By Lee Roop
The National Park Service officially named northeast Huntsville’s Edmonton Heights neighborhood a historic district this month making it the city’s ninth area on the National Register of Historic Places.
The neighborhood was “platted” or designed in 1958 as a suburb for Black families “and provided housing options for those who lost their homes as a result of Huntsville’s Urban Renewal program, the Heart of Huntsville,” the city said in announcing the designation. The neighborhood “illustrates the effects of post-war growth, Urban Renewal and racial discrimination in federal and local housing policy on the African American community,” the city said. “The research gathered through the survey and National Register listing of Edmonton Heights has been a catalyst for identifying and documenting historic places that are significant to Huntsville’s African American community,” City Preservation Planner Katie Stamps said. “We will build on this foundation through the upcoming survey of Magnolia Terrace and other historic sites.”
Magnolia Terrace is a subdivision west of Pulaski Pike and north of Holmes Avenue built for Black families displaced from the city center in the 1940s and 1950s. The city also wants it listed on the national historic register.
Edmonton Heights is an example of post World War II era housing developed by Folmar and Flinn, described by historians as “one of the largest speculative building companies in the south at the time.” It is the most well-preserved of the Black neighborhoods built by the firm in Alabama, Stamp said. The city received grant funding from the Alabama Historic Commission to survey the area that is south of Alabama A&M University. Working on the project were the Edmonton Heights Neighborhood Association, Normal Historic Preservation District Association and Historic Huntsville Foundation.
Dr. Caroline Swope, historic preservation specialist for the city of Decatur, conducted the survey that found the neighborhood eligible. Swope also wrote the National Register nomination approved by the Alabama National Register Review Board in 2021 and sent to the national register for approval.
“We are pleased to officially add Edmonton Heights to the list of Huntsville’s historic neighborhoods,” Mayor Tommy Battle said. “It is rewarding to see the National Park Service also recognize the significance of this important area in our community.”
“The Edmonton Heights neighborhood retains significant integrity in original design, setting, materials and workmanship,” Swope said. “These components come together to create a strong sense of place which is still tangible within the neighborhood and contributes to a high degree of integrity of feeling.”