Jimmy Hill's History of Monte Sano was originally published in four parts in the 2010 MSCA Newsletter, and was edited by Peg Heeschen. Jimmy Hill received The Lifetime Award at the Light on the Mountain Celebration in 2010.

1. Rev. James Rowe and His Wife Malinda

The Rev. James Rowe was serving a Methodist Church Circuit in the Ohio District in 1825. Evidently he felt his future was uncertain, and he asked for an appointment in Tennessee or Alabama. Shortly before leaving for Alabama, he met Malinda Poff, a 30- year old student in Cincinnati. His first Alabama appointment was the Huntsville Circuit where he drew people to the Church with his appearance, sermons, and charisma. Writing to Malinda he told her he was pleased with the appointment, liked the beauty of the surroundings and enjoyed visits to the little health settlement on Monte Sano Mountain.

On November 28, 1826, he was appointed to the First Methodist Church of Huntsville, the most important Church in the District. In mail going back and forth between them, James writes about his appointment and Malinda writes about her remaining classes and the wish for teaching position. Through Rev. Rowe's contact, Malinda was offered a position at The Huntsville Female Academy.

September 1828: Rev. Rowe approached his presiding elder with the news that he wished to travel to Cincinnati to bring back his bride. Arriving on November 13th, no time was wasted after the marriage in that they boarded the first stage headed south! At the fall conference in Tuscumbia (AL), Rowe was re-appointed.

For six months Malinda taught at the Huntsville Female Academy, but soon she began to suffer from chronic rheumatism, a burden since her youth. She was hoping the southern climate would ease her suffering, and her husband suggested a trip to Monte Sano where the air was salubrious and she could drink chalybeate water. They reserved one of the cabins near the Monte Sano Inn for several weeks, and became interested in establishing a Monte Sano Female Seminary.

The Rowes made no quick decisions. The removal from his Church activities would not be easy. In the few years of preaching he had proven his ability. Should he forsake his work for his wife's work? She had only had a schoolroom of her own for six months?

The decision was made the Rowes would establish the Female Seminary on Monte Sano at a site on the north bluff overlooking the cove where the water from Cold Spring runs. With three buildings made of native rocks and logs, classes began in February 1830. James Rowe had spent a large portion of his money on the buildings, and now needed to attract enough pupils to recover his investment and pay the expenses. A month after the opening, Malinda gave birth to a son, Andrew Jackson Rowe followed two years later by Henry Bascum Rowe.

By June 1832 the school had become successful. Monte Sano did not cure her rheumatism, yet she liked the mountain. The boys were healthy and growing, and she planted fruit trees and grape vines, but soon her rheumatism returned with increased severity. The cold fall weather in 1833 increased her pain.

November 18, 1833: Malinda died at age 34. The funeral was the next day and at her request a grave was dug on school property west of the school. The funeral service was conducted by the Rev. J. Watson (a friend of James) in a classroom. The minister spoke of her character, her diligence, and the loss her death brought to the community.

The funeral procession consisted the minister, Malinda's remains carried by five men, and her husband was next, carrying their youngest son in one arm; the other toddling along with his father holding tight to his hand. Friends and a group of Mrs. Rowe's students watched as the coffin was lowered into the earth.

One author writes: This was the climax to The Rev. James Rowe's interest in the future of Monte Sano. He had been brought to the mountain by the love of a woman. That woman was gone. What more was left for him there?

He closed the academy the following year. Unable to sell the properties, he locked the doors and boarded up the windows – the rest after a low decay was burned by northern troops during the Civil War. The limestone marker ordered by James for Malinda's grave reads: M.A. Rowe, wife of Rev. James Rowe. Died Nov. 18, 1833. He ordered an unmarked duplicate to be located near the first one.

At the beginning of the Civil War Rev. James Rowe accepted an invitation from his son Andrew and his wife to live with them in Athens (AL). He spent his remaining years quietly, attending church regularly, and once in a while traveling to Monte Sano spending time at his wife's grave. He died in the winter of 1869, age 74. His plan was to be buried next to his wife on the academy property—he was buried in Athens.

