PRATTVILLE − A new museum planned for downtown Prattville is seeking to preserve the history unique to this Southern city, and will serve as an educational center and gathering spot for the community.
Dubbed “the PRATT,” the $10 million proposal shepherded by the Autauga County Heritage Association, is touted as a way to preserve Prattville’s unique history. Daniel Pratt formed the town that now bears his name in 1839. A native of New England, he picked the fall line of Autauga Creek to power his industrial empire.
The museum complex will sit on about six acres of the sprawling gin shop site downtown, including frontage on the mill pond. It calls for the renovation of the 11,600-square-foot research and development building from the gin shop days to house STEM classrooms.
This artist’s rendering shows plans for a $10 million Prattville museum complex.
Plans also include the construction of a 10,098 square feet museum and 3,200 event hall, which will be situated on the pond banks.
A glass hall will link the two structures.
Outdoor facilities at the museum and event hall will include a canopied picnic area and educational pavilion, flag plaza, fountain and parking. The event hall will be available for community use and will seat 400. There will be a large kitchen able to handle catering in the hall.
The building will be located near The Mill, the recently opened renovation of the five historic masonry buildings of the gin shop to create loft apartments, and the Prattville Public Safety Building. The building acts as headquarters to the Prattville Fire and Prattville Police departments.
More: Crowd gets sneak peek at Prattville’s $37 million ‘gin shop’ project
Continental Eagle, the company that traced its roots back to Pratt, ended production at the Prattville buildings in 2012.
So that’s the dream, once it’s funded.
This image shows the logo for a proposed museum complex celebrating the history of Prattville.
Fundraising effort
The price tag is about $9.9 million, with ACHA pledging about $1.9 million in cash and property where the complex will be built. The remaining $7.9 million will be funded through public-private sources.
A fundraising effort has taken on about $1.35 million, with $200,000 from the State of Alabama to back the STEM efforts. The ACHA is asking the City of Prattville contribute $2.5 million over a period of five years.
If the money comes in, construction is slated to begin in September with the work completed by October 2026 and a grand opening set for January 2027.
Once open, ACHA expects 16,000 visitors the first year and up to 20,000 visitors in five years, with the majority being school children.
That should create a positive economic impact on an already booming downtown, backers say.
More: As The Mill in Prattville gets new life, interest in downtown development heats up
‘New England Village of the South’
The Mill at Prattville’s historic downtown gin shop on Friday December 15, 2023.
You see Pratt’s influence as you walk or ride through downtown, whether you know it or not.
His empire set the stage for Prattville to have a unique design, and the companies Pratt established mean local historians tout the city as the state’s first industrial village.
The gin shop, downtown’s iconic landmark, was home to Pratt’s industrial pursuits. At one time it was the largest cotton gin factory in the world. A century later that industrial heart still beat strongly, and the site built high pressure steam pipes for the Manhattan Project, the World War II effort to develop a nuclear bomb.
The site towers over downtown.
The Mill at Prattville apartments are seen in downtown Prattville, Ala. on Thursday evening November 17, 2022.
Pratt designed his village by the creek in the style he was familiar with. In New England, the industrial buildings took center stage of the towns. Where the traditional Southern way was to make the courthouse square the center of town.
It’s that unique design, and Pratt’s impact on the state and world, the museum effort wants to showcase.
“We endeavor to create indoor and outdoor gathering places where people can learn,communicate, and celebrate as we continue to honor Pratt’s legacy in the ‘The New EnglandVillage of the South,” said David Edgeworth, ACHA president.
Pratt’s efforts went on the include not only cotton gin manufacturing, but a sash and door mill, a foundry, cotton spinning plants and even a brick yard. His influence was also felt in Jefferson County, where he was instrumental in getting the steel making industry off the ground. Pratt City is named for him.
“Prattville is home to the earliest large industrial site in Alabama,” said Ann Boutwell, local historian. “Daniel Pratt and the industrial empire he launched along Autauga Creek changed the economic landscape of Alabama. The original Daniel Pratt Gin Company, mill pond, dam, and industrial village spurred development across Alabama in the mid-1800s in industry, banking, railroads, production of iron and coal, education, and the arts.”
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: $10 million museum complex planned for downtown Prattville
