Montgomery ( ) is the
capital, second most populous
city, and the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the
Southern U.S.
state of Alabama
, and is the
county seat of Montgomery
County
. It is located southeast of the center of
the state, in the
Gulf Coastal
Plain. The city population was 201,568 as of the 2000 census.
Montgomery
is the primary city of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical
Area
, which had a 2000 population of 346,528, making it
the fourth largest in the state.
The city was incorporated in 1819, as a merger of two towns
situated along the
Alabama River. It
became the state capital in 1846.
In February 1861, Montgomery was selected
as the first capital of the Confederate States of America,
until the seat of government moved to Richmond, Virginia
in May of that year. During the mid-20th
century, Montgomery was a primary site in the
African-American Civil
Rights Movement, including the
Montgomery Bus Boycott and the
Selma to Montgomery
marches.
Today, in
addition to housing many Alabama government agencies, Montgomery
has a large military
presence due to Maxwell Air Force Base
, public universities Alabama State
University
, Troy
University
(Montgomery
campus), and Auburn University-Montgomery
, private colleges/universities Faulkner
University
, Huntingdon College
, and ABA-accredited law school Thomas Goode
Jones School of Law
, high-tech manufacturing including Hyundai Motor
Manufacturing Alabama
, and cultural attractions like the Alabama
Shakespeare Festival
and Montgomery Museum of Fine
Arts.
History
Prior to European colonization, the left bank of the
Alabama River was inhabited by the
Alibamu tribe of Native Americans. The
Alibamu and the
Coushatta who lived on the
opposite side the river were adept mound builders.
Present-day Montgomery is built on the site of
two Alibamu towns:
Ikanatchati (or Ecunchatty or
Econachatee), meaning "red earth"; and
Towassa, built on a
bluff called
Chunnaanaauga Chatty. The first Europeans to
come through central Alabama were
Hernando de Soto and his expedition, who
came through Ikanatchati and camped for one week in Towassa in
1540.
The next recorded European movements in the area happened well over
a century later, when an expedition from
Carolina went down the Alabama River in
1697. The first permanent European settler in the Montgomery area
was James McQueen, a
Scottish trader
who came to the area in 1716.
After
McQueen's arrival, European immigration to the area was slow in
coming; Abraham Mordecai of Pennsylvania
arrived in 1785 and later brought the first
cotton gin to Alabama. Following
the end of the
Creek War in August 1814,
the Creek tribes were forced to give the majority of their lands to
the U.S., including most of central and southern Alabama.
In 1816,
Montgomery
County
was formed, and its lands were sold off the next
year at the federal land office in Milledgeville,
Georgia
. The first group of settlers to come to the
Montgomery area was headed by General John Scott. The group founded
Alabama Town about downstream from present-day downtown. In June
1818, county courts were moved from
Fort
Jackson to Alabama Town. Soon after,
Andrew Dexter founded New Philadelphia, the
present-day eastern part of downtown. Dexter envisioned his town
would one day grow to prominence; he set aside a hilltop known as
"Goat Hill" as the future location for the state capitol building.
New Philadelphia soon prospered, and Scott and his associates built
a new town adjacent, calling it East Alabama Town. The towns became
rivals, but merged on December 3, 1819, and were incorporated as
the city of Montgomery.
Due in large part to the cotton trade, the newly united Montgomery
grew quickly. In 1822, the city became the county seat, and a new
courthouse was built at the present location of Court Square, at
the foot of Market Street (now Dexter Avenue).
The state capital was
moved from Tuscaloosa
to Montgomery, on January 28, 1846.
As state capital, Montgomery began to have a great influence over
state politics, but would also play a prominent role on the
national stage.
Beginning February 4, 1861, representatives
from Alabama, Georgia
, Florida
, Louisiana
, Mississippi
, and South Carolina
met in
Montgomery to form the Confederate States of
America. Montgomery was named the first capital of the
nation, and Jefferson Davis was
inaugurated as President on the steps of the State
Capitol
. On April 12, 1865, following the
Battle of Selma, Major General
James H. Wilson captured Montgomery for the
Union.
