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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, a place like no other!
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