The Honey Hole, Inc. preserves, interprets, and celebrates the history, culture, and contributions of Huntsville’s historic Honey Hole community while advancing education, workforce development, historic preservation, and community revitalization that connect our shared heritage to future opportunities.
About The Honey Hole
Our Mission
Our Model
The Honey Hole, Inc. preserves the history of working-class communities, rebrands their legacy through cultural storytelling and historic preservation, and promotes heritage-based education, tourism, and economic opportunity. Through community engagement and preservation initiatives, we connect the community’s industrial history to its future growth and innovation.
PRESERVE
Preserve the historical, cultural, labor, and community legacy of historically underserved working-class neighborhoods through historic preservation, oral histories, archival research, cultural heritage initiatives, and the protection of significant community institutions, landscapes, and stories.
REBRAND
Reframe historically underserved working-class communities as foundational contributors to industrial, economic, and technological growth by connecting their histories to modern workforce development, education, entrepreneurship, STEM engagement, and future opportunity.
PROMOTE
Promote community revitalization, heritage tourism, educational partnerships, workforce initiatives, and public-private collaboration by transforming historic community assets into active centers for learning, civic engagement, economic development, and cultural identity.
Our Vision
Historically Underserved Communities Were Not Peripheral to Progress—They Were Fundamental to It.
Our vision is to create a nationally recognized model in which preservation becomes a tool for community renewal, cultural pride, educational advancement, workforce readiness, and economic development.
Our History
The Honey Hole, Inc. was established to preserve, interpret, and promote the history of historically underserved working-class communities whose labor, ingenuity, and perseverance helped build America’s industrial, economic, and technological foundations. The organization emerged from a growing recognition that many communities that contributed significantly to regional and national progress have often been overlooked in traditional historical narratives, despite their central role in shaping the places where they lived and worked.
The organization’s name is inspired by the historic Honey Hole community of Huntsville, Alabama, a working-class neighborhood located near the railroad corridor that connected generations of residents to employment, industry, and opportunity. Like many communities across the American South, the Honey Hole developed alongside the growth of railroads, manufacturing, transportation, and commerce. The community’s residents contributed their labor to the industries and infrastructure that helped transform Huntsville from a railroad town into a center of advanced technology, aerospace innovation, and economic development.
The Honey Hole, Inc. was founded on the belief that historically underserved communities were not peripheral to progress—they were fundamental to it. The organization recognizes that churches, schools, neighborhoods, railroads, factories, mills, and other community institutions served as the foundation upon which larger economic and technological achievements were built. Yet the stories of the workers, families, and communities behind those achievements often remain undocumented, underrepresented, or at risk of being lost.
In response, The Honey Hole, Inc. developed a community-centered model built around three core principles: Preserve, Rebrand, and Promote. Through historic preservation, archival research, oral history documentation, community engagement, workforce development, educational programming, and heritage tourism initiatives, the organization seeks to preserve significant places and stories, reframe public understanding of their historical importance, and promote new opportunities for community revitalization and economic growth.
The organization’s flagship initiative, “From Railroads to Robotics,” explores the relationship between Huntsville’s railroad heritage, the Memphis & Charleston Freight Depot, the Honey Hole community, and the city’s emergence as a global center of technology and innovation. Through historical research, preservation planning, and community engagement, the project demonstrates how generations of workers and neighborhoods contributed to Huntsville’s transformation and how those stories can inspire future workforce development and educational opportunities.
Building upon this model, The Honey Hole, Inc. has begun expanding its work to other communities across Alabama. Through the proposed “From Steel to Skills” initiative in Gadsden, Alabama, the organization is partnering with community institutions to document the history of the Westside neighborhood, Republic Steel, Galilee Baptist Church, and other community assets while creating pathways for education, workforce development, and neighborhood revitalization.
Today, The Honey Hole, Inc. serves as a preservation-centered community development organization dedicated to transforming historic assets into engines of opportunity. By connecting labor history, community heritage, education, and economic development, the organization seeks to ensure that the communities that helped build progress are recognized, preserved, and empowered to help shape its future.
Through its work, The Honey Hole, Inc. continues to advance its vision that historically underserved communities were not peripheral to progress—they were fundamental to it.