2. The Great Depression and the Civilian Conservation Corps

Jimmy Hill remembers as a 14-year old in 1938 he was asked to repaint the letters on the sign. He did so standing on a ladder perched on a Model-T Ford. On July 4, 1926, the new road to the top of the mountain opened. The sandy area on the right is what will become Governors Drive.

On April 1,1925, the Mountain Heights Development Company purchased 15 parcels of land on Monte Sano (ca. 2,252 acres) for $25,000 from the estate of Julia Worthington Anderson. They paid $10,000 in cash and incurred two notes for $7,500 each, secured by a mortgage of the property. The notes with 6% interest were due on April 1 in 1927 and in 1928. The initial plans were to develop about 200 acres on the southern section of the Monte Sano plateau extending from Inspiration Point to the northern intersection of Monte Sano Boulevard North and Panorama Drive. The remaining large portion of land began approximately one mile east of the Boulevard on Nolen, then east-southeast to O'Shaugnessy Point.

When the New York Stock Market crashed in October 1929, all the work on Monte Sano stopped. Only 16 houses in the development had been completed followed by another house several years later. Another was started, but only the basement and stone foundation were finished. Two pieces of road construction equipment were abandoned - one in the parking area at the pavilion located near the south end of Inspiration Point, the other in the woods just off Spring Street, now Belcrest Drive. They remained there until World War II, when the Company sold them for scrap. A basement was dug for a new hotel on Crescent Circle, however, the work was abandoned and left a large hole in the ground.

By the early 1930s, economic chaos and unemployment gripped the nation with 28% unemployment in some areas. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was part of the President Roosevelt's New Deal created to put Americans back to work. He proposed to recruit thousands of unemployed young men, enlist them in a peacetime army, and send them to battle the erosion and destruction of the nation's natural resources.

Projects in Madison County included both the Forest Service and the Soil Conservation Service. In August of 1935, three companies of 175 men each were brought to Huntsville. Two companies were located on Monte Sano to build a park and a forest recreation development. A third was located on McClung Street on city property, now part of Maple Hill Cemetery. This group was under the direction of the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture Engineering working in the rural areas of the county in soil erosion and man-made drainage systems.

The Monte Sano State Park was first conceived by Huntsville citizens under the leadership of J. B. Mitchell, the County Agent. The others were John J. Sparkman, the Eighth District representative in Congress, and Robert Schiffman, a local businessman. These three individuals obtained the cooperation of the regional planner of parks and recreation for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and of the Alabama Forestry Commission. The group persuaded the Madison County Commissioners to vote on April 15, 1935, for an appropriation of $18,000 ($15,000 + 6% interest) to purchase 1,992 acres of land on the top of and on the slopes of Monte Sano. The County deeded the property to the State of Alabama for park purposes.

Construction of the park began on August 5, 1935, when the first two companies of men in the Corps arrived. The Monte Sano camp was located on the east block of Highland Plaza, one company on the north side and the other on the south side of the street. The stone entrance-way to the camp still stands at 1501 and 1419 Monte Sano Boulevard. Each company had its separate barracks, headquarters, mess hall, infirmary, workshops, classroom, etc. Buildings from World War I had been disassembled and brought in on trucks for reconstruction.

To be eligible for the CCC one had to be a U. S. citizen, be of sound physical fitness for the hard labor, be unemployed and unmarried, and between the ages of 18 and 26. The enlistments were for six months, although many re-enlisted. The men were paid $30 per month with a mandatory $25 allotment of that sent to their families.

Army Reserve Officers were called to active duty to serve as Commanding Officers and Adjutants, and were in charge of each camp. Men from the National Park Service made the plans for the development and supervised the construction of the park. The initial construction included six miles of road, a public lodge (tavern) and parking area. Other facilities included 11 cabins, a picnic area with 24 ovens and 40 tables, a picnic shelter and a parking area, 18 miles of foot trails and 6 miles of bridle paths, and 10 trailside shelters. A horse barn, a service building and a superintendent's lodge were built, and a complete water and sewage system was installed. All of the work was done by young men in the CCC. Education and vocational training was provided with more than 90% of the enrollees participating in some educational program.Three years later on August 25, 1938, as the park was nearing completion, a day-long celebration atop Monte Sano and in downtown Huntsville marked the event. The Corps was one of the most successful New Deal programs in that more than 3 million young men served in it.

