Huntsville AL Moving Companies

Huntsville, Alabama

Moving to Huntsville, Alabama, could easily be one of the best decisions you’ve made in your life. The county seat of Madison County and the fourth-largest city in Alabama, Huntsville is consistently hailed as one of the best places to live and work by various leading publications and surveys. Nicknamed “The Rocket City” for its long and significant role in the U.S. space missions, Huntsville has secured itself a lofty place in the ever-growing high-tech economy because of its thriving technology, space, and defense industries. The high-technology opportunities alone are sure to lure newcomers to the area and boost business for Huntsville movers for a long time to come.

Economy:
As the site of significant research and development in U.S. space technology since the 1950s, Huntsville has successfully built an economy that revolves around the missile-defense and aerospace industries. Huntsville and surrounding Madison County are home to major employers in aerospace, biotechnology, telecommunications, electronics, software and IT development. The U.S. Army alone employs more than 14,000 at the Redstone Arsenal and that number is expected to rise as an ongoing consolidation of army bases and personnel adds 5,000 more jobs in the area over the next few years. The Marshal Space Flight Center employs 2,500 scientists, while the Cummings Research Park houses more than 200 companies that are pursuing work in more than 40 areas of specialization. Scientists and engineers are moving to Huntsville to fill thousands of jobs in the rapidly growing medical and life-sciences industries. Truly, Huntsville has come a long way from being the “Watercress Capital of the World.”

History:
In 1805, pioneer John Hunt built a cabin alongside the spring in the area that is now Huntsville. Other settlers came and before long, a town flourished to become the largest in the Alabama Territory by 1819. That same year the leaders of the Alabama Territory gathered in Huntsville to petition the U.S. Congress to grant Alabama statehood. The U.S. Congress selected Huntsville as the site for the first Constitutional Convention of Alabama after it was approved to become a state.

Huntsville was the center for cotton trade and transportation in the mid-1800s, when planters and merchants from Virginia and the Carolina's amassed big fortunes and built impressive town homes in the area. Huntsville was still a cotton market town when U.S. Senator John Sparkman brought a group of German rocket scientists to Redstone Arsenal to develop rockets for the U.S. Army. By the end of the decade, the scientists, led by Wernher von Braun, had developed the rocket which orbited America's first satellite. The Saturn V launch vehicle became the superbooster that would propel the first Americans to the moon.

Tourism:
With a scenic mountain-view setting, historical downtown, spectacular museums and a 110-acre botanical garden, the high-tech Southern city has a host of attractions and activities to keep visitors coming and people moving to Huntsville. From incredible artifacts of the nation's space program, to hands-on interactive exhibits and space travel simulators, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center gives visitors an experience that is surely out of this world. Adjacent to the space museum is the beautiful Huntsville Botanical Garden which features floral and aquatic gardens, a Biblical garden featuring plants mentioned in the Bible and a glade featuring more than 170 species of fern. Walking tours of downtown Huntsville’s historic district, where the state’s largest collection of pre-Civil War homes can be found, are highly recommended for history buffs. Home to a 2,552-piece permanent collection and the world’s largest collection of Buccellati silver animals, the Huntsville Museum of Art spotlights the work of nationally and regionally acclaimed artists through in-house and traveling exhibitions.

Colleges/Universities:

• Alabama A&M University
• University of Alabama in Huntsville
• Oakwood University
• J.F. Drake State Technical College

Interesting Facts:

• Huntsville was once known as the Watercress Capital of the World.
• Huntsville is home to the largest collection of pre-Civil War homes.
• The Redstone Rocket, a surface to surface missile was developed in Huntsville.
• Huntsville was the site of the historic test launch of the Saturn V rocket, which put the U.S. space mission one step closer to the moon.

Helpful Links:

• Huntsville Official Website