In 1886 Montgomery became the first city in the United States to
install city-wide electric
street cars
along a system that was nicknamed the
Lightning Route. The system made Montgomery
one of the first cities to "depopulate" its residential areas at
the city center through transportation-facilitated suburban
development.
Montgomery was thrust into the spotlight of the early
African-American
Civil Rights Movement. In December 1955,
Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up
her bus seat to a white man, sparking the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
The Montgomery Improvement
Association was created by Martin Luther King, Jr., then the
pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
, and E.D. Nixon, a lawyer and local civil rights advocate,
to organize the boycott. In June 1956, Judge
Frank M. Johnson ruled that Montgomery's bus
segregation was illegal.
After the Supreme
Court
upheld the ruling in November, the city
desegregated the bus system, and the boycott was ended. The
Greyhound
Bus Station on South Court Street was the scene of mob violence
during the
Freedom ride of May 1961,
which led to the desegregation of interstate traffic.
Martin Luther King would return to Montgomery in 1965.
Local civil rights
leaders in Selma
had been
protesting Jim Crow laws blocking
Blacks from registering to vote. Following the shooting of a
man after a civil rights rally, the leaders decided to
march to Montgomery to petition
Governor
George Wallace to allow free
voter registration.
In recent years, Montgomery has continued to grow and diversify.
The city government is active in restoring the downtown area, and
in 2007 adopted a master plan, which included revitalization of
Court Square and the riverfront.
Geography
Montgomery is located at .According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a
total area of , of which of it is land and of it (0.52%) is water.
The city is built over rolling terrain at an elevation of about
above sea level
Cityscape
Downtown Montgomery lies along the southern bank of the
Alabama River, about downstream from the
confluence of the
Coosa and
Tallapoosa Rivers.
The most prominent
feature of Montgomery's skyline is the 23-story RSA Tower
, built in 1996 by the Retirement Systems of
Alabama. Downtown also contains many state and local
government buildings, including the Alabama
State Capitol
. The Capitol is located atop a hill at one
end of Dexter Avenue, along which also lies the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church
, where Martin
Luther King, Jr. was pastor. Both the Capitol and
Dexter Baptist Church are listed as National Historic Landmarks by
the U.S.
Department of the Interior
. One block south of the Capitol is the
First White House of the
Confederacy
, the 1835 Italianate-style house in which President
Jefferson Davis and family lived while the capitol of the
Confederacy was in Montgomery. Montgomery's third
National Historic Landmark is Union Station
. Train service to Montgomery ceased in 1985,
but today Union Station is part of the Riverwalk park development,
which also includes an amphitheater, a riverboat dock and Riverwalk
Stadium
. Three blocks east of the Convention Center,
Old Alabama
Town
showcases more than 50 restored buildings from the
19th century. The Riverwalk is part of a larger plan to
revamp the downtown area. The plan includes the utilization of
urban forestry, infill development,
and façade renovation to encourage business and residential growth.
A Convention Center which was completed in 2007 is expected to
further encourage growth in the downtown area.
South of
downtown, across Interstate 85, lies
Alabama State
University
. ASU's campus was built in
Colonial Revival architectural
style from 1906 until the beginning of
World War II. Surrounding ASU are the
Garden District, and
Cloverdale Historic
District. Houses in these areas date from around 1875 until
1949, and are in
Late
Victorian and
Gothic
Revival styles.
Huntingdon College
is on the southwestern edge of Cloverdale.
The campus was built in the 1900s in
Tudor Revival and Gothic Revival
styles. ASU, the Garden District, Cloverdale, and Huntingdon are
all listed as
National
Historic Districts.
Montgomery's east side is the fastest-growing part of the city. The
city's two largest shopping malls, as well as many
big-box stores and residential developments
are on the east side. The area is also home of the
Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park, a park
which contains the Alabama Shakespeare Festival
and Montgomery Museum of Fine
Arts.
