Fri, Oct 02
|Huntsville-Madison County Public Library
America 250: Real Estate, Rockets, and Race
HMCPL Special Collections is hosting a speaker series covering 250 years of history of Huntsville and the surrounding region.
Time & Location
Oct 02, 2026, 12:00 PM
Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, 915 Monroe St SW, Huntsville, AL 35801, USA
About the Event
The establishment of Redstone Arsenal and its post war transition into a rocket center brought tens of thousands of new residents to Huntsville. The city's population ballooned from 13,000 in 1940 to 80,000 in 1960. Huntsville strained to provide housing and an ambitious series of urban renewal projects combined with new suburban developments rapidly changed the city. Gurley Heights, Magnolia Terrace, and McThornmor Acres subdivisions were platted by white and Black entrepreneurs to help ease housing pressures. Come learn about these three National Register neighborhoods and how they offer a glimpse in to 1950s Huntsville.
Presented by Caroline Swope, M.S.H.P., Ph.D., Architectural Historian