A Little-Known Slice Of Alabama History Can Be Found At This Roadside Park
By Lisa Battles|Published January 05, 2024
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Lisa Battles
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Lisa has traveled the U.S. for over a decade, seeking out and sharing the stories of its most interesting places, people, and experiences. A journalism graduate of Auburn University, she has been a content strategist, editor, and writer for more than 25 years. Lisa has worked in community news, PR, and marketing with a focus on tourism, hospitality, and economic development. Besides following her curiosity around every corner, she's a devoted dog mom of two and advocate for animal welfare.
You may know that Alabama sent the first Americans to the moon with the Saturn V rocket. Did you know that long before we pushed beyond the earth’s atmosphere, Alabama also played a part in early aviation history? Less than seven years after Orville and Wilbur Wright made history with the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they opened an aviation school in Montgomery. While the brothers’ direct association only lasted a few months, more than 100,000 aviation cadets have trained on the same site in the many years since. A roadside park between Maxwell Boulevard and the Alabama River commemorates this slice of little-known Alabama history. Here are the highlights.
Just off of Interstate 65 and one mile east of the Maxwell Air Force Base Visitor Center, you can visit Wright Brothers Park, which commemorates the brothers' time in Alabama and the history made there. In early 1910, the brothers opened the first civilian flying school on what was once a cotton plantation and later became part of the base.
The purpose of the school was to train instructors who could then train others as commercial interest in the planes grew. The school only operated a few months before the brothers returned to Ohio after several mechanical and weather issues, according to various reports.
During the short time they were in Alabama, one student graduated: Richard Walter Brookins of Dayton, Ohio.
Brookins and instructor Archibald Hoxsey are officially credited for making the first night flight in history on May 25, 1910, the day before the school closed. Hoxsey died in December of the same year attempting best an altitude record.
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While a concrete marker commemorates the spot where the old barn hangar once stood on base at Maxwell, the city renovated, renamed, and dedicated a city park near the base to create a space to honor this part of history.
Local steel fabricators Burt Steel created and donated a full-scale replica of the Wright Flyer, which the city installed in June 2013. The next month, the city held a dedication ceremony for the new Wright Brothers Park, formerly known as Overlook Park.
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The Wrights had family representation at the dedication – their great-grand-niece, Amanda Wright Lane of Cincinnati, a Wright Family Foundation trustee.
Today, visitors can read about the history of the aviation school and how the site later came to be a pilot training facility. Almost a decade after the Wrights departed, the US War Department selected the site as a repair facility during World War I. It became Maxwell Field in 1922. During World War II, it became a training facility for more than 100,000 aviation cadets. In 1946, Air University was established there, with the US Air Force officially established a year later. The site became known as Maxwell Air Force Base in 1947.
Beyond the interesting history lesson, the park is simply a pretty spot. People enjoy the sweeping vistas of the Alabama River and city. There is a leisurely walking path to take in the views.
The garden is called the Hampstead Institute Downtown Farm and was established a couple of years before the Wright Brothers Park rededication. The garden is a collab between the city and the town of Hampstead in east Montgomery.
Did you know about this slice of little-known Alabama history? We know you’ll enjoy learning about it with a visit to Wright Brothers Park in Montgomery. If you go (or have before), let us know what you thought about it. Plan a trip and book a stay in our capital city to make time for its many attractions, from Civil Rights Trail site to Riverfront Park and Old Alabama Town.
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