Prattville
, to the northwest is the second largest city in the
Montgomery
Metropolitan Area
. Other area towns are Pike
Road
to the southeast, Millbrook
to the north, and Wetumpka
to the northeast.
Neighborhoods
Historic Capitol Heights
Capitol Heights is one of Montgomery's oldest neighborhoods outside
of downtown and was one of the earliest suburban developments in
Alabama. Capitol Heights was founded in 1908 as a separate town due
east of downtown Montgomery. Initial marketing for the neighborhood
advertised its elevation (the highest point in Montgomery today)
and the advantage of cool summer breezes on a bluff overlooking
Montgomery. The Heights later was connected to downtown Montgomery
by one of the first trolley's in America. A large number of homes
are Craftsman and many were even purchased out of the Sears
Catalog. Capitol Heights was recently recognized as Alabama's best
neighborhood to invest in and is on the cusp of significant urban
renewal as downtown Montgomery continues its re-birth and many
young urban professionals look for quaint bungalows within walking
distance of the revitalized downtown.
Old Cloverdale
Old Cloverdale was originally 160 acres of land, purchased by
William Graham, from the US government, in 1817. It was partitioned
off into buisness and residential areas at the turn of the 20th
Century. Old Cloverdale is home to the Capri, Montgomery's only
independent theater, a plethora of shops and dinning
establishments, and several homes surrounded by European styled
gardens.
Climate
Montgomery's climate is
humid
subtropical (
Köppen climate
classification Cfa). The area experiences short, warm springs
and hot, typically humid summers lasting from mid-May to well into
September. Autumns are usually during October and November and are
mild – from the mid-60s to 70s (degrees Fahrenheit). Winters last
from December until February; their severity/coldness varies from
year to year, but they are usually moderate, with temperatures
rarely dipping below . The highest recorded temperature in
Montgomery was , on August 7, 1881. The record low temperature of
was reached on January 21, 1985.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 201,568
people, 78,384 households, and 51,084 families residing in the
city. The 2006 Census Bureau estimate places the population at
201,998.
The
population density was
1,297.3 people per square mile (500.9/km²). There were 86,787
housing units at an average density of 558.5/sq mi
(215.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 49.63%
Black, 47.67%
White, 0.25%
Native American, 1.06%
Asian, 0.04%
Pacific Islander, 0.37% from
other races, and 0.98%
from two or more races. 1.23% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 78,384 households out of which 32.1% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 42.4% were
married couples living together, 19.1% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 34.8% were non-families.
30.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.4% had
someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The
average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was
3.06. Same-sex couple households comprised 0.4 % of all
househoulds.
In the city the population was spread out with 25.9% under the age
of 18, 12.1% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to
64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median
age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 88.4 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $35,627, and the
median income for a family was $44,297. Males had a median income
of $31,877 versus $25,014 for females. The
per capita income for the city was
$19,385. About 13.9% of families and 17.7% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 25.7%
of those under age 18 and 13.4% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
Montgomery's central location in Alabama's
Black Belt makes it a
processing hub for crops such as
cotton,
peanuts, and
soybeans.
In 1840
Montgomery
County
led the state in cotton production, and by 1911,
the city processed 160,000-200,000 bales of cotton annually.
Montgomery has long had large metal fabrication and lumber
production sectors. Due to its location along the
Alabama River and extensive rail connections,
Montgomery has and continues to be a regional distribution hub for
a wide range of industries. Today, the city's Gross Metropolitan
Product is $12.15 billion, representing 8.7% of the Gross State
Product of Alabama.
According to
Bureau of Labor
Statistics data from October 2008, the largest sectors of
non-agricultural employment were: Government, 24.3%; Trade,
Transportation, and Utilities, 17.3% (including 11.0% in retail
trade); Professional and Business Services, 11.9%; Manufacturing,
10.9%; Education and Health Services, 10.0% (including 8.5% in
Health Care & Social Assistance); Leisure and Hospitality,
9.2%; Financial Activities, 6.0%, Natural Resources, Mining and
Construction, 5.1%; Information, 1.4%; and Other services 4.0%.
