Von Braun Astronomical Society

Monte Sano Mountain is a mountain located in Huntsville, Alabama. The name Monte Sano is Spanish for "Mountain of health". The mountain was given its name by Dr. Thomas Fern, who along with his two brothers, founded a small colony on the mountain during an epidemic of yellow fever, malaria, and cholera. The location on the mountain was chosen because of its cool air and medicinal springs. The top is relatively flat and lies just under 500 meters above sea level. This elevation is about 300 meters higher than the floor of the Tennessee Valley, which surrounds it. A residential neighborhood occupies the western portion of the top. The eastern portion and slopes of the mountain are occupied by Monte Sano State Park. Monte Sano is connected to Round Top (Burritt) Mountain by a col to the south.

Monte Sano State Park is a public recreation area and mountaintop retreat encompassing 2,140 acres (870 ha) on the eastern portion of the top and slopes of Monte Sano Mountain on the east side of Huntsville, Alabama. The state park has 1930s-era, Civilian Conservation Corps–built rustic cottages, hiking trails and picnic areas with scenic overlooks, and modern campsites. It is managed by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The Monte Sano Railroad Workers' House is a historic boarding house in Huntsville, Alabama, United States. Built in 1888, it is the only remaining building relating to the Monte Sano Hotel and Railroad. The North Alabama Improvement Company built the three-story, Queen Anne hotel on Monte Sano Mountain in 1887. The following year, construction began on a rail line connecting the hotel with the Memphis and Charleston Depot downtown. The house was constructed to house workers building and later operating the railroad. The workers' house was originally a saddlebag plan building, consisting of two rooms sharing a central chimney. A shed roofed, two-room addition was added in 1925. The façade has two doors, flanked by two-over-two sash windows. The house is clad with board-and-batten siding, and topped with a gabled metal roof. The structure was modernized after 1997, and a shed-roof front porch added. The hotel and railroad venture was not a financial success, and the railroad shut down in 1895, followed by the hotel in 1904. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

Monte Sano Nature Preserve is, at 1,107 acres (448 ha), one of the largest urban nature preserves in the US and is located on Monte Sano Mountain in Huntsville, Alabama. The Land Trust of North Alabama manages the nature preserve and Land Trust volunteers have created 23+ miles of public trails. Residents and visitors alike enjoy the multi-use trails for hiking, biking, running, bird watching, environmental education, and general recreation. The trail system was honored in 2011 by the Department of the Interior as National Recreation Trails making them the first NRT trails in Madison County. "Huntsville/Madison County's mountains form the final segment of the Great Appalachian chain and provide some of the southernmost habitats of broadleaf hardwoods such as the Sugar Maple. Monte Sano is home to several plant species important to the study of ecosystem stability referred to by scientists as "relics," because they provide clues to the climate of periods hundreds of thousands of years ago. Some of these species include the American Smoketree (Chittamwood), Morefield's Leather Flower, Price's Potato Bean, and Cumberland Rosinweed."Special features of the Monte Sano Nature Preserve include a former limestone quarry known as Three Caves, an historic spring named Trough Springs which was the site of one of the last Alabama confrontations of the Civil War, and the remnants of the Monte Sano Railroad from the late 1800s. The Old Railroad Bed Trail is one of the first 500 Rails-to-Trails Conservancy projects.

Ryland is an unincorporated community in eastern Madison County, Alabama. The community borders Maysville.

Flint River Place (also known as the Moore-Jordan-Busbin Mansion) is a historic residence near Huntsville, Alabama. The house was built between 1844 and 1850 by Daniel Friend, a planter who came to Alabama from Kentucky around 1826. The house is Greek Revival in style, with Federal and Georgian Revival elements. It began as an L-shaped house, with an additional ell and one-story shed roofed infill built in 1930. The house is clad in poplar siding and the gable roof was originally slate over wooden shingles, but has been replaced by asphalt shingles. Two gable-end chimneys have simple, Federal-style mantels. The façade is three bays, with a one-story portico supported by four columns, with a balcony above; it replaced a gable-roofed, two-column portico in 1978. The main entrance is flanked by sidelights and topped with a fanlight. Windows on the entire house, except for the southeast bedroom addition, are six-over-nine sashes. The house was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 1981 and National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The house was heavily damaged in a fire in 2012.

