 HUNTSVILLE
COMMUNITY - ENJOY HUNTSVILLE,
ALABAMA AREA HISTORICAL INFORMATION
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The
Birthplace of Alabama
Pioneer John Hunt, the city’s
namesake, resided in a cabin alongside a spring here in 1805. Soon
the town was flourishing and the Huntsville
community became the largest in the Alabama Territory by 1819.
Also in 1819, the Alabama Territory leaders met to petition the U.S.
Congress to grant Alabama statehood. The recreated 1819 Alabama Constitution
Village, a block from the courthouse square, commemorates the historic
events through Huntsville community tours given by costumed tour guides.
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During
the 1840s and ‘50s, the Huntsville community was the cotton
trading center of the Tennessee Valley, where planters and merchants
(originally from Virginia and the Carolinas) built impressive
town homes. LeRoy Pope, who purchased land at auction and donated
additional land for the town, originally chose the name Twickenham.
He wanted to honor the London suburb which was home to his relative
and poet, Alexander Pope. However, following the War of 1812,
the name reverted to Huntsville to honor the Pioneer who first
settled here.
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With the state’s largest collection
of pre-Civil War homes, Huntsville community walking tours of the
Twickenham historic district are popular year-round. While many wealthy
businessmen remained loyal to the Union at the start of the Civil
War, the town was spared the destruction by occupying armies. A visit
to the 1819 Weeden House Museum and the 1860 Huntsville Depot Museum
should be planned while visiting our Huntsville community, along with
the restored 19th century cabins and farm buildings which are displayed
at the mountaintop Burritt Museum and Park. You can also enjoy a unique
shopping experience at the 1879 Harrison Brothers Hardware Store. |
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Huntsville Community Profile
Consistently named as one of the best places to live and work by a
variety of national publications, Huntsville, Alabama has become one
of the most recognized cities in the Southeast. The Huntsville community
is regularly named as a premier location for both business and quality
of life. Prominent industries including technology, space and defense,
have a major presence here with the Army's Redstone Arsenal, NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, and Cummings Research Park all within
the Huntsville community.
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The
Huntsville
community is also home to several Fortune 500 companies,
whereby offering a broad base of manufacturing, retail and service
industries. Our quality of life is second to none with a variety
of educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities. With
the successful mixture of rich Southern hospitality and the
innovative high-tech ventures and cultural diversity, one does
not have to dig deep to envision how this is most certainly
a living environment desirable for all.
The city of Huntsville, which sprawls at the foot of a mountain
in North Alabama, is equally at home now as it was in the 19th
century; the heritage of Alabama’s first English-speaking
city, the strife of the American Civil War, and the accomplishments
of America's rocket scientists, are reflected in Huntsville
community attractions.
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The County of Huntsville's population
is estimated at 260,000, allowing it to maintain the status of one
of the South's fastest growing areas. Enjoying the highest per capita
income in the Southeast (with Atlanta in second place), the nearby
city of Madison, is experiencing rapid growth too. The Hampton Cove
area on U.S. 431 South is the fastest growing residential area within
Huntsville's city limits.
The Huntsville
community population truly defines the vast international
cultures that exist here. More than 10 percent of the current 180,000
city residents are natives of other countries. Also, over 100 languages
and dialects are spoken here.
America's
Space Capital
When U.S. Senator John Sparkman (who
lived in Huntsville's historic Twickenham neighborhood) brought an
assembly of German rocket scientists to Redstone Arsenal in 1950 to
develop rockets for the U.S. Army, the Huntsville
community was still a small cotton market town.
By the end of the decade, Wernher von Braun's team had developed the
rocket which orbited America's first satellite. Eventually they put
the very first American in space and transported the first astronauts
to the Moon.
One of the U.S. Army's most important strategic posts is the Redstone
Arsenal. It is responsible for research, development, production and
worldwide support of missiles, aviation, rockets and related programs.
The arrival of engineers, scientists and other highly technical specialists
has transformed this small town into a cosmopolitan community while
still maintaining its tradition and status of providing great hospitality.
Additional information on the history of Redstone Arsenal and Huntsville
may be obtained by visiting www.redstone.army.mil/history.
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Huntsville
community attractions offer a wealth of activities. If the Arts
is your hobby of choice, a variety of city museums downtown
and an outstanding symphony orchestra will present you with
some rich cultural opportunities. However, if golfing is your
past-time pleasure, the legendary Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail
will be an excellent choice for you. This vast Trail comprises
of 21 courses within eight cities in Alabama, begins at the
local 54-hole Hampton Cove Golf Course. Surrounded by mountains
and lakes, Hampton Cove features two championship courses. Alabama
now ranks fifth in the nation for public golf courses per resident
living there.
The beautiful Huntsville Botanical Garden, which is adjacent
to the space museum, features floral and aquatic gardens. Despite
becoming the space capital of America, the Huntsville
community maintains close contact
with its past. The literal birthplace, "the big spring,"
still flows from a rock bluff underneath the 1835 Regions Bank.
It winds through a lushly landscaped park into a lake surrounded
by a multitude of trees. Facing the park is the Huntsville community
civic and convention center named for the legendary German-born
rocket scientist. The Von Braun Center contains an arena, exhibit
hall, banquet hall, theater & meeting rooms, and is a wonder
asset to the Huntsville community.
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The extensive U.S. Space and Rocket
Center gives Huntsville community visitors the opportunity to be “astronauts
for a day” where they can sample unique astronaut training activities,
including experiencing simulated weightlessness and viewing large-screen
movies filmed by astronauts in space. One of the state's largest tourist
attractions is the hands-on showcase of space technology. It is home
to the internationally known U.S. Space Camp which has franchise operations
in Japan, Belgium and Canada. It was Von Braun himself who inspired
the Huntsville community Space Camp. He suggested that the space museum
develop an intensive youth science program to stimulate children's
interest in math and science. Bus tours of the NASA Marshall Space
Flight Center take visitors through large hangar-sized buildings such
as where engineers are building the nation's first permanent space
station. They also visit giant outdoor test stands where America's
rockets have been test fired.
The annual calendar of events for the Huntsville community is filled
with a variety of special events, ranging from tours of Huntsville
community historic homes in the spring to the Big Spring Jam music
festival in September and brilliantly lighted Christmas festivals
in December. Visitors by air arrive at the Huntsville International
Airport just 12 miles west of Huntsville. Some 70 jet flights depart
daily as well as several weekly non-stop freight flights to Europe.
Huntsville, Alabama USA. We have space available for you. |
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VISIT
THE HISTORIC AREAS OF OUR WONDERFUL HUNTSVILLE COMMUNITY
THERE IS MUCH TO SEE AND TO KNOW ABOUT THE HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA AREA! |
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