Walking Tour of Historic Montgomery

We were out early this morning to do a walking tour of the downtown historic district of Montgomery.  Our first stop was the Visitor Center which is located on the banks of the Alabama River in the old Union Station.  The Visitor Center offered a map and self-guided walking brochure, but we wanted to do the 7 mile walk offered by the American Volkswalk Association (AVA.org).  The start point for the AVA self-guided walk was across the street from the Visitor Center at the Embassy Suites Hotel.

Old Union Station, now the Visitors' Center

First White House of the Confedercy

Dexter Ave King Memorial Church

With our map and walk instructions in hand we headed out.  Now, we walk a lot and can do 6 miles at a fairly easy pace in about two and a half hours.  However, these AVA walks tend to take from 5 to 6 hours for us.  We stop often to take pictures, look at the architecture, and go inside anything that is open, especially if it is free.  Today’s walk took us first through the oldest residential area of historic Montgomery.  We were disappointed in the condition of most of these late 1800s homes.  There were a couple that had been restored to their former glory, a few that were being remodeled, but most were in sad shape.  Most of the walk centered around the 10 or so blocks of Dexter Ave from Court Square to the state capitol building with a few side trips north or south of Dexter to take in the top Civil War and Civil Rights Movement sites.  We passed the corner where Rosa Park got on the bus, the Civil Rights Memorial, and the Dexter Ave King Memorial Church.  We went inside the First White House of the Confederacy, the State Archives, and the State Capitol.  We even went to pay our respects to Hank Williams.  We got pretty tired and started cutting a few corners at the end and figured we only walked about 5 miles of the designated 7.

Alabama State Capitol

Rotunda in the Capitol

By 1 o’clock we were tired and hungry.  I had packed us a picnic lunch, of course, and we sat in the truck to eat, too tired to try to find a picnic table.  The Visitor Center has a little trolley route which takes in most of the places we had seen on foot.  We decided to take the 50¢ ride which included a narrative by the driver which was quite informative.

Civil Rights Memorial

Water flows over the names of those killed.

Water flows from a reflecting pool down this wall.

We limped into the house this afternoon after a full day of walking and history.  We’ll sleep well tonight.

Hank Williams gravesite