002, who gave Montgomery the grand park that bears his name. 25-year old Winton and brother Houston moved here from Union Springs in 1946 and started Blount Brothers Construction Company. Houston dropped away, but Winton persevered and became highly successful. Among other things, he built the New Orleans Superdome and the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex. The company became Blount International and was even more successful. That led to the $2-Billion King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, at that time the largest construction contract ever undertaken. Winton was president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1968. He was Postmaster General under Nixon, holding cabinet rank. He sold his company to Lehman Brothers for $1.3 billion.
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- Thunderhouse . . .I think that is what they call this guard house on the wood plank and stone bridge leading into Blount Cultural Park from Vaughn Road. It’s all very peaceful, indeed reminiscent of an English countryside, worthy of many Chapter Four visits. Montgomery is surely fortunate to have this to explore and enjoy.
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- Wee Top . . . There’s lots to explore in Winton’s park. This strange thing they call “Wee Top”. It has a thatched roof and is offered as a headquarters place for reunions and other group activities. It is supposed to make the park more Shakespearian.
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- Puddle Jumpers . . . a 1989 bronze by Glenna Goodacre, displayed in Blount Cultural Park. You will never see a more lifelike bronze than this six-figure group, which looks like they have just gotten out of class and are running out to play.
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- Puck . . . as envisioned by sculptress Elizabeth MacQueen in 1985, resides in Blount Park. Puck was a character in Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, supposedly a clever and mischievous elf. Mickey Rooney played Puck in a 1935 Oscar winner; I was 8 that year and probably didn’t see it.
-Charles Humphries