A resurgence, driven in part by historic tourism and the Equal Justice Initiative's memorial to lynching victims, has lifted housing values and encouraged businesses to partner with and invest in the community.
Farris Bell was a senior at St. Jude when Selma-to-Montgomery marchers camped there on the way into the city after they were barred from resting elsewhere. She remembers watching it all play out and thinking it would change the world.
Now she lives in Cottage Hill on the outskirts of downtown Montgomery, the last neighborhood those marchers crossed on their way to the state Capitol. It's a place where the legacy of that movement and the centuries of injustice around it continue to reshape the community in ways that are now changing Bell's retirement.
In 2018, the Equal Justice Initiative opened a national memorial to lynching victims near her house. So many visitors started coming through Cottage Hill that she decided to convert half of her home into an Airbnb. She'd set out cookies and tell stories about growing up here before her guests went out to see the memorial or one of the other civil rights sites. It quickly became the most popular Airbnb in the city.
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In the blocks around her, neighbors now shielded by a historic designation have been renovating their century-old homes. Organizers of a Black-led data project have formed partnerships with global tech giants to create a living lab there while sharing resources. A stretch of local shops, years in the works, are beginning to open at the heart of Cottage Hill, and people are walking the streets.
Then there's the long-vacant mid-rise, formerly known as the Hilltop Arms, an abandoned apartment building that the community has worn like an albatross for decades while a series of redevelopment plans fell through. Now, it's a source of excitement.
Public records show that EJI purchased the building a year ago for $1.4 million. The nonprofit declined to discuss their plans. That's good enough for the people of Cottage Hill, where the purchase is an open and happy secret. Ask about the old Hilltop Arms and you get a wink and a smile, but no one says, "EJI."
"I have no idea what they're going to put there, but I have supreme confidence that it'll be a benefit to the city and to Cottage Hill," Bell said.
Bell, too, is bullish on the area. When her next-door neighbor died a year ago, Bell purchased his 1930s house and turned it into another Airbnb, despite a raging pandemic and the uncertain future of tourism. "I had enough confidence in what was happening in this neighborhood to step out on faith as an old, old woman and buy a second house," she said. "So, you know that I believe in it."
She's ready with more cookies and more stories. There are plenty left to tell about the past and future of Montgomery's first neighborhood, a place that once defied the racist trends around it.
Rejecting 'separate but equal'
Richard Bailey's finger runs down the list of neighbors in the 1897 census.
Black. White. Black. White.
Bailey, who is Black, said he gathered the census data after a fellow historian challenged the idea that Cottage Hill used to be integrated. The census was taken the year after the Supreme Court affirmed the idea of "separate but equal" with its Plessy v. Ferguson decision. "Which means, then, that the people in Montgomery would have been on solid grounds in purifying the neighborhoods," Bailey said.
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Yet, he found that in Cottage Hill, white children attended school in a neighborhood populated by Black and white residents, including school staff. He found an invitation from the leader of the local Methodist church, which had recently split over slavery, inviting all residents of the neighborhood to a service. "That's not just talk," Bailey said. "Do you see it here? 'All who are disposed to attend are cordially invited.' Now he's basically telling those people, the Black residents, you're welcome to come. Now, if that neighborhood is not integrated, I'd like to know what neighborhood is.
"If you're a historian, this is not supposed to be something you talk about. But at the same time, what is your job as a historian? I'm not stretching any facts."
That changed over the next few decades. By the 1940s, the census found no Black residents in Cottage Hill.
"I don't want to say exactly what might have caused the disappearance of those Black residents. But I can say what the racial atmosphere was in a lot of Southern cities, of course, even in the 1930s, for that matter," Bailey said. "And Cottage Hill would have been an example."
Through the mid-20th century, the neighborhood declined. Young people moved out. Houses went vacant or deteriorated.
An effort to preserve Cottage Hill started in the 1970s with the establishment of a neighborhood association and a few rehab projects. Next came historic designations. People started speaking up for the community.
Today, with that rehab effort well underway, Bailey said the neighborhood is only about 10% Black but is once again welcoming and inviting to all. Cottage Hill regularly holds neighborhood events for people across the city. When those visitors drive in, Bailey said they don't need a speed bump or stop sign to realize they've arrived in a community.
It's not a new role for the neighborhood. As the interstate-facing entrance to the city's revitalized, historic tourism-focused downtown, Cottage Hill has long served as Montgomery's welcome mat. And that was before the crowds started arriving to see EJI's national memorial.
Ready for 'somebody'
Andrew Szymanski has watched a lot of those faces peek through the window for the past two years. Now, he's happy to open the door.
