Public meetings scheduled to review Highway 80 landscape from Selma to Montgomery

August 17, 2009

The National Park Service, EDAW|AECOM, and the Alabama Historical Commission are hosting a series of public meetings about the landscape along the Selma to Montgomery Trail.  The meetings are as follows:

August 17, First Baptist Church, 709 Martin Luther King Street in Selma

August 18, Lowndes County Interpretative, 7002 U.S. Highway 80 W, near White Hall

August 20, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, 454 Dexter Ave., Montgomery

All meetings will begin at 6:00 p.m.

The rural landscape of Lowndes County, as seen from U.S. Highway 80, helps make the route a major historic and tourism asset for the region. This landscape is a vital part of the political and cultural story of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March.  EDAW|AECOM, an international landscape design firm, is working with the Alabama Historical Commission and the National Park Service to determine the most unchanged and significant landscapes along the march route and to develop a plan for protecting these areas. The study is expected to continue through December of 2009.

The plan focuses on views from U.S. Highway 80 between the intersection of Broad and Water Streets in Selma to the intersection of Mitchell-Young Road in Montgomery County. The results of this study can help guide property owners as they make decisions about future development near the highway.    

The purpose of the meetings is to review the study’s goals and initial findings, and learn which areas people think are the most important to protect and preserve.   The meetings will be interactive, and participants will have a chance to choose the views and areas along the highway that they believe tells the story of the march the best.

For more information on the Highway 80 study please contact Liz Drake at 404-870-3723 or liz.drake@aecom.com, or Dorothy Walker at 334.230.2665 or dorothy.walker@preserveala.org.

To protect, preserve, and interpret Alabama’s historic places is the mission of the Alabama Historical Commission, Alabama’s state agency for historic preservation.

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