Renderings of the renovations of Vulcan’s northside display the Kiwanis Centennial Park. The three-part plan looks to create a more visual appealing look and extensive trail system.
Photos Courtesy of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham
Chandler Jones
Editor-In-Chief
If you ask Tom Thagard, president of the Kiwanis Club, he’ll say, “Birmingham is on the cusp of a Renaissance.”
Birmingham’s Downtown Kiwanis Club serves as a part of the national brand focused on civic leadership and service. The local branch, which is the world’s largest Kiwanis Club boasting a membership rate of over 500 people, celebrated 100 years this past May and took to turn their internal success outward.
The Kiwanis have a long-standing relationship with Vulcan, the popularized statute symbolizing Birmingham, starting back in the 1930s when the club orchestrated Vulcan’s move to where he stands today.
“We were the group responsible for setting up Vulcan as the icon of Birmingham,” Thagard said.
As a part of its centennial anniversary, the club will spend $4.66 million to return the spark to the cast iron god. In doing so, they will connect downtown Birmingham to Green Springs Highway as part of a network of biking and walking trails.
“These people love Birmingham so much and want to see Birmingham prosper and grow,” said Morgan Black, director of Marketing & PR for Vulcan Park and Museum. “I mean, how cool is it that they pick a project that not only screams Birmingham, but a project that they were involved in?”
The three-part project will add a new entrance staircase allowing access to Vulcan from Southside, renovate the old WPA piazza and name it Kiwanis Centennial Park. Second, they will extend Vulcan trail an additional mile. The third part of the project involves installing a computerized LED light show on Vulcan’s pedestal and body.
“If you look up, you’ll see that Vulcan is separated from downtown Birmingham by trees and overgrowth,” Thagard said. “… We are going to reconnect Vulcan to Birmingham by landscaping the north side of the park and taking it back to its original WPA roots.”
The interconnecting of the trails surrounding Vulcan will connect 20th Street to Green Springs Highway which is significant for the Freshwater Land Trust because it connects above the mountain to below the mountain and lays the framework to make other, smaller connections to happen, according to Carolyn Buck, Red Rock Trail Coordinator with Freshwater Land Trust.
“…To see the progress that Birmingham is making in becoming a more walkable, bikeable and more outdoor activity friendly city,” Buck said. “It’s really exciting.” When the CEO of Vulcan pitched the idea to the Kiwanis Club, Black said, she never imagined it becoming this big. The Vulcan trail extension will ultimately allow for nearly 40 miles of interconnected trails.
“We hope to catalyze the connection between all these smaller parts,” Thagard said. “Birmingham doesn’t have like a river system for the tourist attraction, but if we had an interconnected trail system from which people can walk to Regions Field to Vulcan to the Zoo to the Botanical Gardens and to Avondale or to ride their bike to Red Mountain Park and around Homewood and back again, you know, that’s something really special for Birmingham citizens and for the tourist trade.”
As for lighting up Vulcan, Kiwanis hired one of the nation’s premier lighting design teams based out of Chicago.
“The limits to what we can do with the lighting are just in our imagination,” Thagard said.
Thagard said he has been hard at work on this project for the last 51 months. The club sorted through nearly 40 other centennial project ideas.
“We settled on this one because it had a little magic to it,” Thagard said.
To donate to the Kiwanis Club’s renovation of Vulcan, they have set up a GoFundMe available at https://www.gofundme.com/kiwanis-centennial-park-at-vulcan.
Chandler Jones can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @chanjone7.