Szymanski and business partner Will O'Connor renovated a strip of historic buildings at the Five Points intersection that connects Cottage Hill to downtown, where local shops are now opening. Jen Powell was the first and has been cutting hair at Seville at Hilltop for more than a year. Monique Williams' Cheesecake Empori-Yum is coming to the spot next door. On the other side, Szymanski and O'Connor recently opened a pub and coffee house.
Down the road, a venue called The Sanctuary inside an 1890s church regularly hosts art and music performances, and even boasts a full recording studio. A converted fire station next door now serves as a popular event space with an on-site Airbnb.
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It all adds up to more people on the street. And a lot of them have been asking Szymanski about what's going on with the Hilltop Arms.
"We're pretty quiet about it right now," he said. "We talk about what we hope it does for the neighborhood."
Powell hears the questions, too. She smiles and keeps cutting hair.
"The whole reason that we're here is because we wanted to preserve something of the historic Montgomery, so I'm anxiously awaiting… somebody," she said.
At a public brainstorming session about the future of downtown, the city's Senior Development Manager, Lois Cortell, mused: "The Hilltop Arms is sitting there ready and waiting for… somebody to save and love it."
Following their script
Network engineer Boyd Stephens of the I85 Cyber Corridor startup initiative and 1 Sync Technologies owner Eric Sloan admire EJI's work in more ways than one.
That's why the two local tech entrepreneurs say they've decided not to reveal many details about a rollout of new tech across Cottage Hill — despite the ambition and scope behind the project. Through a partnership with Intel and Melbourne-based tech solutions company PMY Group, they're planning to implement a suite of smart city technology, including a private LTE network, a Citizens Broadband Radio Service backbone, a broad WiFi network, access for a smart classroom and interactive booths to display city and historical information.
It's all geared toward creating a living lab of data that's meant to empower the public, help small businesses grow and connect Cottage Hill to west Montgomery and other parts of the Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail in new ways, using the same technology as the Olympics.
"I don't like to divulge too much information. Build it. Now you can see," Sloan said.
Stephens said that philosophy came from watching EJI's approach to growth here. The nonprofit quietly filed more than $10 million worth of downtown building permits last year alone.
"(EJI founder) Bryan Stevenson and his team, they are our poster children of how to build in the city," Stephens said. "We are following their script on how to get things done in the city. … Actually, they've given everyone who wants to do something in the city, the recipe of how to do it."
That living lab project will unfold over the next few months, they say. And while Sloan and Stephens dance around specifics about the what, both are anxious to discuss the why and the importance of bridging communities along the historic trail.
"When the interstate highway system came through, it just decimated the economic, entrepreneurial business district of the African American," Stephens said. "We just thought it'd be kind of neat, to start looking into what it would be like to have a phoenix rise up from those ashes."
What's next?
The current boom has not yet reached some areas of the community, including areas where some of the most prominent early Black Montgomerians once lived. Szymanski said he's heard about owners being offered low-ball cash rates for their houses.
The median home sale price in Cottage Hill jumped from about $85,000 to about $173,000 in the past 15 years. Now there's more development on all sides, including a $50 million whitewater park that's under construction just across the interstate.
"I wish the city would take a role in reaching out to residents of up-and-coming neighborhoods and say, 'Hey, this thing is coming here and you have a lot of control over your land, your future,'" Szymanski said. "A lot of people, their home may be their only asset. When someone comes around and gives you a check, I understand the temptation."
At a February gathering a few steps from the Capitol, people streamed in to offer suggestions on the next steps for the city's downtown plan.
Even after decades of work focused on rebuilding the core of the city around Dexter Avenue, and with a thriving tourism scene in place, there's a lot left to do. Streets wider than the nearby interstate and a lack of gathering spots camouflage the area's walkability. It's common to see visitors park, take a quick picture with a statue of Rosa Parks, and then get back in their cars and drive away.
Still, 23% of all Montgomery employees work downtown. The area takes up 1% of the city's land but represents 15% of its construction.
There were a lot of suggestions at the February event: festivals and events, more art, maybe even a floating trail connecting the riverfront to the whitewater park.
Cortell didn't hesitate when asked for her opinion: Downtown needs more residents. That's the key to everything, she said, and one of the reasons it's so important that Cottage Hill is now on the upswing while retaining its history, starting with individual homeowners who began investing in their houses a decade ago. But opportunities remain.
"I'm a pretty practical person," Cortell said. "I think in Montgomery when something good is happening, you lean into it."
A second downtown planning session was set for later in the week, this time in Cottage Hill.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brad Harper at bharper1@gannett.com.
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