Rushton Park
Rushton Park is the easternmost of three small parks occupying low-lying basins along Highland Avenue in the Highland Park neighborhood of Birmingham. The parks were designed along with the avenue as collection areas for rainfall, unsuited for building but ideal for aesthetic and recreational use.
Highland Avenue wraps around the southern half of Rushton Park while the northern half is bounded by 30th Place South and 31st Street South. Sites facing the park include Sheraton Apartments, Avalon Condominiums, and Independent Presbyterian Church. The park features a volleyball court and small playground in its center.
History
Rushton Park was part of the Elyton Land Company's 1,500-acre South Highlands development, initiated in 1884 and supervised by chief operating officer Willis J. Milner. Willis' half-brother, John T. Milner, laid out the designs on site.
The park was originally named "Hall's Park" (and at least one local map still identified it as such as late as 1940) but it was renamed around 1926 in honor of Birmingham alderman and Board of Education president, William J. Rushton Sr, after his son J. Frank Rushton and others raised to money to improve the park following the father's death in 1922. The park contains two markers honoring Rushton, a smaller one along the sidewalk at the park's southern edge and another, larger one featuring a relief bust and short biography inside the park.
In 1939 teenage vandals destroyed several newly-installed concrete benches at the park.
References
- "60 Snakes Killed In Hall's Park And Everybody Sober" (November 20, 1921) The Birmingham News, p. 1
- "Citizens Protest 'Dumping Ground'" (April 8, 1925) The Birmingham News, p. 10
- "Park Benches Ruined" (November 10, 1939) The Birmingham News, p. 13
- "Whitson's southside map Birmingham Alabama", Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections