The Second Courthouse of Madison County, Alabama
Ethan Green, Fall 2024
Huntsville, Alabama is perhaps better known as “Rocket City”, but it wasn’t always known as the central location for aeronautical endeavors. There was a time before we ever thought to put a man into space, let alone the moon, and “Rocket City” was rocketless. The town was never meant to become a hub for the space industry as it is now. The Huntsville change over the years has been rapid, and can best be seen through the courthouse’s renovation.
Since the first courthouse’s construction it has been a very important part of the community. It’s interesting to see how the courthouse’s first iteration served as the center for more than just law and county affairs, it was also the center for worship. When huntsville was just a small town of only “... 260 houses, there were no churches, and the people worshiped in the courthouse.”(Ryan, P. 2) The importance of this first iteration of the courthouse shaped the town's love for this city center and pushed it to not lay stagnant as many courthouses do, but instead evolve with the town and never lose its value to the city’s populace.
Despite the importance of the building for the early people of huntsville, there came a time when the town outgrew the simple building that held its court and earliest sermons. As we prospered as a town, we grew a want to display this to the world and crafted something much more elaborate than the simple building that once stood. In 1835 the county was given permission to erect a new courthouse, and county officials ran with the idea and established plans to construct a monument of wealth and complexity. They looked back to the Greeks and had plans made to create a courthouse in a style that would come to be known as “Greek Revival.” This monument to the propensity of the town and its people was short lived, the town's legal structure outgrew this courthouse in less than 100 years and in 1914 the third courthouse was established. This was in no small part due to the rapidly expanding textile industry within the state. Huntsville was always a prosperous city within the state of alabama and with 40% of all textiles within the country being produced within the country being produced in Alabama it is no surprise that the county would need a building to match the explosion of commerce in the area.
The third courthouse is what truly shaped Huntsville into the town it would become today. This really comes down to it being in a great location for farming. While textiles would be important to the city, and more broadly the state, the great depression was right around the corner and the textile industry was going to see massive drops in profitability. A new cash crop would take hold of the city and the city would proudly proclaim itself as the “watercress capital of the world.” While a nice title it was nothing compared to what it would become, In 1950 the Wernher Von Braun rocket team would get transferred to the Redstone Arsenal right outside of huntsville. This is the most influential event in terms of leading huntsville into becoming Rocket City, this is what would send Huntsville into an aeronautical frenzy. This team would lead the creation of the Saturn V rocket which would put the first man on the moon.The fourth courthouse of Huntsville Alabama is its most modern iteration, and as such its history is just beginning.
While the beginnings of the Saturn V rocket were seen under the third courthouse, Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon after the fourth was constructed. The fourth was opened in 1967 and is, as of October 2024, the current courthouse of the city. It lost its Greek roots and was constructed in an international style in an attempt to match the modernization of the town around it. The courthouse began with seeing the end of the space race and has, and will, continue to look over the aeronautics hub of America.
Bibliorgaphy
"Second Courthouse," Postcard. Southpaw.
Fisk, Sarah Huff. "Madison County's First Courthouse." Huntsville Historical Review 33, no. 1 (January 1, 2008). https://louis.uah.edu/huntsville-historical-review/vol33/iss1/7/.
King, Lura. "Textile Industry in Alabama." Encyclopedia of Alabama. Last modified April 17, 2024. https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/textile-industry-in-alabama/.
Ryan, Patricia H. "The Second Madison County Courthouse." The Historic Huntsville Quarterly 32, no. 3 (September 22, 2006). LOUIS. https://louis.uah.edu/historic-huntsville-quarterly/vol32/iss3/5/.
"Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Huntsville, Alabama." 1901. Huntsville History Collection. https://huntsvillehistorycollection.org/hhc/docs/sanborn/2000p/Sanborn-Huntsville-1901-10.jpg.
Acknolegements
Special thanks to the UAH Honors College.
