Kiwanis and Vulcan

Kiwanis and Vulcan. . The origins of this park date to 1923, when the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham spearheaded the drive to successfully create a comprehensive park system for the Magic City. In 1925, the Olmsted Brothers landscape firm revealed A Park System for Birmingham, which envisioned a “naturalistic park...of a mountain type and distinct character" that would feature the expansive, impressive, and varied outlook from this ridge." , The 4.5 acres on Red Mountain where you now stand were secured by the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham in 1935. The club also raised $45,000 to move Vulcan from the state fairgrounds to his 124-foot tall sandstone pedestal overlooking Alabama's largest city. Vulcan Park opened to the public in 1938. Yet the vision to connect this parcel to George Ward Park, two miles to the west, would not be realized for another 94 years. , Members of the world's largest Kiwanis Club celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017 with a $5 million campaign to dynamically light the statue and pedestal, restore Vulcan Park's north entrance, enhance the view of the park from the city, create the Kiwanis Centennial Plaza and fountain, and complete the Kiwanis Vulcan Trail envisioned nearly a century earlier.