Fun Facts

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Fun Fact 1	The children of Montgomery have over 300 swings in MPRD playgrounds to swing on.
Fun Fact 2	Due to a quirk in the architectural design, you can have a lot of fun listening to your echo in the 'echo circle' at Riverfront Park.
Fun Fact 3	Over 91,000 softball games have been played at Lagoon and Fain Parks.
Fun Fact 4	The MPRD maintains over 1600 acres of park land for use by the citizens.
Fun Fact 5	Oak Park once hosted an Auburn University football game. When Auburn played the University of Sewanee at Oak Park, both teams were transported to the field by mule drawn cars.
Fun Fact 6	Riverwalk Stadium is built on land that once housed a Confederate prison.
Fun Fact 7	The MPRD was created in 1948.
Fun Fact 8	The MPRD manages 59 picnic shelters for public use.
Fun Fact 9	739 matches were played in one tennis tournament at Lagoon Park - the 2011 Alabama Junior Qualifying tournament.
Fun Fact 10	Bruce Field, now the site of O'Connor Tennis Center, was the first baseball field to be a part of the Parks and Recreation Department.
Fun Fact 11	Oak Park once housed the City Zoo.
Fun Fact 12	The Harriott II was once named the Alabama Star, and cruised the Tennessee River from Huntsville to Decatur.
Fun Fact 13	Montgomery parks have over 9 miles of walking path.
Fun Fact 14	Cramton Bowl was first built in 1922 as a baseball stadium. The first baseball game was played in May of 1922, between Auburn and Vanderbilt.
Fun Fact 15	Cramton Bowl was the site of the first football game "played under the lights" in the South. The game was September 23, 1927, and drew 7,200 fans.
Fun Fact 16	The MPRD began with two lighted softball fields and a pavilion at Hamner Hall Park. A fire station was eventually built on a portion of Hamner Hall Park.
Fun Fact 17	Lagoon and Fain Parks have been the host sites for 35 National Championship softball tournaments since 1977.
Fun Fact 18	Almost 2.4 million fans have attended softball games at Lagoon and Fain Parks.
Fun Fact 19	Every state in the United States has been represented by players or umpires at tournaments held at Lagoon Park.
Fun Fact 20	Lagoon Park was the first pentagonal control tower and field layout ever built. It has been copied numerous times by many other cities.
Fun Fact 21	Lagoon Park got its name from the marsh land that the complex was built on.
Fun Fact 22	The MPRD takes care of 24 soccer fields throughout the city.
Fun Fact 23	There are 110 slides in playgrounds managed by the MPRD.
Fun Fact 24	MPRD provides 65 playgrounds in parks throughout the city.
Fun Fact 25	The MPRD takes care of almost 125 acres of road medians in the city.
Fun Fact 26	Your family can play on 90 different baseball and softball fields in Montgomery.
Fun Fact 27	There is an average of 32 tournaments hosted at Lagoon and O'Connor Tennis Centers each year.
Fun Fact 28	The Community Centers serve an average of over 70,000 lunches to children every summer.
Fun Fact 29	The Union Station Train Shed was built in 1898 and was a working train station for Montgomery until the 70's.
Fun Fact 30	The University of Alabama football team has a 17-3 record at Cramton Bowl. The Crimson Tide played games in the Bowl in the 1920's, 30's, 40's, and 50's.
Fun Fact 31	Dishpans played a role in making the first night game at Cramton Bowl a success. They were used as reflectors for the new lights to ensure enough light would be directed to the field for play at night.
Fun Fact 32	The trolleys that ran the Montgomery Lightning Route were once housed in the building that is now the Armory Learning Arts Center.
Fun Fact 33	The Senior Adult program has been in existence since 1948, beginning as the Golden Age Club.
Fun Fact 34	The MPRD Administrative Office is built from Belgian granite blocks once used as ballast on the ships that came to Alabama. The stones were left behind when the ships were loaded with cotton from Alabama farmers.
Fun Fact 35	The Blue Gray Tennis Tournament is so popular that the website has had over 1 million hits.
Fun Fact 36	Lagoon Park Softball Complex was opened July 11, 1977. Over 7500 people attended the opening ceremonies.
Fun Fact 37	There were once 6 train tracks that ran through the Train Shed. The Train Shed has been home to 6 different railroads through the years.
Fun Fact 38	Oak Park hosts W.A. Gayle Planetarium, one of only a few planetariums in the US with a telescope similar to one you see there. Gayle Planetarium opened in September, 1968.
Fun Fact 39	Riverwalk Amphitheatre was built in 2003, and is intentionally designed to sustain flooding from the Alabama River.
Fun Fact 40	Riverfront Facilities hosts events that bring close to 350,000 people into downtown Montgomery.
Fun Fact 41	The Riverskate Park has the only skate shop in the River Region.
Fun Fact 42	The MPRD maintains 21 football fields in the city, including Cramton Bowl.
Fun Fact 43	The Train Shed is considered to be an outstanding example of the application of the principles of bridge-building architecture.
Fun Fact 44	There are 24 community centers, serving thousands of people annually, throughout the city.
Fun Fact 45	The first swimming and wading pools owned by the City of Montgomery were in Oak Park.
Fun Fact 46	Oak Park was once known as "Hall's Woods," having once been a part of the Bolling Hall estate. The 41 acres of park land were purchased in 1886 for $25,000.
Fun Fact 47	Oak Park once housed a community hospital.
Fun Fact 48	The MPRD has used as many as 33 tennis courts for a tournament. O'Connor Tennis Center was the first tennis complex built by the City, and was joined later by the Lagoon Park Tennis Center.
Fun Fact 49	You can play tennis on all but 3 days of the year at Lagoon and O'Connor. The tennis centers are closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.
Fun Fact 50	MPRD manages over 600 acres on two golf courses - Lagoon Park and Gateway Park.
Fun Fact 51	The MPRD Therapeutic Recreation Center serves up to 1000 citizens in a week.
Fun Fact 52	The Gymnastics Center has produced gymnasts who qualified to participate in National Championships.
Fun Fact 53	The MPRD Senior Adult Program serves over 700 Seniors in Montgomery.
Fun Fact 54	The Alabama Dance Theatre is housed in the Armory Learning Arts Center, and offers lessons to people of all ages. ADT uses 2 dance studios and a performance hall in the Armory.
Fun Fact 55	The Director of the Therapeutic Recreation Center, Fredrick Thomas, was a coach for the US Paralympic Team. Fred coached the team that went to the Athens, Greece, Paralympic Games.