Exploring Montgomery

The storytelling continues… a collection of stories and photos from Exploring Montgomery!

Education

Armory Learning Arts Center — 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 […]

Armory Learning Arts Center

March 10, 2016 in Education / Government tagged armory / arts / learning

Crampton Bowl — Cramton bowl is on Madison Avenue, and long past its glory, but it did have its era. It was built in 1922, and officially seats 25,000 or so. Both API (Auburn) and Alabama played here up until the late 1930s, and API continued to schedule non-conference games here until the late 1940s. […]

Cramton Bowl

March 10, 2016 in Commercial / Education / Places and Things tagged asu / bowl / crampton / faulkner / stadium

Old Montgomery Theatre — at the corner of Perry and Monroe Streets, is one of the three pre-war buildings still standing in the City Hall neighborhood. When it was built (by female slave masons) in 1860, the Post Office occupied the street floor, and the upper two floors were taken up by the theatre […]

Old Montgomery Theatre

March 8, 2016 in Commercial / Education tagged collapse / dixie / old / theatre

Carnegie Library — …was completed in 1904 using a $50,000 gift to the local “Library Association” from steel magnet Andrew Carnegie, for construction of a “free library”. Objection was made to the use of “Yankee charity”, but that reservation was soon overcome. Carnegie funded 2500 such public libraries, and 14 were in Alabama. […]

Carnegie Library

March 7, 2016 in Education / Government tagged beaux electric / carnegie / library

Margaret Booth School — As sad as it is now, Sayer was a grand address in its day. The imposing American Four-Square structure (obviously added to on the side and rear) served Margaret as home and school from 1914 until her death in 1953. It stood as tall in the education of girls in […]

Margaret Booth School

February 29, 2016 in Education / Residential tagged girls / margaret / school

Sidney Lanier — Sixty years ago Lanier was known throughout the South as a bastion of academic excellence and athletic prowess. I grew up 120 miles to the West, went to high school in Tennessee, but I well knew of Lanier. My wife graduated from here, and she thought the school was a […]

Sidney Lanier High School

February 28, 2016 in Education tagged balwin / high school / lanier / sidney

Sayre Street School — This lot at the corner of Sayre and Mildred Streets has been the site of a school since 1855, maybe before that. The present structure was built in 1891 and is the oldest public school building in Montgomery. During its early years, it housed an elementary school on the first […]

Sayre Street School

February 28, 2016 in Education tagged chilton / lanier / sayre / school

City-County Main Library — It is now known as the Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library. When it was built in the early 1960s (?) as joint home of the Library and the Museum, the Library had only the downstairs, and its entrance faced Lawrence Street. When the Museum moved out to Blount Park, the […]

City-County Main Library

February 26, 2016 in Education / Government tagged city / county / library / morgan

Library Museum — The downtown Library Museum was built in the 1960s, and it extended thru the block. The library had the lower level and faced South Lawrence Street; the Museum occupied the upper level and faced McDonough. This was the face of the museum. When the museum moved out to Blount Park, the library […]

Downtown Library-Museum

February 26, 2016 in Education / Government tagged downtown / library / museum

Montgomery Zoo — is located at 2301 Coliseum Parkway out in Chisolm, probably on land that was one time a part of the Kilby reservation. It was founded as part of Oak Park in 1920; declared to be the Montgomery Zoo in 1935, and moved to this 48-acre site in Chisolm in 1974. […]

Montgomery Zoo

February 24, 2016 in Commercial / Education tagged zoo

Shakespeare Theatre — …began as a Summer program up in Anniston AL in 1972, on the stage of an old high school. It had remarkable early success, but was about to expire ten years later. Wynton & Carolyn Blount offered to build it a grand new theatre if the organization would move to […]

The Shakespeare Festival Theater

February 22, 2016 in Commercial / Education tagged festival / shakespeare / theater

STJ_Entrance — …is an independent nonsectarian private school located at 6010 Vaughn Road. It serves over 1,000 students, and this is its administrative building, situated at the head of a 25 acre campus. The school was founded in 1955 by Dr Stanley Frazer, pastor of St James Methodist Church, then located on […]

St. James School

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged james / saint

Museum of Fine Arts — …moved from its previous quarters on McDonough Street downtown into this structure in the Blount Park in 1988. The museum was founded in 1930 and is the oldest fine arts museum in Alabama. It draws 160,000 visitors a year. Although its most outstanding holdings are built around the 41-piece American […]

Museum of Fine Arts

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged arts / fine / museum

Auburn Montgomery — …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 […]

Auburn University Montgomery (AUM)

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged auburn / aum

Gayle Planetarium — at Oak Park, built in 1966 under the administration of Earl James, and named for “Tacky” Gayle, the last of the Gunter Machine mayors. Tacky held the office for eight years, until Earl James beat him in 1958. My memories include discussions with WMP as to how to build the […]

Gayle Planetarium

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged gayle / planetarium

Jones Law School — This view of the first block of Commerce Street conjures up so many stories. One of my favorites involves the Odyssey of the Jones Law School. The conversant amongst you will recall that the school was founded in 1928 by my very distant cousin, the omnipotent Judge Walter B Jones, […]

Jones Law School

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged jones / law

MA Bridge — The Montgomery Academy was founded in 1959 by a small group of well-off Montgomery families who were determined to provide a quality substitute for the doomed public school system. For the first few years it held classes on Perry Street in the former “Sable Governor’s Mansion“. Just ahead of I-85 […]

Montgomery Academy

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged academy / bridge / MA / montgomery

Faulkner University — a private, 2500 student, university affiliated with the Church of Christ, and located on the Atlanta Highway just west of East Boulevard. It was founded in 1942 as a small Bible school, and became Alabama Christian College a decade later. In the beginning its modest campus was located on Ann […]

Faulkner University

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged faulkner / jones / law

Helen Hunt Learning Center — What you see is the drop-off entrance and canopy, located on a private alley that runs between Hull and McDonough Streets. The center is one of the elements of the RSA’s Monroe Street project, the piece which secured Governor Hunt’ vital support of the massive undertaking (Hunt had opposed the […]

Helen Hunt Early Learning Center

February 22, 2016 in Education / Government tagged helen hunt / learning / rsa

Barnes School for Boys — Now at 512 South Court Street, was a desperate salvage of the Montgomery County Historical Society, and now serves as Society headquarters. In 1996 that group moved the landmark from Catoma Street, where it had been evicted by GSA’s Federal Courthouse project. The Barnes School closed in 1942, and the […]

Barnes School For Boys

February 22, 2016 in Education tagged barnes / boys / school