The Joel Eddins House is a hall-and-parlor log house on the grounds of Burritt on the Mountain in Huntsville, Alabama, and is the oldest documented building in the state. The house was built in 1810 near present-day Ardmore in Limestone County, Alabama, by Joel Eddins, a settler from Abbeville County, South Carolina. It was moved from its original site to Burritt in 2007. The 1+1⁄2-story house is a hall-and-parlor style, not commonly found in Alabama. An addition was built in the 1930s to the rear, which wrapped around part of the east side; it was not retained when the house was moved to Burritt. The gable roof has brick chimneys on the ends. The main entry opens into the larger "hall" room, which contains a fireplace on the west wall and doors on the other two. A quarter-turn staircase in the northeast corner leads to the upper floor. The eastern door leads to the "parlor" with another fireplace and staircase. The upper floor rooms are the same size as those below, and are not connected. Each room has two small, four-pane windows on either side of the chimney. The 1930s addition contained a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Burritt on the Mountain is an open-air museum in Huntsville, Alabama. The museum grounds on Round Top Mountain, a plateau connected to Monte Sano Mountain, were the estate of local physician William Burritt, who willed his house and land to the city for use as a museum upon his death in 1955. A number of 19th-century rural structures have been added to Burritt's mansion, both in the interest of historical preservation and life re-enactment.

Chase is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Alabama, United States.

Madison County is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 388,153, making it the third-most populous county in Alabama. Its county seat is Huntsville. Since the mid-20th century it has become an area of defense and space research and industry. The county is named in honor of James Madison, fourth President of the United States and the first President to visit the state of Alabama. Madison County covers parts of the former Decatur County. Madison County is included in the Huntsville, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Withers-Chapman House is a historic residence in Huntsville, Alabama. The house was built by Allen Christian circa 1835 as the center of a farm that would become one of the major dairy suppliers in central North Alabama. After Christian's death in 1849, the house was purchased by Augustine and Mary Withers. Former Governor of Alabama Reuben Chapman acquired the house in 1873, after his previous house nearby had been burned by departing Union soldiers in 1865. The house remained in Chapman's family from 1873 until 1971. The surrounding farmland has been sold off into suburban development, but the house retains a prominent position on a 2-acre (0.8 ha) lot on a hillside. The 1+1⁄2-story house was built in the Federal style, with Greek Revival details. The house is clad in white clapboard and features a pedimented portico supported by four Tuscan columns over the entry. The portico is flanked by twelve-over-twelve sash windows. On each side of the house, two chimneys project through the end gable. There are two nine-over-nine windows between the chimneys on the main floor and a single twelve-over-twelve window on the upper floor. A central chimney and a shed roofed porch along the rear (connecting the formerly free-standing kitchen to the main house) were added in the 1930s. The interior is laid out with a central hall, with a dining room and parlor to one side and two bedrooms to the other. A stairwell at the end of the hall leads to two bedrooms upstairs. A shed roofed porch along the rear two-thirds of the eastern wall was enclosed in the 1960s to provide space for bathrooms.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Greengate School for Dyslexia is a private, non-profit school located in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama. Established in 2002, Greengate School provides a full-time elementary program for children with dyslexia in Huntsville. Starting with three students in a church, Greengate had 32 students in 2006 and 19 teachers. The school has a 4:1 student teacher ratio and is a member of the International Dyslexia Association. In 2010 Greengate School received accreditation from the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS), the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (see Orton-Gillingham). Greengate is one of only 14 schools in the country accredited by the Orton-Gillingham Academy for Practitioners and Educators. In March 2018 Greengate became a division of Randolph School and moved to Randolph's Drake Avenue campus. The Greengate School at Randolph serves children in grades 1-8 and provides dyslexic students a specialized program of instruction that meets their individual learning needs while offering them a full complement of co-curricular and extra-curricular school experiences. Founded in 1959, Randolph is the only K-12 independent college preparatory school in the region.