Huntsville Alabama History

First white resident and pioneer, John Hunt, for whom the city is named, built a cabin in 1805. Not long after, a town was established and flourished, becoming the largest in the Alabama Territory by 1819. The Alabama Constitution Village, a living museum today, commemorates historic events and the early way of life. During the 1840s and 50s, Huntsville was the center for cotton trading in the Tennessee Valley; merchants came from Virginia and the Carolinas. Many stayed and built mansions, some of which are still in existence and are open for tours.

Huntsville came into the space program in the 1950s while it was still a cotton market town. U.S. Senator John Sparman brought a group of German rocket scientists to the city (Redstone Arsenal) to develop rockets for the U.S. Army. The group was headed by Wernher von Braun who designed the rocket that orbited America’s first satellite, and later put the first astronauts on the Moon. The city remains today as one of the fastest growing technological centers in America, and is home to multi-national manufacturing companies, and anyone can be an “astronaut for a day”.