Our Team
Dr. Edward L. Jones
President & Chief Executive Officer
The Honey Hole, Inc.
Dr. Edward L. Jones is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of The Honey Hole, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, rebranding, and promoting historically underserved working-class communities whose labor, ingenuity, and resilience helped build America’s industrial, economic, and technological foundations. Under his leadership, the organization is developing innovative preservation initiatives that connect labor history, industrial heritage, workforce development, and community revitalization to create opportunities for future generations.
With more than 30 years of executive, academic, scientific, and nonprofit leadership experience, Dr. Jones has built a distinguished career leading complex organizations, developing strategic partnerships, securing public and private funding, and managing transformational initiatives. Before founding The Honey Hole, Inc., he served for nearly 15 years as President and CEO of the Huntsville Network for Urban School Renewal (HNUSR), where he established the organization as a nationally recognized nonprofit dedicated to improving educational opportunities in underserved communities. During his tenure, he secured significant federal, state, corporate, and foundation support, including a $1 million appropriation from the Alabama Legislature over the life of the nonprofit, AmeriCorps funding, and grants from organizations such as Toyota, BAE Systems, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Jones has extensive experience in strategic planning, organizational development, program evaluation, community engagement, and grant management. As founder and CEO of EJ2 Associates, LLC, he has served as an external evaluator for major federally funded initiatives supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor, helping colleges and universities strengthen program quality, accountability, and measurable outcomes.
His professional background also includes senior leadership positions at Alabama A&M University, where he served as Associate Dean, Department Chair, Accreditation Director, and Program Director, leading accreditation, assessment, strategic planning, and institutional improvement initiatives. Earlier in his career, he directed national research fellowship programs at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, overseeing competitive research investments and partnerships between NASA and universities nationwide. His experience spans higher education administration, scientific research, federal program management, workforce development, and organizational leadership.
Dr. Jones combines professional expertise with a deep personal commitment to preserving the city’s overlooked stories. His ongoing research documents the history of the Honey Hole community and its relationship to Southern Railway, industrial development, and Huntsville’s emergence as a global center for innovation. Through The Honey Hole, Inc., he is leading efforts to preserve historic places, collect oral histories, promote heritage tourism, and transform historically significant community assets into centers for education, civic engagement, workforce development, and economic opportunity.
Dr. Jones holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy from Michigan State University, a Master of Science in Inorganic Chemistry from Clark Atlanta University, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Alabama A&M University. His career reflects a rare combination of scientific training, executive leadership, educational innovation, nonprofit management, and community development, uniquely positioning him to lead The Honey Hole, Inc. in preserving an important chapter of America’s industrial and cultural history.
Karen Simmons
Director of Historic Preservation & Research
Karen Simmons serves as Director of Historic Preservation & Research for The Honey Hole, Inc. She brings extensive experience in education, nonprofit program leadership, workforce development, community engagement, and student and family support services. Her background helps connect The Honey Hole’s historic preservation mission with education, career pathways, community storytelling, and public history programming.
Karen has worked across nonprofit, public education, community college, workforce readiness, and social service settings. She has supported students, families, and community members through career counseling, job training, internship readiness, academic advising, employment placement, and access to community resources. Her experience includes serving as an Education and Family Support Specialist with Urban Strategies Inc., where she coordinated community-based supports, analyzed research data, built educational partnerships, and represented the organization in local meetings. She also served as an Employment Specialist with Huntsville Rehabilitation Services dba Phoenix, providing employment readiness training, skills assessment, job development, placement, coaching, and follow-up services.
Karen holds a Master of Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University and a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education with concentrations in English and History from Alabama A&M University. She also holds a State of Alabama Class B Secondary Education Professional Teacher Certification and is a Licensed Assisted Living Administrator, Category II.
In her role with The Honey Hole, Inc., Karen helps lead the organization’s historic preservation and research efforts by combining her knowledge of history, education, workforce development, community engagement, documentation, and program administration. Her experience equips her to support preservation initiatives that honor community memory, connect historical research to public education, and strengthen the organization’s broader mission of linking heritage, opportunity, and community advancement.