Capital Park
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

By: Jerry Smith
Publisher: StClairCountyAl.com
Date: 06/19/09

At first glance the remains of Alabama's fourth state capitol building look like the ruins of a small gothic cathedral somewhere in barbarian-ravaged Europe or Britain. The place seems impossibly small to have housed all the various functions of state government. Maybe that's because Xerox had not yet invented quadruplicate copies.

Alabama has had state capitols in five different places; among them are St. Stephens, Cahawba, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. Each was built and later discarded for various reasons such as floods, insects, disease, and/or political expediency before finally settling on the present site in Montgomery. Interestingly, every capitol site was on or very near a major river.

The facility at Tuscaloosa was quite ornate & elaborate, and served its purpose well from 1826 to 1845. The building was used as a girls' school after the capitol moved, and finally burned down some years later. Eventually all the remaining stone, bricks and marble were either stolen, moved to other building sites, or shoved into a ravine adjacent to the capitol grounds.

The "ruins" you see there now is actually a clever, artistic, historically correct reproduction built on-site of returned and salvaged materials from the original building. There are bronze plates that show the layout and history of the capitol edifice. Bring your camera, as these digs seem expressly designed for the artist and photographer.

For more info on its history, go here.

For more photos, go here.

To get to Capitol Park, take any road you choose to Tuscaloosa. You want to wind up where US359 ends in the downtown area. From there, go toward the river on Lurleen Wallace Boulevard North to 6thStreet, turn left, and go about three blocks. While in the Tuscaloosa area, spend some time driving through the old historic district which lies just east of where you got off US359.

For lunch, nothing beats the Cypress Inn, just across the river. If they are closed, try either the 15th Street Diner in Tuscaloosa or the Northport Diner in Northport. Any local can give you directions, or try Google maps.

Photos by Jerry Smith
Top Right: Bronze Site Map
Middle Left: Capitol Ruins
Bottom Right: Dining at Cypress Inn