Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Ever since the village of Montezuma down on the Conecuh River moved up Devereux Hill to higher ground to establish a new site for the county seat, Andalusia, there have been different generations of residents through the years  with visions for beautifying the city square.

Patterned after a Spanish style square with a courthouse in the center originally, the Public Square or what we call today, the Court Square, has been the heart of downtown Andalusia. Early citizens began the efforts years ago to beautify the square and build a park. The ladies of the town always seemed to be the ones who were behind such a project.

One account in an old newspaper mentioned the fact that wild pigs would come out after dark from the nearby woods and sleep at the foot of some trees scattered within the square.

That was not acceptable to the ladies who already had to walk along the boardwalks to stay out of the mud before sidewalks were installed – not to mention the saloons located around the square. This required most women to have a chaperone to accompany them on their walks downtown. After all, one’s reputation in the community was of the utmost importance!

A July 1920 article in the The Andalusia Star caught my attention. “The Star learns that there is a plan on foot to have the plat in the center of the city square which has been set apart for a public park turned into a temporary hitching lot for the use of those who come to the city in wagons.”

“We desire to have it distinctly understood that we are heartily in favor of  making provisions for a hitching lot, for the reason that the best is none too good for the farmers. It is upon them and their prosperity that the prosperity of this whole section depends.”

“But we (do) believe that it is unnecessary to divert the public park from the use for which it was designated and for which it was purchased by the citizens of this town in order to have a hitching lot.”

“We have gone to the expense of paving the square and the principle streets and the park planted in grass and shrubbery and otherwise beautified. Visitors have often remarked on the beauty of the square.”

“No one has ever suggested that Andalusia, the ‘Metropolis of the Wiregrass’ would ever for a moment consider making a hitching lot in the center of the square which has so many possibilities for adding to the attractiveness of our progressive city.”

“When the chairman of the local Civics Club heard of the movement to make use of the square in this way, she came to the Star News office with tears in her eyes. She appealed to us to make earnest protest through the newspaper against so using the square.”

“We sincerely hope that our city fathers will find some other means of meeting this emergency as every citizen has been conversant with the fact that this was to be turned over to the ladies of the Civics Club to be beautified by them.”

“It is of course humiliating to the ladies interested to feel that any action should be even contemplated without first consulting their wishes in this matter.”

By 1931, there was a movement underway again by the Civics Club to make the Andalusia park even more beautiful. This movement started “more than a year ago” when donations were solicited for the purpose of buying a fount to be erected in the center of the park. “Hopes in the minds of the members of the club have grown stronger as time passed.”

“The local post of the American Legions pledged their support to back this project providing the club would erect a memorial fount in honor of the Covington county men who fell during the World War.”

“Other additions to the city park will be a stone bench donated by Mrs. Anna Riley. The club is seeking the donation of three other benches which can be placed on the four corners of the park.”

This writer does not know if a fountain was ever installed or if the benches were ever placed in the city park, but I do know that when the square was cut through after World War II to allow cars to drive straight across from East Three Notch Street to Church Street, the ladies of the late 1940s cut a ruckus! The landscaping they had established with the china berry trees and other shrubbery was to be partially removed. Grassy areas were to be replaced with parking places. Some old timers today remember the group of ladies who protested by sitting in rocking chairs in the park square. 

However, the city council at the time recognized the fact that the young men who returned to Andalusia after the war with the cars they had purchased with a down payment from their military mustering out pay were the main cause of the traffic problems. The older citizens declared, “All these young whipper-snappers with their vehicles make it hard to drive around the square. Brakes squealing, tail pipes smoking, radios blaring, and tires rolling too fast!”

It took another 50 years or more to bring back a park that had been so carefully visualized by the Civics Club ladies of the 1920s. As we Remember When, may we feel a sense of gratitude to those ladies who worked so hard to come up with the idea of a park in the first place. Thanks to whoever took a picture of the original park from atop the First National Bank building after a snow event. The picture that surfaced, thanks to the historical society, can be attributed to the dream of developing the Court Square park we have today.

One might ask: Where was the “hitching lot” for the farmers finally located? All we know is that the ladies dedicated to the civic improvement and beautification of the town got their way and made their park right there in the center. Never underestimate the power of a group of ladies with a purpose in mind!

The Star News reported in a 1920 edition, “Our new stone courthouse, our splendid city school building, our lovely homes, and our beautifully paved streets will make Andalusia a real show place.”

As far as we know, a memorial fount was never erected in the center of the park, but Andalusia does have a state-of-the-art Veterans Memorial Park, and a fountain is planned for the new Heritage Park.

— Sue Bass Wilson, AHS Class of 1965, is a local real estate broker and long-time member of the Covington Historical Society. She can be reached at suebwilson47@gmail.com.