Unemployment for the same period was 5.7%, 2.5% higher than October
2007. The city also draws in workers from the surrounding area;
Montgomery's daytime population rises 17.4% to 239,101.
As of
August 2008, Montgomery's largest employers were Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base
(12,280 employees), the State of Alabama (9,500), Montgomery Public Schools (4,524),
Baptist Health (4,300),
Hyundai Motor Manufacturing
Alabama
(3,171), Alfa
Insurance (2,568), the City of Montgomery (2,500), 754th
Electronics Systems Group
(1,943), Jackson Hospital & Clinic (1,300), and
Rheem Water Heaters (1,150). One
Fortune 1000 company,
Colonial Bancgroup, is headquartered in
Montgomery.
According
to Pennsylvania State University
's "Living Wage Calculator", the living wage for the city is $8.02 per hour (or $16,691 per year)
for an individual and $25.80 per hour ($53,662 per year) for a
family of four. These are slightly higher than the state
averages of $7.45 per hour for an individual and $25.36 for a
family of four.
Law and government
Montgomery operates under a
Mayor-council government system.
Mayor
Bobby Bright was elected to the
United States Congress from
Alabama's 2nd
congressional district in November 2008. City council president
Charles Jinright was the acting
mayor until a special election was held on March 10, 2009, to
select a permanent successor. Bright was elected mayor in the 1999,
having unseated longtime
Republican Mayor
Emory Folmar. Bright was re-elected in a
landslide against challenger Scott Simmons in the 2003 and 2007
municipal elections. After the 2009 special election, Todd Strange
was elected mayor by a 53% margin against 5 other candidates.
The city is served by a nine-member
city
council, which is composed of nine districts of equal size. The
city council is responsible for establishing the city of
Montgomery's policies.
The current members of the city council are
District 1 - Councillor Jim SpearDistrict 2 - Councillor Charles W.
SmithDistrict 3 - Councillor Tracy LarkinDistrict 4 - Councillor
David BurketteDistrict 5 - Councillor Cornelius "C.C."
CalhounDistrict 6 - Councillor Willie CookDistrict 7 - Councillor
Martha RobyDistrict 8 - Councillor Glen Pruitt, Jr.District 9 -
Councillor Charles Jinright
On May 10, 2009, City Councillor Martha Roby announced that she
would seek the Republican Nomination for Congress in Alabama's
Second District in 2010. If she wins the primary, Roby will face
former Mayor Bobby Bright.
Culture
The
Wynton M.
Blount Cultural Park
in east Montgomery is home to the
Montgomery Museum of Fine
Arts. The Museum's permanent collections include American art
and sculpture,
Southern art,
master prints from European masters, and collections of porcelain
and glass works. The Society of Arts and Crafts operates a co-op
gallery for local artists.
Montgomery Zoo
, one of only two AZA-accredited zoos in
Alabama, has over 500 animals in of barrier-free habitats.
The
Hank Williams Museum
contains one of the largest collections of Williams memorabilia in
the world.
Blount
Park is also contains the Alabama Shakespeare Festival
's Carolyn Blount Theatre. The Shakespeare
Festival presents year-round performances of both classic plays and
performances of local interest, in addition to works of
William Shakespeare. The 1200-seat
Davis Theatre for
the Performing Arts, on the
Troy University at Montgomery
campus, opened in 1930 and was renovated in 1983. It houses the
Montgomery Symphony
Orchestra,
Alabama Dance
Theatre and
Montgomery Ballet,
as well as other theatrical productions. The Symphony has been
performing in Montgomery since 1979. The Capri Theatre in
Cloverdale was built in 1941, and
today shows
independent films.
Jubilee CityFest is an annual music
festival featuring a variety of performers.