3. Reminiscences of a Monte Sano Boy

My first memories of Monte Sano are from the summer of 1928. My family lived on Walker St. in Huntsville near Five Points. For a vacation, the family rented a summerhouse on Monte Sano from Mr. O. K. Stegall. Our trip up the mountain was on a private five-mile road with a tollgate about one-fourth of a mile from its beginning of the road (now Tollgate Road). We usually had our family of four, my parents, my sister and me, in the Model T Ford. Sometimes my grandfather Paw-Paw would come with us. This added weight to the car and with the addition of a large block of ice, the low gear could not make it the last quarter mile. The trail to The Cold Spring was nearby where my Dad could turn the car around and back up to the top of Monte Sano. Engaging the reverse gear with the middle of the three floor pedals, he got more power. Mr. Stegall's house was located at the end of Cooper St. where we crossed a drainage ditch. At the house we had kerosene lamps, water from a well, a nearby spring, and there was an old hoot owl to scare me at night. Since I was born in January of 1924, all this was high adventure for a four-year-old boy.

In January of 1930, my family moved to Monte Sano to live there year-around. We rented a new spec house. The rent was $25 per month. It is now occupied by the Albrights at 5410 Panorama Dr. The house was built by Dilworth Lumber Co. One of the directors of the Mountain Heights Development Company, Mr. William Penn Dilworth, built two houses - the one we rented and the house directly behind ours facing the bluff. My sister and I, and a black maid slept in partially finished upstairs bedrooms. My friend and playmate, a collie dog named Deepstuff, lived in his doghouse in the yard. Mr. Dilworth had a third house in progress. Due to the poor economic conditions it was only 60% completed at this time. Thompson Circle is just around corner where the new hotel was to be built, which of course, never happened. The Circle was named after Sam Thompson, a company director who was active in the sale of the properties.

The black lady who looked after my sister and me would take us out to pick dew berries around Panorama Dr. One day she told us she would teach us how to pick cotton, and she walked us to what is now Carroll Circle, a cotton field at that time. After her instructions we began to pick. When my sister and I had enough, she took our cotton over to have it weighed. We made 11 cents for our labors. She gave a nickel to each of us and kept the penny for herself. I can report it was the first time and the last time that I picked cotton.

In 1932 or 1933, the family moved to the Orlendorf house, now identified as 1711 Monte Sano Blvd. The house was one of the best built at that time. On the outside it had hand-hewn sandstones, and on the inside it had plastered walls, hardwood floors, and a basement with a hot-air furnace. At this house Deepstuff had the best time. He would go out in the woods, catch a rabbit and bring it home, and lay it on the front porch. He killed it, but did not eat it. He would look at me, wag his tail and smile.

At age of 10, I became the first paperboy on Monte Sano (my only claim to fame). The Huntsville Daily Times cost 15 cents a week to be delivered with the carrier receiving half of it. In the summer time I would deliver between 15 to 20 papers, in the winter time it was 8 to 10. One winter I had only one customer on the north end of the mountain at the northeast corner of Nolen Ave. and Cooper St. Late that afternoon with snow and ice on the ground I was on my bicycle near where the current TV stations, the fire station and the school are now. It was getting dark and I was about half way home. Back then the road had a big dip and a curve. I tried to cross the ruts, the bicycle went one way, and the papers went out of the basket another way and me on the ground. I got up, picked up my papers, got on my bicycle and rode home feeling like I was the most mistreated little boy on the mountain.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) brought 300 men to Monte Sano in 1935 to build the Monte Sano State Park and to give the men employment. They were encamped on the east side of Highland Plaza. The stone entrance to the camp on Monte Sano Blvd. still stands. When the CCC arrived, there were only about 25 houses on the southern plateau of Monte Sano and the existing water supply was clearly inadequate. A water main was constructed from the east end of Hermitage Ave. downtown to the top of Monte Sano terminating near Sam Thompson's house, now 5510 Panorama Dr. Soon afterwards the Monte Sano water tank near Inspiration Point crashed from the weight of the ice collecting on the wooden tank. It bent the steel tower. The residents were fortunate; we were permitted to tie on the CCC camp water tank sitting on the ground at the corner Wildwood Dr. and Woodard Dr. It was in use almost 20 years until the city took over the water system in 1956.

