Memorial will get more prominent spot on school lawn



Two Huntsville projects honoring local black history have won city approval.



Reeves General Contractors last week was awarded an $86,479 contract to build a polished black granite base for a Buffalo Soldier statue tucked away inside the Academy for Academics and Arts magnet school.



The statue will be moved to a spot on the school's lawn, where thousands of Buffalo Soldiers returning from the Spanish-American War camped in 1898-99.



Also at last Thursday's City Council meeting, the council agreed to continue leasing the old Councill High School on St. Clair Avenue to the school's alumni association.



Graduates of the city's first public school for black students, which closed in 1966, hope to restore the decaying building into a community center with an auditorium, restaurant, music instruction areas and classrooms.



It's been a long road for the Buffalo Soldier statue.



City leaders approved the project in the late 1990s and paid Mobile artist Casey Downing about $46,000 to create a bronze likeness of a soldier riding a horse. The statue sat in storage until early 2005, when it was moved to a glass display case inside the Academy for Academics and Arts on Poplar Avenue.



By this fall, the statue will get a more visible home atop a 10-foot-tall granite base. Markers will tell the story of the Buffalo Soldiers who camped on Huntsville's Cavalry Hill while recuperating from wounds and illness.



The all-black 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers fought at the bloody Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba, considered one of the greatest victories for Teddy Roosevelt's volunteer "Rough Riders" regiment.



Councilman Richard Showers said he hopes the statue draws tourists - black and white - to the Cavalry Hill area near the Northwoods public housing development.



"It's been a while coming," Showers. "It's certainly a delight that we're finally getting it erected. We're just looking for the opportunity to make young people and others aware of the Buffalo Soldier. I'm excited about that."



Added Councilman Will Culver: "We want to make the public aware of Cavalry Hill's historic value. It's not just an African-American thing, it's a Huntsville, Alabama, thing."



The city looked into having the granite base built last year, but the lowest bid was $180,000 - nearly four times the cost of the statue.



Construction prices have fallen sharply since then because of the recession, and Facilities Projects Manager Chris O'Neil said the city saved $93,000 by rebidding.



The Councill High restoration is also moving forward.



The alumni association's 10-year city lease on the building expired in 2007, but City Council members voted unanimously to give the group a $1-a-year lease through July 2017.



A special tax district approved by the city several years ago set aside $1 million for the renovation work; alumni are working to match that amount with private donations and grants.



"It's been a slow process, but it's going to be a fruitful project that will be completed," Showers said. "Certainly, we're looking for more donors to come forward."



An estimated 11,000 to 12,000 students attended Councill High from 1867, when it opened in a church basement on Jefferson Street, to 1966. The current building beside the main downtown library was built in 1927.



Restoration plans include a wide brick plaza with a sculpture of the school's namesake, educator and Alabama A&M University founder William Hooper Councill.



"We want to try to save that school as a legacy for what William Hooper Councill intended it to be," alumni association President Earnest Horton said Thursday. "We just don't want to wipe out all our heritage."