An important requirement for this project was my interview with former chairman Lee Garrison. Speaking with Garrison shed light on how much this area of Tuscaloosa had changed.
When I moved to Tuscaloosa, Lee Garrison was a year away from finishing his time on city council. He served for 16 years from 1997-2013.
“To me, Washington and Montgomery is Republican-Democrat, bickering and fighting all the time,” he said. “[The city council is] seven council members and a mayor. We don’t have an R or D behind our name. We’re going up there to help the community and that’s the type of thing that I have enjoyed doing.”
Garrison, a native of Tuscaloosa, has seen the city change a lot in his lifetime. The last ten to fifteen years have been crucial in shaping the city. When Garrison ran for city council in 1997, his platform focused on investing in downtown and the riverfront of Tuscaloosa as well as the Strip, a stretch of shops, restaurants and bars near the University of Alabama campus.
“We had the Strip that was run down. We had downtown which was basically DePalma’s and one bar. We had nothing on the riverfront except a dump. Now we’ve got all this other stuff where you can get out and exercise. It’s a good environment. There are people out there. It’s well-lit. There’s places to eat along there. And it’s just beginning.”
Other communities like Little Rock and Chattanooga inspired Garrison’s vision for Tuscaloosa’s facelift. In 1999, the project began.
“We needed to do a streetscape on the Strip and clean it up and put some trees and try to recruit a grocery store, a shopping center, new sidewalks, decorative lighting. That was one thing I wanted to see done. The riverfront was another area that I was passionate about and others were too. It’s just people weren’t talking about it as much. As some people have told me, the downtown and riverfront just needed a champion. Some of the people in the community were saying ‘You’ve just got to get behind the plow and keep pushing. We’re with you. You’ve just got to keep pushing.’ When I got up there, I started putting the committees together that had kind of fizzled a little bit, trying to bring some life back to it.”
When I moved to Tuscaloosa, Lee Garrison was a year away from finishing his time on city council. He served for 16 years from 1997-2013.
“To me, Washington and Montgomery is Republican-Democrat, bickering and fighting all the time,” he said. “[The city council is] seven council members and a mayor. We don’t have an R or D behind our name. We’re going up there to help the community and that’s the type of thing that I have enjoyed doing.”
Garrison, a native of Tuscaloosa, has seen the city change a lot in his lifetime. The last ten to fifteen years have been crucial in shaping the city. When Garrison ran for city council in 1997, his platform focused on investing in downtown and the riverfront of Tuscaloosa as well as the Strip, a stretch of shops, restaurants and bars near the University of Alabama campus.
“We had the Strip that was run down. We had downtown which was basically DePalma’s and one bar. We had nothing on the riverfront except a dump. Now we’ve got all this other stuff where you can get out and exercise. It’s a good environment. There are people out there. It’s well-lit. There’s places to eat along there. And it’s just beginning.”
Other communities like Little Rock and Chattanooga inspired Garrison’s vision for Tuscaloosa’s facelift. In 1999, the project began.
“We needed to do a streetscape on the Strip and clean it up and put some trees and try to recruit a grocery store, a shopping center, new sidewalks, decorative lighting. That was one thing I wanted to see done. The riverfront was another area that I was passionate about and others were too. It’s just people weren’t talking about it as much. As some people have told me, the downtown and riverfront just needed a champion. Some of the people in the community were saying ‘You’ve just got to get behind the plow and keep pushing. We’re with you. You’ve just got to keep pushing.’ When I got up there, I started putting the committees together that had kind of fizzled a little bit, trying to bring some life back to it.”
The Tuscaloosa Amphitheater came up repeatedly during our interview. According to its website[1], the amphitheater has 7470 reserved seats. The Backstreet Boys performed at the venue in 2013 and it plans to host Dave Matthews Band this year. The amphitheater also functions as the headquarters for the Tuscaloosa Half-Marathon, which returned to Tuscaloosa for its third year spring 2015.
I went to the amphitheater once to cheer for a friend as she finished the Tuscaloosa Half Marathon. The venue impressed me with its size and facilities and I can understand why Garrison wanted to bring it to Tuscaloosa. However, my understanding increased when he told me the history of the land where the amphitheater sits.
“People didn’t think you could turn a dump, so to speak, into an amphitheater.”
Initially, the spot was home to Stallworth Lake. During my archival research, I found interesting material on the lake from the Tuscaloosa Area Visual Museum. Often, the items conflict with one another. An advertisement from 1923 encourages people to visit “the greatest pleasure resort of West Alabama” and declares the “Friday will be Ladies’ Day”[2].
The ad describes the lake as “a beautiful body of clear spring water”. However, visitors disagree.
In a Tuscaloosa News article from July 2011, Mary Elsie Pow said, “It seems to me it was a shallow lake; the water was not very clear and enticing.” She added, “It wasn't very popular with my family because the water was hot. It wasn't clean and cool. The slide would get so hot; my brother went down it one time and blistered his bottom”[3].
