Huntsville, AL
After closing over 50 years ago, the first African American School in Huntsville was honored with a park on the former school site. Bostick Landscape Architects served as the lead consultant for the project, designing a space that would continue Hooper Councill High School's mission so that the site will go on educating park visitors. BLA laid out the walks to match the school's former hallways and highlighted specific areas through lawn borders or with seat walls constructed from brick salvaged from the school.
A replica of the school door leads the way into what used to be the school's courtyard, where every student from the Councill School has a paver with their name on it to memorialize the student's education time. The courtyard center will have a bronze sculpture of the school's namesake and former slave, Rev. Dr. W.H. Councill.
Inside one of the former classroom spaces are columns made from bricks of the school. Each column is filled with pictures of student life from the past 100 years and placed to educate the public on the impacts that former students made. These impacts range from integrating Alabama Schools to teaming up with Dr. Martin Luther King in the 1960's struggle for equal rights.
