About

Hampton Cove sits inside Huntsville city limits, though mail here is addressed to Owens Cross Roads — both are true at once, and it trips up newcomers constantly. Development began in 1992 on land the Hays family had held for generations, and the community has grown to roughly 2,800 acres and about 2,000 homes spread across twenty-one neighborhoods.

It is built around the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Hampton Cove, 54 holes designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and opened in 1993. Beyond the golf there are 28 stocked lakes, about twenty miles of sidewalks and paved paths, neighborhood parks, and the Hampton House community center. The 538-acre Hays Nature Preserve and the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary border the community, which is why so much of daily life here happens outdoors.