William E. White published a scientific article in 1930 about Stallworth Lake. He describes the deepest parts of the lake as “covered with mud”. His report confirms Pow’s story of a warm lake. “It never freezes,” White says. “In the summer, the surface may reach a temperature of eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit, due to the very slow turnover of the water”[4].
Even if the water was not cool and crisp, at least the area was pretty. Another archival photo supports the ad’s claims of a beautiful summer getaway. The print from 1920 shows several Model T’s pulling into the park[5].
I went to the amphitheater once to cheer for a friend as she finished the Tuscaloosa Half Marathon. The venue impressed me with its size and facilities and I can understand why Garrison wanted to bring it to Tuscaloosa. However, my understanding increased when he told me the history of the land where the amphitheater sits.
“People didn’t think you could turn a dump, so to speak, into an amphitheater.”
Initially, the spot was home to Stallworth Lake. During my archival research, I found interesting material on the lake from the Tuscaloosa Area Visual Museum. Often, the items conflict with one another. An advertisement from 1923 encourages people to visit “the greatest pleasure resort of West Alabama” and declares the “Friday will be Ladies’ Day”[2].
The ad describes the lake as “a beautiful body of clear spring water”. However, visitors disagree.
In a Tuscaloosa News article from July 2011, Mary Elsie Pow said, “It seems to me it was a shallow lake; the water was not very clear and enticing.” She added, “It wasn't very popular with my family because the water was hot. It wasn't clean and cool. The slide would get so hot; my brother went down it one time and blistered his bottom”[3].
William E. White published a scientific article in 1930 about Stallworth Lake. He describes the deepest parts of the lake as “covered with mud”. His report confirms Pow’s story of a warm lake. “It never freezes,” White says. “In the summer, the surface may reach a temperature of eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit, due to the very slow turnover of the water”[4].
Even if the water was not cool and crisp, at least the area was pretty. Another archival photo supports the ad’s claims of a beautiful summer getaway. The print from 1920 shows several Model T’s pulling into the park[5].
Garrison described the transformation of the lake. “There was a Ferris wheel, a water slide. It was the place to go on a Saturday afternoon in the summer. Then they basically drained it and filled it in with trash.”
According to the description on the TAVM website, this space became a landfill in 1948. At that time, the country club as well as neighborhoods were located on the west end of Tuscaloosa. Understandably, the residents were disturbed by sights and scents coming from the dump. In June 1957, a fire at the dump prompted residents to complain to the mayor. A Tuscaloosa News article said the odor of dead animals was carried through the air into the neighborhoods. Mayor George Van Tassel said that “dirt on the uneven terrain at the trash site is used to cover dead animals and objectionable debris”[6].
Garrison has memories from the plots time as baseball fields. As one could imagine, children playing on a site that used to be a dump had disturbing consequences.
“To be honest with you,” Garrison said. “There were kids who would run out into the outfield and there would be a syringe out there or a knife or something. A lot of it was medical waste.”
An Alabama Map database provides an aerial photo of downtown Tuscaloosa taken in 1996. Four baseball diamonds sit in the landfill’s place[7].
Garrison has memories from the plots time as baseball fields. As one could imagine, children playing on a site that used to be a dump had disturbing consequences.
“To be honest with you,” Garrison said. “There were kids who would run out into the outfield and there would be a syringe out there or a knife or something. A lot of it was medical waste.”
An Alabama Map database provides an aerial photo of downtown Tuscaloosa taken in 1996. Four baseball diamonds sit in the landfill’s place[7].
After the baseball fields, the site was home to the farmer’s market. In 2003, plans began to place a state-of-the-art amphitheater on the land. However, they couldn’t simply start building as soon as money was available. The ground had to be stabilized before the building could begin. Garrison explained the process to me by referring to an illustration of the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater he has on the wall of his office.
“They had to clean out a lot of the area and get rid of some of that bad soil and trash. Then come back with fresh dirt. We even had to put some carbon monoxide, whatever you call it. It was methane gas type air vents in some areas. [They] burn it every now and then just because there’s still some old trash in there. That thing is built basically like a condo at the beach. The pylons go all the way to bedrock so that all of this is stable.”
Despite a rough start, Lee Garrison said the amphitheater has made money every year. The site has seen many changes but the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater looks like it is here to stay.
“They had to clean out a lot of the area and get rid of some of that bad soil and trash. Then come back with fresh dirt. We even had to put some carbon monoxide, whatever you call it. It was methane gas type air vents in some areas. [They] burn it every now and then just because there’s still some old trash in there. That thing is built basically like a condo at the beach. The pylons go all the way to bedrock so that all of this is stable.”
Despite a rough start, Lee Garrison said the amphitheater has made money every year. The site has seen many changes but the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater looks like it is here to stay.
All photos ©Ashton Varner unless otherwise specified.