It’s a long way from the moon to northern Alabama, but the Cape Canaveral space shots owe their technology to rockets developed in Huntsville, Ala. It’s here that the father of the U.S. space program, Werner von Braun, and his team created the Saturn V rocket that propelled the Apollo to outer space and put a man on the moon. Transformed, one of the country’s leading cotton-producing centers became “Rocket City,” home to a brain trust that encompasses military, space, telecommunications, biotechnology, automotive and diversified manufacturing in a variety of emerging specialties.

Sprawled at the foot of a mountain in northern Alabama, Huntsville dates from 1805, when pioneer John Hunt built a cabin beside a stream which still flows from a rock bluff. Today it meanders through a peaceful park in the heart of this low-rise heartland city. Cotton flourished in the region’s fertile soil, and the city prospered around the textile industry and trade.

In 1819 leaders of the territory met here to petition for statehood, and Huntsville became the first capital of Alabama, with transplanted Virginians and Carolinians moving in to build stately homes. Occupied by Union Forces, Huntsville survived the Civil War intact, and many of the merchants’ mansions are preserved today in the city’s elegant Twickenham Historic District.

As late as the 1940s, when the Army arrived to establish its critical strategic Redstone Arsenal Complex, Madison County led Alabama in cotton production, and agriculture remains a factor. But in 1950 in a transforming event, Huntsville resident Sen. John Sparkman invited a band of German rocket scientists to Redstone Arsenal to develop missiles for the U.S. Army. By the end of the decade Huntsville was being described as the “Space Capital of the Universe.” The influx of engineers, scientists and other technical specialists and the close relationship among industry, government and academia has proved to be a formula for technological development and innovation in a community which maintains its stately heritage.

Technology is central to the city: the Army’s Redstone Arsenal has been joined by NASA’s Marshall Space Center and by Cummings Research Park, the second-largest such facility in the country. Attracted by the business potential and quality of life, a veritable who’s who of Fortune 500 companies contribute to the city’s economic infrastructure. Boeing, SAIC, PPG Aerospace, Quantum Research International and Quantum Technologies, Lockheed Martin, COLSA Corp. and Teledyne Brown Engineering are among leading companies with local installations. The first U.S. plant built by Korea’s largest corporation, a Target distribution center, LG Electronics (formerly Gold Star) and a Toyota plant which manufactures engines for pickup trucks all operate here.

Industry and government benefit from a close relationship with academia. The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama A&M, J.F. Drake State Technical College, Defense Acquisition University South and Calhoun Community College all provide affordable instruction in astrophysics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, computer science, earth and space science, and propulsion. Oakwood University trains African-American applicants to go on to medical and dental schools. In the public school system, more than two-thirds of students score at or above national SAT averages.

In the last decades the Army has been relocating additional facilities to Huntsville, and the city’s scientific community attracts a diverse population. The city’s 180,000 residents speak a total of more than 100 languages and dialects. Ten percent of the population is comprised of foreign nationals. On a regional basis, Madison County is one of the south’s fastest- growing areas, and its 312,000 residents have the highest per capita income in the Southeast.

Visitors from around the world come t o tour the city’s U.S. Space & Rocket Center, a museum where “astronauts for a day” can see actual Mercury and Gemini trainer capsules, squeeze into an Apollo capsule mock-up and experience G forces and weightlessness. The Center’s U.S. Space Camp and Space Academy programs provide math and science education opportunities for children and corporate team building for adults.

An unusual range of local cultural offerings rounds out the community. Upcoming exhibits at the stately Huntsville Museum of Art feature local Shearwater pottery and pieces from the museum’s extensive collection of Buccellati silver animal figures.

At the Children’s Museum, kids “talk” to a tree and play dress-up in mockups of a general store, a keelboat, a supermarket and a Federal house. The Huntsville Botanical Garden offers popular family-friendly flower, aquatic and vegetable garden displays and the nation’s largest open-air butterfly house.

History buffs can stroll through period cottages preserved in downtown’s EarlyWorks Museum Complex and see Civil War graffiti scrawled on the wall of the 1860 Depot Museum. After shopping, customers ring up their own purchases on the handcrank cash register in the authentically dusty Harrison Brothers Hardware Store, operating on the main square since 1897.

Recently augmenting downtown attractions is the Bridge Street Town Centre, an upscale retail lifestyle center in Cummings Research Park, with an office tower, a 210-room Westin hotel/condominium, restaurants and retail shops. Stores cluster around a 14-screen Monaco Pictures multiplex which includes stadium theaters, a concierge-style interior box office and a spacious bar. Built around a 10-acre lake, the Centre offers paddle boats and gondolas for “a touch of Venice.”

For the athletic, the area boasts over a dozen golf courses. Nearby mountains, lakes, woodlands and the Tennessee River offer opportunities for hiking, biking, camping and watersports.

LODGING

EMBASSY SUITES
Conveniently located downtown, steps from the Art Museum and connected by a sky bridge to the Von Braun Convention Center, the Embassy features a soaring 10-story atrium and comfortable décor in rooms outfitted with flat-panel plasma television, fiber-optic high-speed and wireless Internet access, and plush bedding. In addition to an indoor pool and hot tub in the fitness center, the hotel offers a full-service Spa Botanica, and guests can check out in-room fitness gear. Ruth’s Chris Steak House caters meetings and banquets, and Starbucks coffee is served in the lobby.$$$
EMBASSY SUITES
800 Monroe St. S.W.,
tel 256 539 7373,
http://www.embassysuites1.hilton.com