There is a rich history of musical performers with roots in
Montgomery. Jazz singer and pianist
Nat
King Cole, country singer
Hank
Williams, blues singer
Big Mama
Thornton,
Melvin Franklin of
The Temptations, and guitarist
Tommy Shaw of
Styx are among the many musicians to get their
start in Montgomery. Author and artist
Zelda
Sayre was born in Montgomery. In 1918, she met
F. Scott
Fitzgerald, who was a soldier stationed at an Army post nearby.
The house where they lived is today used as the
F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
Museum.
Poet Sidney
Lanier lived in Montgomery and Prattville
immediately after the Civil War, while writing his novel
Tiger Lilies.
In addition to being the launching point of Hank Williams Sr.’s
career, and the birth place of Nat King Cole,
Clarence Carter, and Tommy Shaw, Montgomery
as also seen a few of its rock bands achieve national success in
recent years. Locals artists
Trust
Company were signed to
Geffen
Records in 2002.
Hot Rod
Circuit formed in Montgomery in 1997 under the name Antidote,
but achieved success with Vagrant
Records after moving to Connecticut
. The
Ed Kemper
Trio became well known in Montgomery’s local rock music scene
from 1997 - 2004, and was the focus of
People Will Eat
Anything, a music documentary shown at the
Capri Theatre in
2004.
Places of
worship in Montgomery include the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church
, St. John's Episcopal Church
, Mt.
Zion AME Zion Church
, and Agudath Israel Etz Ahayem
synagogue.
Sports
Montgomery is home of the
Montgomery
Biscuits baseball team. The Biscuits play in the
Class AA Southern League.
They are affiliated
with the Tampa Bay Rays, and play at
Montgomery
Riverwalk Stadium
. Riverwalk Stadium was the host of the
NCAA
Division II National Baseball
Championship from 2004 until 2007.
The championship had previously been
played at Paterson
Field
in Montgomery from 1985 until 2003.
The
Navistar
LPGA Classic
women's golf event is held at
the Robert Trent Jones
Golf Trail at Capitol Hill in nearby Prattville
. Garrett
Coliseum was the home of the now-defunct
Montgomery Bears indoor football team.
Montgomery is also the site of sporting events hosted by the area's
colleges and universities.
The Alabama State University
Hornets play in NCAA Division I competition in the Southwestern Athletic
Conference. The football team plays at the Cramton Bowl
and the basketball team
play at the Joe
L.
Reed Acadome
. Auburn University Montgomery
also fields teams in NAIA
competition. Huntingdon College
participates at the NCAA Division III level and
Faulkner
University
is a member of the NAIA and is a nearby rival of
Auburn-Montgomery. The
Blue-Gray Football Classic was an
annual college football
all-star game
held from 1938 until 2001.
Several
successful professional athletes hail from Montgomery, including
Pro Football
Hall of Famer
Bart Starr and two-time Olympic gold
medalist in track and field Alonzo
Babers.
Education
The city of Montgomery and Montgomery County are served by the
Montgomery Public Schools
system. As of 2007, there were 32,520 students enrolled in the
system, and 2,382 teachers employed.
The system manages 32
elementary schools, 10 middle schools, and 4 high schools (G.W.
Carver
, Jeff Davis
, Robert E.
Lee
, and Sidney Lanier
) as well as 9 magnet
schools, 1 alternative
school, and 2 special
education centers. Montgomery is also home to 28
private schools.
Montgomery has been the home of Alabama State
University
, a historically black
university, since the Lincoln Normal University for Teachers
relocated from Marion
in
1887. Today, ASU enrolls over 5,600 students from 42
U.S. states and 7 countries.
Troy
University
maintains a
3,000 student population campus in downtown Montgomery that
prominently houses the award-winning Rosa
Parks Library and Museum. Troy University is also a
worldwide leader in distance learning programs.
Auburn
Montgomery
in the eastern part of the city operates as a
satellite campus of Auburn University
, and has an enrollment of 5,123.
Montgomery also is home to several private
colleges: Faulkner
University
which has an enrollment of 3,500, is a Church of Christ-affiliated school and
Huntingdon
College
has a current student population of 1,000 and is
affiliated with the United
Methodist Church.
