Moton Park

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Moton Park is a 15-acre municipal park located at the intersection of Moton Street and Charles Barkley Avenue in the Russell Heights area of Leeds. It was established in the mid-1940s on a 40-acre site purchased by the Jefferson County Board of Education for Moton High School, named for Robert Moton, president of Tuskegee Institute. The high school was converted into Leeds Middle School, which was purchased by Leeds City Schools in 2003 and used until a new middle school building was completed in 2009.

During the planning of the school, Leeds mayor Bill Dorrough asked the county to set aside two acres for a municipal swimming pool. The pool was filled in and converted to a covered pavilion in the 1980s. Ball fields, basketball courts, a walking track and a picnic area were added in the 1990s.

In 2008 several pieces of playground equipment removed from a park being redeveloped in Atlanta were installed at Moton Park. The transfer was coordinated under a grant from the Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Birmingham. In 2012 the former middle school reopened as the Robert R. Moton Community Center.

References

  • Hickerson, Patrick (June 20, 2008) "Leeds' Moton Park receives Atlanta playground equipment once slated for the wrecking ball." The Birmingham News
  • Coman, Victoria L. (May 29, 2012) "Community center gives new life to old Leeds, Alabama school." The Birmingham News