Dr. William Burritt built his house on neighboring Round Top Mountain. While the work was going on, he boarded with Sam and Annie Thompson. Their quality house with the front facing the bluff and the back facing Panorama Dr. was one of the first built by the Monte Sano Construction Company. Dr. Burritt had his house built in the shape of a Maltese cross and used bales of straw for insulation. While it was under construction, my mother and father often walked up to the house on Sunday afternoons. During the original construction, the house caught on fire. My sister and I along with Mary Hendricks, her two brothers and a sister watched the fire from the fenced-in wooden platform at the end of Inspiration Point. As the fire progressed, there were explosions, first we saw a flash of fire and afterwards heard the sound. It was my first experience with the fact that light travels faster than sound.

When I was 12 years old, I was sent to the Morgan Prep School in Petersburg (TN) about 50 miles north of Huntsville. After a rough beginning, I did rather well with my grades and was elected president of my senior class. After graduation, I became a pilot in the Army Air Corps serving in Europe. While in the military, my father wrote me that the old Monte Sano Hotel buildings were dismantled and sold by the Garth Estate to a Birmingham (AL) company for the materials at a price of $9,000.

Monte Sano was annexed into the City of Huntsville in 1956. It was the largest annexation to Huntsville made to date. This brought paved streets, improved water service, and the fire station to the mountain. The school was completed in 1959. While the school was under construction, the mountain children attended Blossomwood School where they were kept together as a group.

4. Mountain Heights Development Company

The gentlemen listed above are among the original officers and directors of The Mountain Heights Development Company, which was incorporated in 1925 to develop Monte Sano. Serving as President was D.C. Monroe, whose family business in downtown Huntsville was the Monroe Printing Company. In small towns it was a practice for the printing shops to stock typewriters, adding machines, stationery, and other items found in business equipment stores. D.C.'s son, Gene Monroe, became owner/manager of a new firm with a new location and named it Bizness Equipment Company. An employee of the family business related this story me. A merchant on the same street told Gene Monroe, you had better misspell a keyword to draw attention—back in those days there was not much flashing light and music advertising. After 8–10 years, the store moved about two blocks to a larger location, and changed its name to Monroe's Business Equipment. During the build-up of Redstone Arsenal they had the successful franchise for manual Royal typewriters in all of North Alabama.

Herbert Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer, was a co-owner of the Johnson & Mahoney men's clothing store, and M. M. Hutchens, Vice President, owned and ran the family hardware store. Among the Directors were Ira Terry, whose dry-goods business on the square had the slogan, Great is the Power of Cash, emblazoned on its facade facing the Court House. Our mountain neighbor Walt Terry is related to this family.

S.S. Sam Thompson, an original member of the Board of Directors, built a quality, year-around home facing the west bluff. At the back it faced Panorama Dr., and was one of the first houses built by The Monte Sano Construction Co. Unfortunately, this house was destroyed by fire in 1977, rebuilt in 1978, and is now the location of the Ralph Petroff home at 5510 Panorama Dr. The W. P. Dilworth family owned and operated the Dilworth Lumber Company on Church Street near the train station for four generations.

Coming up the mountain from Burritt Museum the marker is located on the north-west corner of the intersection of Monte Sano Blvd. and Panorama Dr. The lot measures 95 feet on three sides by 82 in the rear. Mr. I. A. Burdette, an out-of-town investor and a director in the Company, bought Lot 21, 1st Division, Monte Sano Construction Co., south section. A basement was dug, and a hand-hewn sandstone foundation built. A small green frame building was built on about one-third of the foundation, and was occupied by a small family. The man worked for the Monte Sano Construction Co., mainly with the water system. Later in the 30's, it was vacant and the building was demolished. The property has been covered up with undergrowth for years. The story on the street was that Mr. Burdette went bankrupt and moved back to Florida. The next door neighbors in their summer house were the A. J. Moore's. The house faces Panorama Dr. with a low sandstone wall in front of the yard. As children, my sister and I would be sitting on the wall waiting for our parents to come home from the family's jewelry store. For the last part of the trip—a half of a block—to our house, we jumped on the running boards on the family car and had a great time! The depression days of the 1930's were difficult times for the mountain investors. Property values dropped to only a fraction of the original price. At an auction on June 20, 1932, my Mother bought two lots with a total front footage of 85 ft. on Monte Sano Blvd., now identified as number 1511, for $40. Payment was $10 down and a promissory note for $30.

