The Seven Hills of Huntsville

The Seven Hills of Huntsville. . Sam Houston once said that he settled in Huntsville because the hills reminded him of his boyhood home in Maryville, Tennessee. The hills which lured him and many other prominent people here are the result of a geological formation. The geography of East Texas is shaped by a geological feature known as the Kisatchie Wold, which is a continuous ridge that stretches from the Mississippi river flood plain to the Rio Grande Valley. In Walker County, those hills played a crucial role in the history of the city of Huntsville. , The hill known as Capitol Hill was named around 1845 when Huntsville was being considered as the seat of state government. Austin College occupied the hill from 1850 to 1876 and Sam Houston Normal Institute, now Sam Houston State University, from 1879 to the present. The hill at 7th Street and University Avenue, known as Cotton Gin Hill, was the site of several gins and became the ginning and shipping center. It eventually became a center for education with the Andrew Female College in 1852. Smith Hill, located northwest of downtown, is named for pioneer plantation owner and merchant, James Carroll Smith, whose home later housed Bishop Ward Normal and Collegiate Institute, an African American Methodist Episcopal School. Depot Hill, located at 15th and University, was the terminus of the Tap line to the Houston and Great Northern Railroad. When the Texas prison system was established in 1849, deceased inmates were buried on a hill. The hill became known as Peckerwood Hill and the cemetery was named Capt. Joe Byrd Prison Cemetery. Gospel Hill, a historically African American neighborhood, was the site of frequent tent revivals. Knowledge Hill, near Sam Houston Normal Institute, was a neighborhood for many college professors and also a divide between the San Jacinto and Trinity river watersheds. The Seven Hills of Huntsville recall unique aspects of the city's heritage.