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Huntsville is a smart host for Select Traveler


Huntsville Museum of Art concert, courtesy Huntsville/Madison Co. CVB

Educational Opportunities
Due primarily to the aerospace industry, Huntsville is blessed with some very educated people. One of the best examples I saw of what innovative residents can create for their kids is EarlyWorks Children’s History Museum. Considering its size, the fascinating complex packs more hands-on learning wizardry than any I’ve seen.

A talking tree, a reproduction keelboat and numerous other interactive displays have been professionally designed and created there, giving it the feel of something comparable to a “Sesame Street” set. I’d say the citizens of Huntsville want their children to be intellectually engaged from the outset.

Another Huntsville offering for kids and adults alike is SciQuest, a hands-on learning center that offers summer camps and special events year-round. Supported by many local technology companies and other corporations, this science center will move to spacious new headquarters in adjacent Madison, Alabama, this fall.

“Huntsville was a city built by the rich for the rich,” said our guide at the Old Depot, the city’s historic train station. Taken out of context, this statement might be off-putting to some. But his point was well taken once we watched the museum’s multimedia program.

When you consider its heritage as both a 19th-century cotton refinery and railroad center for the South and then a century later as America’s wellspring for space exploration, you realize that Huntsville does have a history of affluence. Its Old Depot embodies that.

This ornate brick building is one of the city’s most beloved structures and serves now as a museum and a venue for public events. With a trip to its third floor, you visit a Civil War prison the Union forces used to hold Confederate soldiers once they captured the city.

Cultural City
Three cultural stops that many bankers may want to consider are the Huntsville Museum of Art, the Huntsville Botanical Garden and Lowe Mill. The museum has a permanent collection of more than 3,000 pieces of art, among them the Sellars Collection of Art by American Women, which it purchased in 2008. That collection alone includes more than 400 pieces created by women artists between 1850 and 1940.

Over the past 15 years, the museum has also been the recipient of numerous Buccellati silver pieces, some of which it commissioned. The Betty Grisham Collection of Buccellati Animals features numerous wildlifelike stags, giraffes, turtles and storks created in Italy by designer Gianmaria Buccellati. The collection is housed in a striking gallery that overlooks the museum’s large back lawn, an outdoor venue for community events.

The Huntsville Botanical Gardens makes great use of many volunteer groups that have been assigned plots, where they grow and maintain ferns, hostas, daylilies, etc. We visited the garden’s John and Tine Purdy Butterfly House, where monarchs, tiger swallowtails, zebra longwings and other types of butterflies live out their brief lives.

Creative water or play stations in the complex are favorites with children, whose parents can take a break with a book. The entire property encompasses 112 acres, and seasonal offerings, like the Scarecrow Trail in the fall or the Galaxy of Lights over the holidays, are favorites with locals and groups.

Lowe Mill is a creative restoration of an old three-story mill that has been designated for art studios. More than 130 artists now occupy 92 studios, and visitors are invited to watch them work or to purchase their art. Outdoor concerts there routinely draw hundreds of music fans.

www.huntsville.org

 

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