Find out about the namesake for Carl T. Jones Drive, a.k.a. ‘Mister Huntsville’
Reading time: 3 minutes
Sometimes, we can get complacent enough in our busy lives where we just don’t notice things we see every day. This has been the case for me when I travel on roads named after a person (dead or living). Lately, however, I have started looking into who the people are whose names are immortalized on our roadways.
This week, I look at Carl T. Jones Drive in Huntsville. It’s namesake lived a pretty amazing life, and was even dubbed “Mister Huntsville.”
Carl Tannahill Jones, a.k.a. ‘Mister Huntsville’
Carl Tannahill Jones justifiably earned the moniker “Mister Huntsville” during his lifetime. Jones came from a family that was one of the first white settlers in the Tennessee Valley, and his family helped develop and grow the city for most of the 20th century.
Jones was born in 1908 to George Walter Jones and Elvalena L. Moore, and was was the last of six kids. His father—farmer, civil engineer, state senator and a leader in Huntsville’s city government—established GW Jones & Sons engineering firm in 1886.
Carl joined the firm in 1929 after graduating from the University of Alabama.
Jones served in World War II in the European theater, and when he returned to Huntsville, he immediately recognized the potential for growth in the city (which at the time only stretched about four miles).
According to the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, Jones made professional and personal contributions to grow the city limits by more than 100 square miles. Much like some opinions of today’s growth of the city, many residents opposed the growth, but Jones had open discussions with local residents to share his vision and optimism for what Huntsville could become.
Here are just a few of the accomplishments on the resume of Carl T. Jones:
- Served as City engineer for Huntsville from 1929 to 1960
- World War II veteran
- Founded and led Huntsville Industrial Associates, Inc.
- Founded the Huntsville Industrial Expansion Committee
- Served as a board member for Huntsville’s First National Bank and the North Alabama Mineral Development Company
- Was awarded the Distinguished Citizen Award in 1965
- Inducted ito the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 1983
- Is the namesake for Carl T. Jones Field at the Huntsville International Airport
Jones died in 1967 at the relatively young age of 58. Appropriately, his plaque in the Alabama Business Hall of Fame says, “He was the father of the region’s industrial expansion, and no one would ever deserve the title ‘Mister Huntsville’ more.”
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