Montgomerians have enjoyed Oak Park with its interesting and diverse history for over a century. In 1886, the Capital City Street Railway Company purchased the original 105 acres from the Hall’s Woods Tract to serve as a city park adjacent to the first streetcar suburb of Highland Park. The 1887 Montgomery City Directory reported the new park as a
“...place where the public may spend leisure hours in pleasant drives and recreation.”
“...will have a splendid artesian lake and boats, a two and a half mile drive of tracks...”
Soon after, in 1889, the Highland Park Improvement Company purchased this property to include in their neighborhood development plans. By 1899, Montgomery city officials had been persuaded by Mayor Clisby to purchase for $25,000 a 45 ½ acre section of what was then called Oak Grove from the Highland Park Improvement Company. For years to come the park was known as “Clisby’s Folly.” Today, the park known as Oak Park is bound on the north by Lake Street, on the west by Hall Street, on the south by Palmer Avenue and on the east by Forest Avenue.
The earlier expansion of the Capital City Street Railway eastward allowed for all Montgomerians to travel the mile and a half from Court Square to play and socialize at Oak Park. The adjacent Highland Park station located on the Central Railway line also made the park accessible from outlying areas.
The turn-of-the-century saw the Oak Park area as the scene of several skirmishes of regional football teams such as Cumberland University, Suwanee College, Clemson College, Auburn University and University of Alabama. One of the most noted of these matches was the Auburn and Suwanee conflict of 1896 with Auburn as the victor, 38 to 6. However, in 1903 Suwanee claimed the victory at 47 to 0.
Oak Park soon became the center of social and recreational activities. With the construction of the main pavilion, its encircling porch became the scene of many dances, parties and even political gatherings. The large ornate wooden structure nestled on a rise in the trees overlooked the winding paths, picnic areas and playground. The walking paths through the towering trees, the quiet reflective sites, and the fun play areas of the park, made Oak Park a very popular subject for postcards of the day. Sadly, many of the early Oak Park records were tragically lost in the City Hall fire of May 1932.
(Joseph Armstrong Hudson collected $65.00 a month as one of the first overseers of the park. He surveyed his domain from the back of his trusty donkey.)
By the early 1930s, the Park had become an integral recreational outlet for the developing neighborhoods surrounding the area. Oak Park was now accessible from all over the city by bus lines, which connected at Court Square downtown. The emergence and availability of the automobile made driving to and through Oak Park a very popular pastime and social event, as well. The first free public kindergarten in the city began in the Oak Park Pavilion in 1933.
The prestigious landscape architectural firm of the Olmstead Brothers produced a preliminary plan for suggested improvements to Oak Park. This new design incorporated the existing circular drive with additions that included a large wading pool, a swimming pool with a grandstand, clay tennis courts, croquet lawns, playground, and a small zoo complex. The zoo featured a bear pit, deer runs, and a monkey island with room for even more expansion. Parking spaces for the increasingly popular automobile were also included.
The earlier ornate wooden pavilion was demolished, and in 1937, a new Tudor-style building was constructed of granite blocks. This new recreation building was situated at the main entrance to the park, which was then located at the intersection of Forest Avenue and Park Place. The colonnaded south entry to the main building opened to a formal garden accenting a reflecting pool. Behind the building more formal flowerbeds trimmed the open vista to the swimming pool.
Code of Ordinances of the City of Montgomery, 1938
Section 50.
"No person shall gather, injure, or destroy any of the flowers, kill, shoot or throw at any birds, squirrels or animals in any park, or injure in any way, the trees, grass, shrubbery, or walk on the grass plots."
As Oak Park expanded, a zoo began to develop in the northern end of the park. Several species of monkeys lived on Monkey Island, an area created of stacked rocks and surrounded by a moat. Spectators could view from nearby walking paths the monkeys’ playful antics on the suspended playground. Various kinds of ducks and geese swam in the Monkey Island moat as it flowed under an arched rock bridge to the other animal areas. There were homes for other animals as well-alligators, bears, rabbits, mountain goats, and raccoons. A large expanse nearby confined the Park's deer population.
In 1952, Montgomery native Melissa Read, while beginning a circus career with Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus, sent a newborn lion cub to her uncle, William (Tacky) Gayle, then the Mayor of Montgomery. Known as Molasses, the lion cub lived with the Mayor at his home on Gilmer Avenue. Molasses quickly became a celebrity around town and rode with the Mayor in his car to City Hall daily. When the cub reached adult size and outgrew her Garden District home, the Mayor presented Molasses to the Oak Park Zoo. Mayor Gayle visited her at the park daily bringing her favorite treats. When the Park was closed in 1959, Molasses found a new home at the Birmingham Zoo.