Maxwell Air
Force Base
is the headquarters for Air University, the United States Air Force's center for
professional military
education. Branches of Air University based in
Montgomery include the Squadron
Officer School, the Air Command and Staff College
, the Air War
College, and the Community College of the Air
Force.
Media
The morning newspaper, the
Montgomery Advertiser, began
publication as the
The Planter's Gazette in 1829. It is
the principal newspaper of central Alabama and is affiliated with
the
Gannett Corporation. In
1970, then publisher
Harold E.
Martin won the
Pulitzer Prize for special reporting while at
the
Advertiser. The
Alabama Journal was a local
afternoon paper from 1899 until April 16, 1993 when it published
its last issue before merging with the morning Advertiser.
Montgomery is served by seven local
television stations: WNCF
32
(ABC),
WSFA 12
(NBC), WCOV 20
(Fox),
WBMM 22
(CW),
WAIQ 26 (PBS), WMCF 45
(TBN),
WFRZ 34 (Religious and Educational).
In
addition, WAKA
8
(CBS) and WBIH 29
(independent) are located in Selma
, and
WIYC 67
(AMV)
is licensed to Troy
.
Montgomery is part of the Montgomery-Selma Designated Market Area,
which is ranked 118th nationally by
Nielsen Media Research.
The
Montgomery area is served by nine AM
radio stations: WMSP
, WMGY
, WNZZ
, WTBF
, WACV
, WAPZ
, WIQR
, WLWI
, and WXVI
; and
nineteen FM stations: WJSP, WAPR
, WELL
, WLBF
, WTSU
, WVAS, WLWI
, WXFX, WQKS
, WWMG
, WVRV
, WJWZ
, WBAM
, WALX
, WHHY
, WMXS
, WHLW
, WZHT, and WMRK
.
Montgomery is ranked 153rd largest by
Arbitron.
Transportation
Two interstate highways run through Montgomery.
Interstate 65 is the primary north–south
freeway through the city leading between Birmingham
and Huntsville
to the north and Mobile
to the
south. Montgomery is the southern terminus of
Interstate 85, another north–south
freeway (though running east–west in the city), which leads
northeast to Atlanta
. The major surface street thoroughfare is a
loop consisting of
State Route
152 in the north,
U.S. Highway 231 and
U.S. Highway
80 in the east,
U.S. Highway 82 in the south, and
U.S. Highway
31 along the west of the city. The
Alabama Department of
Transportation is planning the Outer Montgomery Loop to ease
traffic congestion in the city.
It is planned to connect Interstate 85 near Mt.
Meigs
to U.S.
Highway 80 southwest of the city.
Montgomery Area Transit
System (MATS) provides public transportation with buses serving
the city. The system has 32 buses providing an average of 4500
passenger trips daily. MATS ridership has shown steady growth since
the system was revamped in 2000; the system served over 1 million
passenger trips in 2007.
Greyhound
Lines operates a terminal in Montgomery for intra-city bus
travel.
Montgomery
Regional Airport
, also known as Dannelly Field, is the major airport
serving Montgomery. It serves primarily as an Air National Guard base and for general
aviation, but commercial airlines fly to regional connections to
Atlanta
, Dallas-Fort Worth
Charlotte
, and Memphis
.
Passenger
rail service began to Montgomery in 1898, with the opening of
Union
Station
. Service continued until 1979, when
Amtrak terminated its
Floridian route. Amtrak returned from
1989 until 1995 with the
Gulf
Breeze, an extension of the
Crescent line.
Sister city
Montgomery has one
sister city:
References
- Owen, p. 1038
- [1]
- [2]
- 2000 Census Data on Same-sex couple
households
Further reading
- L. P. Powell (editor), in Historic Towns of the Southern
States, (New York, 1900)
- Jeffry C. Benton (editor) A Sense of Place, Montgomery's
Architectural History ( )
External links