A new stretch of sidewalk was taking shape along Old Shell Road in the summer of 2014, courtesy of The Village of Spring Hill, the neighborhood nonprofit that had spent years steadily widening the area’s network of walkways.
Construction began on July 1 on five blocks of walkway running from Ridgelawn Road West to McGregor Avenue. The $150,000 project was paid for with money raised during the group’s 2013 Sidewalk-a-thon, combined with grants from the J.L. Bedsole Foundation and the Alabama Department of Transportation, according to Linda St. John, director of The Village of Spring Hill.
Turning fundraising into pavement
The Village of Spring Hill, a neighborhood nonprofit dedicated to improving the livability of the area, used the 2013 fundraising to apply for the transportation grant, which required a 20 percent local match, St. John said. The sidewalk was expected to be finished within two to three weeks.
“We’re really excited they’re going all the way to McGregor Avenue,” St. John said.
The effort had been under way for roughly eight years. In that time, more than 63,360 square feet of sidewalks had been installed along Old Shell Road, gradually transforming a busy corridor into a more inviting place to walk.
Part of a larger vision
The new construction was one piece of a broader master plan to improve the neighborhood’s walkability and visual appeal. Over the years, The Village of Spring Hill had taken on a series of projects aimed at making the area both more functional and more attractive.
- Planting trees throughout the neighborhood
- Funding the giant chess set in front of the Moorer/Spring Hill branch of the Mobile Public Library
- Working with the city of Mobile and the library in the fall of 2012 on improvements at the front of the Moorer/Spring Hill branch
- Partnering with Regions Bank in 2011 on work at the corner of the Spring Hill branch’s property
Together, those projects reflected a philosophy that small, tangible improvements — a length of sidewalk here, a row of trees there — could add up to a meaningfully better neighborhood over time.
Community effort behind the sidewalks
Much of the work traced back to the annual Sidewalk-a-thon, the fundraiser that generated the seed money for grant applications. By raising local dollars first, the nonprofit was able to leverage additional support from foundations and the state, stretching each contribution further.
The result was visible on the ground: workers laying concrete along Old Shell Road, extending a walkway that would soon reach McGregor Avenue. For residents who had watched the network grow block by block over the better part of a decade, the latest addition was a familiar and welcome sight.
With the master plan still guiding its work, The Village of Spring Hill signaled that the 2014 project would not be its last. Tree plantings, public art and further walkway extensions remained part of the organization’s long-term ambitions for a neighborhood it hoped would grow ever more walkable and welcoming.
By the time the crews packed up, the stretch from Ridgelawn Road West to McGregor Avenue stood as another visible link in a walkway that residents had helped pay for and had watched take shape season after season. For a neighborhood built on the belief that a walkable street is a friendlier one, the new concrete was more than infrastructure; it was a small, shared victory earned block by block.