BY MICHAELA YIELDING
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Expected to be finished sometime in the Spring, Ann Pearson Park, named after the Auburn native and historian, will include trails, a pavilion and a play area spanning about 47 acres of land. It will be the first park on the north side of Auburn and will be located on Shelton Mill Road.
Ann Bowling Pearson was born on April 6, 1941, in Montgomery and attended high school in Auburn. She is known best as an Auburn historian, writer and philanthropist. Pearson taught at Georgia Southwestern State University and Auburn University.
Pearson earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Auburn University in 1963 and master’s in English from the University of North Carolina in 1964. Pearson returned to AU and earned a Ph.D. in English literature with an emphasis in Victorian literature in 1971.
Pearson purchased the Dowdell-Alvis-Emrick House, better known as the Sunny Slope house on South College Street. She later renovated and donated the house to Auburn University, and it is now the home of Auburn University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Pearson was an active community member until her death on June 23, 2020. She was a founding member of the Lee County Humane Society, now known as the CARE Humane Society, and supported it until her death. In 2022, the CARE Humane Society started the Ann Pearson Memorial Community Cat Program which allows residents to bring friendly stray cats to get spayed or neutered at a low cost.
Pearson also served as president of the Auburn Heritage Association, on the Auburn Cemetery Advisory Board and on the Lee County Historical Society board.
Her family home was purchased by her great-grandfather and former president of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Luther Noble Duncan, in the 1940s. Known as Noble Hall, an 1854 antebellum home sits on a 238-acre farm located on Shelton Mill Road in Auburn, just past the intersection with E. University Drive. Pearson made Noble Hall the first structure in Lee County to be put on the National Register of Historic places in 1972. In the 2000s, she placed 100 acres of the land into a conservation easement to preserve it.
The park will be located across Shelton Mill Road from Noble Hall. The estimated total construction budget of the 47-acre park is $2.35 million. Though originally expected to be completed in March, delays in material availability have pushed back the completion date, according to David D. Dorton, communications and legislative affairs director of the city of Auburn.
“On the anticipated substantial completion date, there have been some delays in the availability of materials, so we’re anticipating that the completion date will be pushed out approximately 60 days,” Dorton said. “We’re waiting for a new schedule from the contractor and will update the site once we have that updated target date.”
