The Ring Road

Editor’s Note: Our VV&W founder and broker, Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh, has been a leader in the preservation of Huntsville’s downtown area since the space boom, when the push for modernization often ran roughshod over historic preservation. Here, she recounts how a controversial road plan threatened what is now known as the Twickenham Historic Preservation District.

Downtown Huntsville is changing even as you read this commentary. New roads are under construction. Cranes and heavy equipment abound. Cables are being laid everywhere.

Moving into the future is and has been part of Huntsville’s DNA ever since John Hunt moved here from Tennessee in 1805 to build his cabin on Big Spring and Leroy Pope and friends moved from Petersburg, Georgia in 1811. Pope built Poplar Grove on Echols Hills and his friends built many of the antebellum mansions that still survive today.

*Construction on a new venue at the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville, Alabama.*

A view of the construction site next to the new AC Hotel in downtown Huntsville, Alabama. — *A view of the construction site for CityCentre at Big Spring, a $100 million mixed use development, seen from the grounds of the new AC Hotel in downtown Huntsville.*

Newcomers (of whom I am one) bring ideas from everywhere and they are almost always useful, but sometimes have to be tweaked. As the late noted architect, Harvie P. Jones, once remarked on seeing an inappropriate renovation of a historic building, “Someone went to Williamsburg once.”

When I married a sixth generation Huntsvillian, I became as many of you have, a true Huntsvillian, too, wanting the best for our city. During the late 1960’s, about the time the present Court House was built, there was a movement in the city to make downtown modern around the Square and in the design of downtown streets.

One of the ideas that had to be tweaked was the downtown “Ring Road” plan. As you walk on Williams Avenue going east by Big Spring Park toward Franklin Street in the Twickenham Historic Preservation District, you may have wondered why the wide road suddenly narrows when it reaches Twickenham.

On your right, you will pass by the first of two smaller one-story Victorian homes where Richard and I lived in the early 1970’s when I saw some city people measuring the roads.

“Good morning. What is happening?” I asked. As I recall, the city worker said “We are measuring to widen the road to 71 feet.”

This was part of the Ring Road that was supposed to bring people back to a dying downtown. It would ring the downtown with a wide road of Williams to Lincoln Street, Lincoln to Monroe, and Monroe back to Williams. The image below shows the current map of this area, with the planned ring road route set forth in yellow.

The initial Ring Road plan for downtown Huntsville, Alabama. The yellow route would have been 71 feet wide all the way up Williams Avenue and down Lincoln Street in the Twickenham Historic Preservation District. — The initial Ring Road plan for downtown Huntsville, Alabama. The yellow route shows where the road would have been drastically widened all the way up Williams Avenue and down Lincoln Street. This would have destroyed much of the tree canopy on those streets, greatly reducing walkability in the Twickenham Historic Preservation District, and destroying portions of several priceless historic buildings.

In the meantime, the planned road would come right up to the steps of our house on Williams, take out the steps of Dr. Bill McKissack’s house on the corner of Williams and Lincoln (now known as the Wilson-McKissack house), and take out the steps of First Presbyterian Church.

To use a Huntsville term, “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist” to know that was not good. This was the time frame when modernity and historic preservation had to learn to co-exist. That it did in Huntsville is a tribute to its citizens. The modifying of the ring road plan is a story for another day.

The Victorian cottage on Williams Avenue where Nancy and Richard lived in the early 1970s, in the Twickenham Historic District, in downtown Huntsville, Alabama — The Victorian cottage on Williams Avenue where Nancy and Richard lived in the early 1970s, when Nancy saw city workers measuring the street for for the proposed ring road widening. This part of Williams was not widened in the Ring Road project. The wide part of Williams narrows near Madison Street, before reaching the Twickenham Historic Preservation District.

The cottage where Nancy and Richard lived on Williams Avenue in the Twickenham Historic Preservation District, in downtown Huntsville, Alabama, showing how far the planned ring road would have encroached–leaving only five feet between the front steps and the curb. — This image shows how the planned ring road would have encroached on the Victorian cottage where Nancy and Richard lived on Williams Avenue in downtown Huntsville–leaving only five feet between the front steps and a busy roadway, with no room for a sidewalk, and cars passing close enough to graze the shrubbery.

This image shows a widened section of Monroe Street, looking back toward the Twickenham Historical Preservation District. Under the initial ring road plan, the street would have continued at this width past Madison Street and around onto Lincoln Street, destroying much of the tree canopy as well as portions of priceless historical structures, while also greatly reducing walkability for residents and visitors. — This image shows a widened section of Monroe Street, looking back toward the Twickenham Historical Preservation District. Under the initial ring road plan, the street would have continued at this width past Madison Street, all along Williams, and around onto Lincoln Street, destroying much of the tree canopy as well as portions of priceless historical structures, while also greatly reducing walkability for residents and visitors.

Dr. McKissack's house on Lincoln Street in the Twickenham Historic Preservation District, in downtown in Huntsville, Alabama. The proposed ring road would have destroyed the front steps of this historic home. — The Wilson-McKissack house on Lincoln Street in the Twickenham Historic Preservation District in downtown Huntsville, Alabama. The proposed ring road would have carved out most of the property to the left and front of the house, destroying trees, plantings, and the front steps of this historic home.

Historic First Presbyterian Church in the Twickenham Historic Preservation District, in downtown in Huntsville, Alabama. The proposed ring road plan would have destroyed the front steps of the church, pictured here. — First Presbyterian Church in the Historic Twickenham Preservation District in downtown Huntsville, Alabama. The proposed ring road plan would have destroyed the front steps of the church, pictured here.

The construction of the new AC Hotel on Monroe Street in downtown Huntsville, Alabama required narrowing Monroe, which had previously been widened in the early 1970s under the city's Ring Road plan. — *The construction of the new AC Hotel on Monroe Street in downtown Huntsville, Alabama required narrowing Monroe, which had previously been widened in the early 1970s under the city’s Ring Road plan.*

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