Established in 1962, Cummings Research Park began as an idea during a brainstorming session between Dr. Wernher von Braun and a group Huntsville community leaders. This conversation about the city amenities needed to attract business sparked the beginnings of Cummings Research Park, first known as Huntsville Research Park. The group set out to create a collaborative environment for companies who supported the ground-breaking governmental research on Redstone Arsenal. Brown Engineering was the first business to move into the Huntsville Research Park. The engineering firm, headed by Milton K. Cummings and Joseph C. Moquin, purchased a 100-acre lot in 1962 at the end of the dirt road that developed into what is known today as Sparkman Drive.
As a founding business in Huntsville Research Park, Brown Engineering established their research laboratories and flourished. In 1967, Teledyne Incorporated of Los Angeles bought the engineering firm. The company, known today as Teledyne Brown Engineering still remains an anchor tenant in the Park. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, IBM, Lockheed, Northrop, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville all soon located within the park, all of which grew tremendously and remain in the Park today. After the death of Milton K. Cummings in 1973, the park was renamed Cummings Research Park (CRP). The original settlement of CRP, known as CRP East, filled up by the late 1980s. In 1982, the City of Huntsville purchased additional land, known today as CRP West. Companies including Adtran and Dynetics Inc. as well as the HudsonAlpha Institute and its 152-acre biotech campus are located there. In 2007, Bridge Street Town Centre opened inside CRP West. The mixed-use project was originally established as a nearby place to offer services to employees inside the Park but soon became a booming regional retail destination.