WESTIN HUNTSVILE
Newly opened, this hotel-condominium anchors the Bridge Street Town Centre complex. All 210 guestrooms offer highspeed Internet access and flat-screen televisions along with signature Westin features. Convenient to the mall’s extensive shopping, movies and cafés, the Westin has its own Sage Grille and boasts the largest hotel ballroom in the city.$$$
WESTIN HUNTSVILE
6800 Governors West N.W.,
tel 256 428 2000,
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin

HUNTSVILE MARRIOTT
Located four miles north of downtown on the grounds of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, the Marriott has been the standby accommodation for people with business at Marshall, Redstone, Cummings and the University of Alabama. Its semi-rural setting offers a jogging and fitness trail, indoor and outdoor connecting pools, and three golf courses within 15 miles. Internet access, luxurious bedding and complimentary on-site parking are among its amenities.$$
HUNTSVILE MARRIOTT
5 Tranquility Base,
tel 256 830 2222,
http://www.marriott.com

DINING

801 FRANKLIN
Just a block from the historic Twickenham district, this jovial storefront is a local favorite which boasts Huntsville’s most extensive wine list and features local ingredients in a menu that changes seasonally. Menu items include Gulf shrimp and lobster served with sun-dried tomatoes and baby spinach in a feta arugula pesto sauce, and grilled Ashley Farms free-range chicken dressed with an asparagus and blueberry balsamic glaze. The signature pièce de résistance dessert is molten chocolate cake.$$$
801 FRANKLIN
801 Franklin St.,
tel 256 519 8019,
http://www.801franklin.com

CONNORS STEAK AND SEAFOOD
True to its name, Connors specializes in fresh seafood and seven choices of premium aged steak — from slow-roast prime rib to a Boursin filet topped with cheese and tobacco onions. This is a place for fried green tomatoes over grits or angel hair pasta tossed with mango, pineapple and peppers in a basil cream sauce. The cheesecake drizzled with caramel and fudge syrup is a just dessert.$$$
CONNORS STEAK AND SEAFOOD
345 The Bridge Street N.W.,
tel 256 327 8425,
http://www.thechophouse.com

THE JAZZ FACTORY
Located in the heart of downtown, this tin-roofed converted Montgomery Ward department store with spacious booths is the setting for the innovative cuisine of Chef Gevara Teebi. He blends his Egyptian heritage, San Francisco experience and twists inspired by Thai and Philippine sous chefs to create delicious meals. Crunchy spring rolls with banana ketchup cocktail sauce, Peking duck pizza, and pancettawrapped salmon with lentil almond rice are among the irresistible dishes. The Ultrachocolate Madness with Strawberry Coulis dessert is an artful sculpture almost too attractive to eat.$$$
THE JAZZ FACTORY
109 North Side Square,
tel 256 539 1919,
http://www.thejazzfactory.com

At Home with Loretta Spencer
Mayor of Huntsville

One of only four mayors to serve longer than twelve years and about to run for an unprecedented fourth term, Mayor Loretta Spencer took office in 1996 after several years’ experience raising a family, running a local service station business and volunteering on dozens of local boards and organizations. Her term has seen revitalization of Huntsville’s retail and industrial sectors, a renovated downtown area and development of a major upscale retail complex.

Global Traveler: You have vowed to stay in office long enough to implement a second Base Realignment and Closure program in which Army facilities will be relocated to your city. How do you handle incorporating the influx of almost 5,000 new jobs and residents into the community?
Loretta Spencer: We’ve had large growth spurts in the past (the German scientists and NASA), and we learned from them to look forward and plan in advance for extended sewer, school, utility and water facilities. We also partner with southern Tennessee and northern Alabama cities within 30 to 45 minutes of here. We all gain retail taxes, which are important sales tax dollars to expand our services.

GT: Besides the military, you have lured several businesses to the area. What do you tout as its attractions?
LS: We’re friendly. Every time I’ve asked companies how they chose to relocate here, they say it’s the quality of life. They find out Huntsville is unique to the state. We credit the Germans who came in the ’50s with wonderful ideas for a symphony, art museum, dance, choirs. Now people tell us when their jobs move them here they come kicking and screaming because they have to move, but it turns out they stay and even retire here. That’s the nicest compliment any community can have.

GT: What goals do you have for further growth?
LS: We’re expanding the arts — adding another wing to the art museum, freshening the civic center. The downtown was drained, so we’re completely renovating the downtown square. We’ve started bringing in upscale restaurants and sidewalk cafés, we’re putting in the flavor of old-fashioned period street lamps, and we’ve doubled parking space. It has been a legal and banking professional downtown; now we want it to survive at the end of the business day as well.

GT: What is your hope for the city’s future?
LS: We don’t want to be so big that we lose our personal attitude. We’re not closed, not old money, not exclusive — our arms are open to people who move here with new ideas and new input. If you stop growth, you’ll stagnate.

DIVERSIONS

The self-described place to “be scene” at the Bridge Street Town Centre is the serpentine bar of, literally, The Scene Lounge within the Monaco Theater Complex (370 The Bridge St., tel 256 327 8340)with signature drinks and an outdoor patio with blazing fire pits. Downtown locals play billiards and lounge on couches in the Martini Room upstairs over the Jazz Factory (109 North Side Square, tel 256 539 1919 http://www.thejazzfactory.com). Every weekend Sammy T’s Music Hall brings in bands and DJs for music and dance (116 Washington St., tel 256 539 9974, http://www.sammytsplace.com).

INFO TO GO

Huntsville International Airport (HSV) is located 12 miles west of the city. Taxi and limousine services charge about $25 for the trip into town. Rental cars are available at the airport. Completed in 1991, spur highway I-565 connects Huntsville to the main north-south Interstate I-65 12 miles west of the city. Thirteen bus routes and a Tourist Trolley cost a dollar or less, and the downtown loop is free on weekends. For more information, visit http://www.huntsville.org