We all know green spaces matter. Parks beautify an area, but the benefits are more than just aesthetic — they can also filter air and improve public health. There are more than 100 parks in the city of Birmingham, and that’s before you make it to the metro areas near the city.

For more of Alabama’s Best everything, we created a top five list of favorite parks in Birmingham. This time, we stuck to the city of Birmingham instead of including the outside metro areas. We know we’ll miss a few (we see you, Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham) but the beauty of lists is that we can always do another down the road.

To compile a list of our favorite parks, we looked at amenities as well as history. Outdoor spaces can be educational, so we picked places where park-goers could also learn about the city’s mining and civil rights history.

Here are five ways to get outside, touch grass, and learn about Birmingham’s complicated relationship with space.

5. One Pratt Park

601 Dugan Ave, Birmingham

One Pratt Park has a lot of potential. I visited the park for the first time in 2022 when urbanist Carmen Mays invited a group of people to a brunch and learn event to learn about engaging with Birmingham’s outdoor spaces beyond the popular Railroad, Avondale, and Red Mountain Parks.

Pratt City, particularly the site that houses One Pratt Park, was one of the areas hit hardest by the 2011 tornadoes that devasted areas of the city. In 2019, city leaders held a reopening for the park after a year of renovation.

Start at the top near the intersection of Dugan Ave and Lafayette Street, and you’ll see an industrial-style metal sculpture marking the spot for One Pratt Park. Located near the Pratt City Branch of the Birmingham Public Library, the park has two levels. On level one, colorful playgrounds surrounded by wooden benches overlook the lawns. Level two has a plaza with magenta and white concrete floors. The floors, which have outlines of a historic mining map, border a meeting room with sinks and warming ovens (the meeting room can be reserved through the city).

After walking around the park one evening, I had a chat with Charlotte Grey, who wishes the city would recommit to its promise to maintain the renovated area. Grey, who has been a resident of Pratt City for 51 years, lives across from the park. She said residents would like to enjoy more time at the park, but amenities, such as the park’s splash pad, haven’t been working.

4. The Eddie Kendrick Memorial Park

1727 4th Ave N, Birmingham

Music notes on the ground of the park lead up to the commemorative statues of The Temptations. Five stars mark the statues for each member of the iconic Motown Group — Eddie Kendrick, David Ruffin, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams, the founder of The Temptations. The Fourth Avenue Business District is section C on the Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail. According to the park’s marker, the site sits at the former Brock’s Drugs location. The marker also features a quote from Kendricks’ 1991 interview with “Urban Street,” where he discussed coming of age during Jim Crow: “We drank from the white fountain to see if it would taste any different.”

The park is the result of a collaboration between Birmingham economic development nonprofit Urban Impact and artist Ronald McDowell, who wanted to create a public park to honor Eddie Kendricks, a Birmingham native and lead singer of The Temptations from 1960 to 1971. Kendrick attended Westin-Olin High School. He’d later add the “s” to his name during his professional career.

Music notes on the ground of the park lead up to the commemorative statues of The Temptations. Five stars mark the statues for each member of the iconic Motown Group– Eddie Kendrick, David Ruffin, Paul Williams, Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams, the founder of The Temptations. The Fourth Avenue Business District is section C on the Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail. According to the park’s marker, the site sits at the former Brock’s Drugs location. The marker also features a quote from Kendricks’ 1991 interview with “Urban Street,” where he discussed coming of age during Jim Crow: “We drank from the white fountain to see if it would taste any different.”

3. Avondale Park

4101 5th Ave S, Birmingham

I’d been to Avondale Park before, but I gained a new love for it in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Early that summer, a few artists teamed up to throw an outdoor art show in the park’s massive stone amphitheater.

Later that year, a friend of mine and I were still weary about eating inside restaurants even though the state lifted the indoor dining restrictions. We wanted pizza from Post Office Pies, so we decided to place our orders to go and dine at Avondale Park. We took refuge in the stone picnic area at the top of the park, feasting on pepperoni and sparkling water. Another time, we took our pizza went back to the amphitheater to watch Opera Birmingham perform its pop-up concert series “Opera Shots.”

Avondale Park’s proximity to bars and restaurants is a perk. Another gem: The pond with geese and ducks (pekins and mallards, to be exact). If you’re a Birmingham history buff, you’ll enjoy the park’s newest feature: A bronze statue of Miss Fancy, the elephant who spent decades living in the former Avondale Zoo.

2. Red Mountain Park

2011 Frankfurt Dr, Birmingham

Red Mountain Park is massive, covering 1,500 acres and featuring 16 miles of trails for walking, hiking, and mountain biking. But one of the park’s most interesting features is its mobile app, which effectively turns a cell phone into a tour guide.

Using the app, park-goers can hear oral histories from miners who worked the land. Red Mountain Park opened in 2011, but the park started the history project years before to document the stories of the iron and steel forged in the mountains. The app will notify guests as they approach a site where a story is available. Once users press play, the narration will begin. The app also displays several historic images that depict the landscape when Birmingham was at its mining peak.

1. Kelly Ingram Park

500 17th St N, Birmingham

The entrances to Kelly Ingram Park have inscriptions — “A place of revolution and reconciliation.”

Built in 1871, Kelly Ingram Park was named after a Birmingham firefighter who was the first American sailor killed in World War I. Almost a century later, the park was a landmark site during Birmingham’s civil rights campaign of the 1960s. Birmingham police attacked demonstrators with police dogs and billy clubs as they made their way through the park during protests.

In the 1990s, Dr. Richard Arrington, the first Black mayor of Birmingham, redesigned the park to commemorate its role in the civil rights movement. In 2017, President Barack Obama signed a proclamation designating part of Birmingham’s civil rights district as a national monument. The declaration made a portion of the area- which includes Kelly Ingram Park as well as the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the A.G. Gaston Motel, 16th Street Baptist Church, Bethel Baptist Church, the Colored Masonic Temple, St. Paul United Methodist Church, and portions of the 4th Avenue Business District — part of the National Park Service. The collection of historic sites is collectively known as the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.

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