Photo courtesy of Beau Gustafson/Big Swede Productions.
Officials ceremoniously shovel dirt during the Kiwanis Centennial Park groundbreaking.
The Kiwanis Club of Birmingham marked its 100th anniversary in May by hosting a groundbreaking on the north side of Vulcan Park and Museum for construction of the $4.66 million Kiwanis Centennial Park.
The new facility, also referred to as the club’s Centennial Project, will involve substantial improvements to the long-neglected north side of the famous park, as well as an extension of the Vulcan Trail — a walking and bike trail — another two miles to Green Springs Highway.
Vulcan Park and Museum and Freshwater Land Trust are the club’s project partners.
The club, which led the way in creating Vulcan Park in the 1930s, announced the project in November 2016 and said it will have three major components.
The first phase on the north side of Vulcan will include landscaping, renovation of the lower piazza entrance and the building of steps for walking access.
The Kiwanis Club and its partners seek “to reconnect Vulcan to downtown Birmingham,” club president Tom Thagard said at the groundbreaking.
The old pedestrian access to Vulcan that existed on the north side of the statue was taken away during a renovation of the park in the 1960s, leaving only vehicle access off Valley Avenue, according to Darlene Negrotto, president and CEO of Vulcan Park and Museum.
“Now we reconnect Birmingham to the city, both physically and visibly,” she said.
The second component of the project will be the extended jogging and bike trail, which will serve as the “central backbone” of the new 750-mile Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System, according to Libba Vaughan, executive director of Freshwater Land Trust.
The third and perhaps most spectacular component will be a multicolored light show, designed by internationally known lighting-design firm Schuler Shook, to be projected onto Vulcan each night to enhance the image of the city’s icon.
The aim is to “project Vulcan nationally and internationally as the symbol of Birmingham,” Thagard said.
Birmingham City Council member Valerie Abbott was among the local politicians at the groundbreaking, and Thagard acknowledged Abbott’s years of work to help create the full-length Vulcan Trail.
“Valerie has been working on this for about 25 years,” Thagard told attendees. “She was the original inspiration for this.”
The project should be complete by December 2017, according to a Kiwanis news release.
