Montgomery Area Convention and Visitors Development 300 Water St P.O. Box 79 Montgomery, AL 36101-0079 (334) 262-0013 Population 187106 Time Zone Central Latitude/Longitude 32.38° /-86.3° Today's Forecast HIGH: 76 LOW: 54

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Attractions

The white-domed Alabama State Capitol, built in 1851 on Goat Hill, has been the seat of state government for more than 100 years. This is where representatives of the Southern states met in 1863 to draw up the Constitution of the Confederacy and where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the Confederacy's president. Self-guided tours take visitors to the second floor for a view of the capitol dome and rotunda, which features eight original murals depicting the state's history. Across the street is the First White House of the Confederacy, an 1835 Italianate-style structure that was Jefferson Davis's home during the short period that Montgomery was the Confederacy's capital city. Visitors can see the Davis family's original furnishings and belongings as well as Civil War memorabilia.

The city's pre-Civil War era comes alive at Old Alabama Town, an open-air museum where visitors can tour the Ordeman-Mitchell-Shaw House, a townhome of the 1850s, and dozens of other buildings restored as examples of 19th-century Alabama architecture. The Alabama Department of Archives & History houses exhibits about Alabama Indians, the military, and the 19th century and offers a special, hands-on gallery for children.

Montgomery's more recent history is captured in the poignant Civil Rights Memorial, designed by Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Water flows over a table inscribed with the names of the 40 men, women and children who died in the struggle for civil rights in the South. Multimedia exhibits at the Rosa Parks Museum celebrate the accomplishments of Rosa Parks, whose courageous actions sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, one of the seminal events of the Civil Rights Movement. At the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, you can visit the church, now a National Historic Landmark, where Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., began delivering his message of the equality and common bonds of humanity.

After nearly going bankrupt in the 1980s, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival survived thanks to a huge infusion of cash from financier Wynton Blount. Today, it is a thriving and highly acclaimed professional theater, producing a year-round program of classics and modern works at its home in Blount Cultural Park. The park is also the home of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, where in addition to Southern regional works, you will find pieces by European masters such as Matisse, Rembrandt and Durer.

One of the greats of American popular music, Hank Williams, is remembered through memorabilia and videos at the museum that bears his name in downtown Montgomery. A life-sized statue stands nearby outide City Auditorium. Visitors with a literary bent will want to see the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, located in the house the couple rented in the early 1930s, when Scott Fitzgerald was working on Tender Is the Night. The museum displays works by both writers.

Sports fans can head to downtown's Riverwalk Stadium, which opened in 2004, to see the Biscuits, the double A Southern League affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Racing fans can take in the drags at NHRA-sanctioned Montgomery Motorsports Park or go to the dogs at Victoryland Greyhound Racing. For more animal encounters, visit the Montgomery Zoo and stroll through the free-flight aviary, then touch the mounted specimens displayed in the adjacent Mann Wildlife Learning Museum.

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