In this article What's the Plan at a Glance? Court Square Fountain: Where the City Began Dexter Avenue and the Alabama State Capitol Old Alabama Town: The Neighborhood Side of Montgomery The Navigator and the Drive Between Start at Court Square Fountain, work your way up Dexter Avenue to the Capitol, then close the morning at Old Alabama Town on North Hull Street. Call it three stops, roughly four miles of downtown driving, and October is the month to do it. By early October the humidity has finally broken. The light at that hour sits low and amber through the old oaks, and downtown Montgomery, which can feel relentless in August, opens up into something unhurried. We've driven this loop ourselves, and we'll tell you what we've learned about running it in a full-size vehicle. The 2026 Lincoln Navigator is what we'd take. What's the Plan at a Glance? Stop What to Do Best Time Parking Notes Court Square Fountain Walk the square, locate Rosa Parks bus stop marker First thing in the morning Street parking on Commerce or Dexter; metered and usually open early Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Alabama State Capitol Guided tour of the church basement; self-guided Capitol exterior and grounds Mid-morning (tours run Tue-Sat, hourly from 10 am) Church lot is small; the Alabama Judicial Building garage on Dexter handles a full-size SUV Old Alabama Town, North Hull Street Self-guided walk through 50+ restored buildings Late morning into afternoon Garage on Monroe Street, half a block north; fits a Navigator without issue Confirm tour availability at the church before you go. Reservations are recommended, and the basement mural (the reason to step inside at all) stays closed unless a guide is with you. Court Square Fountain: Where the City Began If you're still deciding which vehicle to bring, start the morning here, where the Court Square Fountain lays out the city's full arc in a single block and tells you fast how much of the day will be spent on foot versus behind the wheel. The Court Square Fountain has been standing since 1885, when Montgomery's city council built it over one of the oldest artesian wells in the region. The iron work was cast by the Mott Iron Works of New York. It marks the geographic point where two early settlements, Alabama Town and New Philadelphia, grew together to become Montgomery. It also marks the square that served as the city's central slave market through the mid-19th century, and it's the stop on Court Square where Rosa Parks boarded the bus in December 1955. None of that's decoration. Standing at the fountain, you can look straight up Dexter Avenue and see the Capitol dome at the far end of the block. The civic story of this city sits in a single sightline. Spend twenty minutes here, and read the markers with care, because the quiet is doing something in a place this layered. Insider note: Arrive before 9 am if you want the fountain to yourself. By mid-morning on a clear October weekday, it draws a steady crowd of visitors. The early light also falls down Dexter Avenue from the Capitol end, which makes the entire street worth photographing. Dexter Avenue and the Alabama State Capitol Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, at 454 Dexter Avenue, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974 because of its importance in the civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor there and helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Drive slowly up Dexter Avenue. The redbrick church appears on the left before the Capitol, and the approach by car gives you the full scale of the street, something a walking tour can't quite replicate. The Lincoln Aviator seats three rows and handles downtown parking more easily than the Navigator if you're bringing a larger group. Still, both fit in the Judicial Building garage on Dexter with some patience. Alabama artist John Feagin painted the full-room mural in the church basement, and it tracks the Montgomery Bus Boycott with documentary precision. That's the reason to book a guided tour rather than simply drive past. Tours run Tuesday through Saturday, hourly from 10 am to 3 pm, and the basement stays locked outside a guided visit. Plan ninety minutes here. The Alabama State Capitol is steps away. Jefferson Davis was inaugurated on the West Portico in 1861, and a little over a hundred years later, the third Selma to Montgomery march culminated in Dr. King's "How Long, Not Long" speech from the front staircase. Self-guided access to the exterior and grounds is free, and you don't need a ticket to feel the weight of the spot. The view looking back down Dexter Avenue from the Capitol steps, toward the church in the middle distance, is what ties the entire morning together. Schedule a Pre-Trip Service Check Old Alabama Town: The Neighborhood Side of Montgomery Three-quarters of a mile northwest on North Hull Street, the city changes register entirely, trading the civic weight of Dexter Avenue for something domestic and lived-in, which makes Old Alabama Town the right second stop once the morning's heavier history has settled and you're ready for something quieter. Old Alabama Town is a six-block living history museum in historic downtown Montgomery, where you can explore how people lived and worked in central Alabama during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Visitors can enjoy self-guided tours through more than 50 restored buildings along North Hull Street, including rural homes, shops, and workplaces. The Landmarks Foundation manages the collection, and it's open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm. A modest admission fee applies. The guided tour of the Ordeman-Shaw House, an Italianate townhouse with original outbuildings, is worth the time if the morning allows. What makes Old Alabama Town work as a second stop is exactly that it's unhurried. There's no fixed-route pressure. You move through the restored blocks at your own pace, a different rhythm from the focused, guided experience at Dexter Avenue. The contrast between the two sites, one civic and activist, the other domestic and rural, gives the morning a real arc. The Lincoln Nautilus is the right call for a couple who wants comfortable seating and easy downtown maneuverability without the full footprint of the Navigator, and we'd call that a fair tradeoff out loud. Next step: Before you plan the route, walk through our inventory online or call our team at (334) 647-6905. We're on Eastern Boulevard and happy to match the right vehicle to the kind of driving you actually do. The Navigator and the Drive Between The honest version of the Navigator case is that its strengths here have nothing to do with speed and everything to do with how it filters out a city morning, which is exactly the job on a slow four-mile downtown loop. You won't be chasing horsepower on these blocks. The 2026 Navigator's adaptive suspension and enhanced active noise control are engineered for exactly the kind of low-speed, start-and-stop city driving this route demands. Lincoln lists the twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 at 440 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque. That power is never what you're reaching for in downtown Montgomery. What you notice instead is what's absent: the tire noise on brick streets, the cabin intrusion from other traffic, the fatigue that accumulates on a longer morning. The Navigator's soft-close doors don't feel like a feature until you've stepped out at Court Square in the morning stillness and appreciated the silence that followed. The tradeoff is size. Navigating the tighter blocks around Old Alabama Town asks for patience. Parallel parking on North Hull Street in a long-wheelbase Navigator L requires a specific approach, and we'd say so plainly to any client who asked. The Monroe Street garage is the better choice there, and it handles the full footprint without drama. We've watched clients return from a morning like this one changed in a way that a highway drive doesn't produce. October in Montgomery, low sun, cool air, and a cabin that genuinely holds quiet, tends to slow things down in a way that suits both the vehicle and the history. Let it. Explore Financing Options Stivers Lincoln of Montgomery 4000 Eastern Blvd, Montgomery, AL 36116 (334) 647-6905