The large swimming pool with a modern filtering system was a very popular cooling-off spot for Montgomery’s youth. One long side of the pool sported a covered grandstand, and a bathhouse with showers was located at the end of the pool. The pool was open to the public every day in season from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. The more shallow wading pool for children ages three to ten years of age had a field house for dressing and was located behind the main building. The six well-graded clay tennis courts were available day or night for playing. The playground and amusement area was equipped with mechanical rides such as a merry-go-round, airplanes, and a train with several hundred feet of track.
Pop Myers - "By my corn, I shall be known"
M. B. (Pop) Myers opened his popcorn business in July of 1922 at the east gate of Oak Park. After an initial setback he received encouragement from his friend and neighbor, Mr. Bogacki, who built Pop a structure from which to sell his popcorn. He soon became a permanent fixture at the park until its closing in 1960. Pop and his lovely wife lived across the street from his Oak Park stand in a gigantic white frame two-story home. Pop was bet known for his popcorn and his “shake-ice” Cokes, an almost–but not quite–frozen Coca-Cola in a six and a half ounce glass bottle. Because of his continuing love and support of the youth he interacted with daily at the park, Pop was respected and revered by many Montgomerians setting an example as an outstanding citizen and a frugal businessman. Pop Myers remains a legend even to this day.
After almost 60 years as a local landmark the gates of Oak Park were closed in January of 1959. In September of the previous year, Federal Court Judge Frank Johnson ruled that the City of Montgomery’s recreational facilities policy was unconstitutional. City officials then chose to close all of its parks. At Oak Park, the swimming and wading pools were drained; the lion, bear, alligators, peacocks, monkeys, and deer were either given away or sold. The gates of Oak Park were closed and locked.
In 1964 while Oak Park was still closed, Dr. Hugh McGuire brought to Montgomery an innovative “hospital in the round.” The City of Montgomery leased a small portion of the southeast corner of the park where the clay tennis courts were located for an annual fee of $1.00. Known as Atomedic Hospital-Children’s Medical Center, the design had been an exciting new innovation in medical care at the New York World’s Fair. The interior was laid out similar to a large wheel with the operating room, nurses’ station, supply storage and offices in the center hub. Pie-shaped patient rooms were situated around the perimeter adjacent to the center hub. Atomedic Hospital was sold to the city of Woodstock, Georgia, in 1965.
In February of 1965, the Montgomery City Commission voted unanimously to reopen Oak Park and the several remaining closed neighborhood parks to the public from sunrise to sundown. Some of the parks had been put to other uses since their closings. Mayor Earl James and the City of Montgomery planned to engage a landscape architect to transform Oak Park into botanical gardens. Its location at the foot of the newly proposed interstate would eventually afford it as a tourist attraction for travelers. Because Oak Park was to be no more than a scenic area, no plans were made to relocate the former clay tennis courts. There was no proposal to reestablish the Oak Park zoo, picnic or playground areas, and the City then began to seek out 100 to 150 acres elsewhere to purchase for a new zoo and recreational area. The swimming and wading pools remained closed and were eventually filled in.
After Oak Park was reopened in 1965, the Montgomery City Commission decided to allot $180,000 from the 1965-66 fiscal year reserve account of the general fund for the construction of a planetarium. This innovative idea was to compliment the existing plans to transform Oak Park into botanical gardens. With design drawings done by Pearson, Humphries and Jones, Architects, the construction contract was awarded to Andrew and Dawson Construction Company. During the nine months of construction, Dow Chemical Company temporarily created a large 50-foot diameter styrofoam form for poured concrete. The styrofoam form was left in place for thermal insulation after the round concrete dome was completed. Upon completion, the planetarium was dedicated and named for Mayor W. A. (Tacky) Gayle.
Today, as a century ago, Oak Park remains at the heart of Montgomery and Montgomerians. The Park has weathered many encroachments and dangers to its existence. Its location in the center city affords it traffic from adjacent neighborhoods, commercial areas and the interstate network. Several of the early buildings and much original landscaping remains today. The activity pavilion now serves as the City of Montgomery Parks and Recreation Administrative Offices. The pool bathhouse now provides restroom facilities adjacent to the horseshoe pits shaded by some original crape myrtles. Monkey Island survives today as an integral part of a nature walk and meditation garden. Gayle Planetarium is a very popular school field trip destination for a view of the overhead celestial bodies. Several playground areas are the site for school groups, birthday parties, and neighborhood children. Efforts continue to maintain the colossal overhead tree canopy and to replant as needed. The towering pines and hardwoods continue to provide shelter to those who visit Oak Park for family reunions, picnics, a game of horseshoes or just a healthy stroll.
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| Early Photo of Oak Park Pavilion |
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| Football Game, Montgomery Oak Park area, circa 1900 |
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| Closing of Oak Park - 1959
(Columns at gate stand today,
minus light on top)
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Melissa Read holding lion
cub Molasses - 1952 |
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