Also in 1932, I recall as a child walking—sometimes barefooted—on Panorama Drive, on one lane of a sandy trail piled high with trees which had been cut to be burned before the road was completed. The other lane was in use for traffic.

J. Emery Pierce, one of the Company's original directors who dropped out, built the original Huntsville Daily Times building at the corner of Green St. and Holmes St. downtown. It had 13 floors, but the upper floor was never finished. The reason was that the payment became due once the building was completed. Later on Mr. Pierce was indicted on charges of pretending to be a federal officer in allegedly fraudulent sales in TVA stock. He was held in jail in Jackson, Tennessee, awaiting his trial in Federal Court.

There were several different financial reorganizations of The Mountain Heights Development Company over the years. By August 28, 1940, only four shareholders remained of the original investors: M.M. Hutchens, President, Herbert Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer, and two directors: Ira M. Terry and W. P. Dilworth. Each shareholder owned 75 shares. At the stockholders meeting the Company was put in Receivership. On that date, all of the properties were conveyed to M. M. Hutchens and Herbert Johnson as trustees.

A 1957 map drawn by G. W. Jones, Huntsville surveyors, gives the street layout of the approximately 200 acres on the southern plateau of Monte Sano Mountain. In June of that year, a change of street names was recorded since several proposed street names duplicated those already in existence downtown. Therefore, Alabama Ave. became Hutchens Avenue, Huntsville Avenue changed to Wildwood Dr., Madison Ave. to Skyview Dr., and Spring Ave. to Belcrest Dr. New streets added were Crescent Circle, Thompson Circle, Inspiration Lane, and Woodward Drive. Monroe's View planned for the east bluff was discontinued. Highland Plaza, the highest spot on Monte Sano, was planned as a wider street, but in the end lot owners on each side of the street gained 20 feet for their front or side yards.

Sunrise Terrace, the area east of Skyview Dr., now has a historical marker. From 1880-1939 it was the Schrimsher's truck farm. At one time there was a small white building under a large oak tree next to the road serving as a gambling establishment. In the 1950's some of the lots from the farm property were bought by members of the German von Braun rocket team who had just arrived in Huntsville from Ft. Bliss, Texas. This seemed to begin a renewed interest in Monte Sano. Sam Thompson began once again selling building lots. For 25 years 'Mr. Sam' never gave up, he always said, it will happen one day, as he reflected on the economic depression era. The Company still owned substantial property on the northeastern and northwestern section of Panorama Dr., and on what is now Hutchens Ave. They built houses for sale on this property, perhaps it was the largest number of houses on the mountain to be built for sale by one owner. By 1966, the Company had liquidated all of its property.

It is my opinion before all of the men listed on the marker died, a monument was placed on Lot 21 by a local civic organization with their names and the purpose of Monte Sano – Health, Recreation and Residence. It is impossible to build on the lot now, since we are in the city of Huntsville with building restrictions.

Monte Sano has changed in my lifetime. The marker reminds current Monte Sano residents of the individuals who came before us and their vision to develop this mountain top for our enjoyment.

The greeting displayed on the original Arch Entrance at the intersection of Governor's Dr. and Monte Sano Blvd. was the spirit of a young D.C. Monroe while he worked during the summer months of 1890–92 at the Monte Sano Hotel. In a letter dated October 11, 1926, to Dr. W.L. Williams, he states, I have never quite given up this idea of a development of this wonderful spot that might bring pleasure and healthful benefits to our community. It still rings true today!