One of the Birmingham's top cultural hub is Birmingham Museum of
Art. The museum has a nationally-acclaimed permanent
collection of more than 22,000 works representing cultures around the world.
A stroll in The Birmingham Botanical Gardens which offers sixty-seven acres are filled
with rhododendron, camellias, wildflowers, roses, outdoor sculptures, a
Japanese garden with teahouse, and a garden for the blind. Don't forget to
look for the Moon Tree.
The 250-acre Moss Rock Preserve is a popular Geocaching and rock
climbing site among enthusiasts.
The tantalizing aroma wafting down Morris Avenue is the wonderful smell of
peanuts roasting the old-fashioned way at the Peanut Depot. Spend a
couple of bucks on peanuts, and admire the magnificent old machinery while the children
feed pigeons along the old cobblestone streets.
Down 4th Avenue North at 18th Street is the Eddie Kendrick Memorial Park,
a tribute to Birmingham native and Temptations lead singer Eddie Kendrick.
For an excellent lesson in the history of America's Civil Rights Movement
visit historic Kelly Ingram Park. Sculptures throughout the park depict the
dramatic events that took place there. Just across the street is the 16th
Street Baptist Church, an icon of the Civil Rights Movement in America and
recently designated a National Historic Landmark. A fatal bombing at the
church in 1963 shocked and outraged the world and the Birmingham community.
It was a turning point in the status of race relations thereafter.
More admission-free history about the city can be found at Sloss Furnaces
National Historic Landmark. Sloss is a 32-acre blast furnace plant where
iron was made for nearly 100 years. Sloss is the only 20th century blast
furnace in the country that is being preserved and interpreted as a museum.