Rushton Park

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William J. Rushton Se\r Park
Rushton Park view.jpg
Bham Park and Rec logo.jpg Birmingham City Parks
Years 1884–present
Location 3000 Highland Avenue, (map)
Highland Park
Area 4.37 acres
Website birminghamal.gov

William J. Rushton Sr Park is the easternmost and largest 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 small half basketball court near its southern end, and a playground on either side of the central path just south of 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 eastern end of Highland Avenue was the last to be developed. The need to keep the streetcar route on a relatively level grade dictated the curves of the avenue, and the valley which became Rushton Park was described by one of those curves.

Sidewalk marker for Rushton Park

John Charles Olmsted, nephew of Frederick Olmsted, was commissioned by Elyton Company president A. L. Fulenwider to consult on the development of residential lots. He noted in 1905 that the "worthless" valley area had been donated to the city with an agreement to jointly improve it. Olmsted made suggestions to extend it as far as Clairmont Avenue, use the spring then piped to Lakeview Park to fill a wading pool, and to plant the banks with Memorial rose and shrubs. The latter suggestion was included, along with a sketch for a park shelter, in a submission to the city in 1906. Those plans were not pursued.

In 1913 the City formally acquired the deed to the property from the Birmingham Realty Co. for $11,946.

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.

In 2017 the Highland Park Neighborhood Association began working with the Birmingham Park and Recreation Board and Independent Presbyterian Church to develop the Highland Park Community Garden in Rushton Park. The community garden was designed by Architecture Works and built by Brasfield & Gorrie. It opened in 2020.

References

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