Exploring Montgomery

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

Places and Things

The museum is only museum dedicated to Rosa Parks and taking you back to her life-changing moment when she decided not to give up her seat. This building was constructed in 1998 and finished around late 2000. Rosa Parks was actually able to attend the ground breaking and the official […]

The Rosa Parks Museum

August 3, 2018 in Education / Places and Things tagged aum media writing / rosa parks

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is in Montgomery. The Shakespeare Festival was designed by Thomas Blount and Perry Pittman. The building structure is based on the theories of Andrea Palladio and houses two theaters. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival was originally located in Anniston. In the 1980s they began to build a […]

Alabama Shakespeare Festival

July 27, 2018 in Places and Things tagged ASF / aum media writing / festival / sha

This historic water tank is one of Downtown Montgomery’s last and also the most unique. While also being older than a century, this water tank is still operational and grounded so all the tourists and locals can visit! This historic site was not always “grounded,” The Alleyway Tank was engineered […]

Alleyway Tank

July 20, 2018 in Places and Things tagged alley / aum media writing / tank

The flags form the circular drive which enables dignitaries to be dropped off at the South Entrance to our State Capitol. Each pole displays the State Flag of a sister state, and at the bottom of each pole is a native stone of that State engraved with its name. The […]

Avenue of Flags

April 27, 2018 in Places and Things tagged capitol / flags

Those who have missed it all, should revisit the Riverfront! The City has put tourist-friendly signs everywhere, black lamp posts, black bollards, even an arch sign over the old cotton-bale tunnel leading down to a former river steamer wharf. I think the sign was inspired by the 1910 sign that […]

Riverfront

April 20, 2018 in Places and Things tagged riverfront

Part of the Town of Pike Road endeavor. It takes its name from the double row of Oak trees which line the half-mile entrance drive. The center part of the structure was built circa 1830 by Alexander Carter, who expanded his small homestead into a plantation of 1780 acres. The […]

The Oaks

April 13, 2018 in Places and Things / Residential tagged oaks / pike road / plantation

as seen from under the old L&N train shed. Its bow-string truss spans 125-feet over the CSX tracks, which even today carry considerable RR traffic. The left elevator/stair tower is an appendage of the City’s new “Intermodal Parking Deck” , and the right end “view” tower, located on the river […]

Riverfront Access Bridge

April 2, 2018 in Places and Things tagged access / bridge / railroad / river

It’s origin goes back to Dr. William Baldwin, a respected medical doctor of 150 years ago, who also founded what is now the Montgomery piece of Regions Bank. Baldwin built the “Four Sister Houses” on South Perry, just two houses up from his own townhouse. His daughter Jennie, one of […]

Hazel Hedge Entrance

March 16, 2018 in Places and Things / Residential tagged entrance / hazel hedge

…placed on the Capitol Grounds by the Daughter’s of the American Revolution in 1925 to acknowledge General Marquis de La Fayette’s service during the Revolution, and to commemorate his visit to Montgomery 100 years earlier. According to family records and keepsakes, my wife’s gggg-GF came from France with the General […]

The LaFayette Rock

January 12, 2018 in Places and Things tagged lafayette / marquis / rock

Standing in the shadow of our State Capital. Albert was elected State attorney general in 1953 on a platform to clean up Phoenix City, an Alabama den of sin and inequity that served Ft Benning, Georgia, the huge Army base just across the river from PC. The Phoenix City mob […]

Albert Patterson

August 4, 2017 in Places and Things tagged albert / attorny general / patterson

Sits at the South end of our State Capitol, right at the apex of the Avenue of Flags. The original Liberty Bell is situated at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and supposedly it was rung in July of 1776 to announce the first reading of our Declaration of Independence. It had […]

Alabama’s Liberty Bell Replica

July 24, 2017 in Places and Things tagged bell / liberty / replica

When you approach the Capitol via the grand steps that lead up from Dexter Avenue, you find the larger-than-life statue of CSA President Jefferson Davis on your left, and standing across from Davis, on your right, is this bronze of Dr. John Allan Wyeth. . . 1845 – 1922. Wyeth […]

Dr. John Allan Wyeth

July 7, 2017 in Places and Things tagged allan / capitol / doctor / john / monument / poet / writer / wyeth

Capri — They stand together on Fairview at the foot of the Old Cloverdale district. The Capri was built in 1941 and began life as the Clover Theatre, Montgomery’s first neighborhood movie house . Sinclair’s is a highly successful theme restaurant, and it occupies the old Sinclair Service Station structure. About the […]

Capri, Sinclairs & Stonehenge

May 29, 2017 in Commercial / Places and Things tagged capri / sinclairs / stonehenge

Rosa Parks Museum — is part of the Troy campus, and it stands at the corner of Montgomery and Moulton Streets, directly across from the old Paramount (Davis Theater). It occupies the former site of the Empire Theater, and is contiguous to the very bus stop made famous when Rosa Parks was arrested there […]

Rosa Parks Museum

May 8, 2017 in Education / Government / Places and Things tagged boycott / museum / parks / rosa / troy

Hank Williams Monument — stands in Lister Hill Park directly opposite the City Hall Auditorium. Hank is revered as “the father of contemporary country music”; he was even awarded a rare Pulitzer music citation in 2009. His funeral in 1953 attracted more people than any Montgomery event since Jeff Davis was inaugurated 90 years […]

Hank Williams Monument

May 1, 2017 in Places and Things tagged hank williams / monument / statue

Hank Williams Grave — The renowned Hank Williams Grave, where ceremonies are held each and every year to celebrate his life, despite its sordid end. The elaborate and gaudy cemetery plot is flood-lighted at night to retard vandalism. It’s sad to me, that with as many historical and deserving people as are interred in Oakwood […]

Hank Williams Grave

April 28, 2017 in Places and Things tagged grave / hank williams / monument

CH Lions — Here are the familiar Capitol Heights Lions . . . which flank Madison Terrace at its intersection with Madison Avenue. Capitol Heights was incorporated in 1909 as a suburb with a population of 12,000. Such growth was made possible by the extension of the streetcar line way out to Electric Park […]

Capitol Heights Lions

February 27, 2017 in Places and Things tagged capitol / heights / lions / statue

The artistic concept of a pair of reclining lions, one on guard and one resting, supposedly originated as part of an elaborate tomb for Pope Clement VIII in 1783. Over the next century the lions were replicated worldwide, and these became known as the “Vatican Lions”. Today Montgomery can boast […]

Knox Hall Lions

February 13, 2017 in Places and Things tagged greek / hall / knox / lions / marble / revival

Officers Quarters — This is a 3-star general’s housing in the Senior Officer’s Quarters Section at Maxwell. It represents one of several designs that were employed when some 100 such units were built at the Base in the early 1930s, funded during the Depression as one of many such appropriations FDR used in […]

Senior Officer’s Quarters

February 10, 2017 in Places and Things / Residential tagged french provincial / maxwell / officer / quarters

Shoppes Mulberry — This quaint little row of specialty shops sort of rose up by mutation over the last thirty years or so, and now the “Mulberry District” is a favorite place. It surely does represent American free enterprise at its best. At one time this land was part of A P Tyson […]

Shoppes at Mulberry

January 2, 2017 in Commercial / Places and Things tagged mulberry / shoppes

Powder Magazine — was built in 1862 as a safe place to store gun powder, like in out-of-town. The windowless structure has 2-foot thick brick walls, and still has its original slate roof. The walls are plain, except for an elaborate brickwork frieze. It is located in “Powder Magazine Park”, just off Bell […]

Powder Magazine

November 14, 2016 in Government / Places and Things tagged gun powder / magazine / powder

Alley tank — I love the idea of the downtown Alley Bars and nightlife, but I’m having a hard time with Jeff’s tank. Pity the poor Architectural Review Board, which had to rule on it as appropriate for a historic district (of which I was a member at its inception a half-century ago). […]

The Alleyway Tank

November 11, 2016 in Places and Things tagged alley / tank / water

George Wallace Grave — Here in the lighthouse circle astride the Greenwood Cemetery entrance drive, lies the remains of the renowned George Corley Wallace, powerful political figure, elected governor of Alabama four terms (five if you count Lurleen), twice 3rd party candidate for POTUS. His wife, Governor Lurleen, lies beside him. The Ionic columns […]

George Wallace Grave

November 7, 2016 in Places and Things tagged cemetery / george / grave / wallace

Desoto Rock — The de Soto Rock monument is appropriately ensconced within the Academic Circle at Maxwell, directly in front of the History Building. The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto trekked through these parts circa 1540, and supposedly he encamped on the river bluff site that ultimately became Maxwell AFB. -Charles Humphries

De Soto Rock Monument

November 4, 2016 in Places and Things tagged de soto / monument / rock

Gateway Clubhouse — located alongside I-65 just as you enter Montgomery from the South. The park opened in 2006, and is situated in a flood plain, actually the site of a former mosquito infested bog fed by Cloverland Ditch. The clubhouse is raised to mitigate potential flood damage, and the underside is used […]

Gateway Park Clubhouse

September 5, 2016 in Commercial / Places and Things tagged clubhouse / gateway / golf / park / ski

Lagoon Clubhouse — sits in Lagoon Park off N. East Boulevard. The park boasts a golf course, an elaborate softball complex, a great tennis center, and outstanding baseball facilities. The 18-hole golf course was opened in 1978, and has been rated by GOLF DIGEST as one of the nation’s top 50 Public Golf […]

Lagoon Park Clubhouse

September 2, 2016 in Commercial / Places and Things tagged baseball / clubhouse / golf / lagoon / park / tennis

I85 — This is what made EastChase possible. The view is of the South terminus of the I-85 Interstate, as it intersects I-65, but this was the artery that changed Montgomery’s growth from Southeast to East. No event has had more impact on our city (nor on our nation, for that matter) […]

Interstate 85

July 4, 2016 in Places and Things tagged 85 / eisenhower / interstate