Pell City, AL

Pell City, situated on Interstate 20 between Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia is the largest city in St. Clair County, Alabama. The city is located on the shores of Logan Martin Lake, created by the construction of Logan Martin Dam in 1964 to provide hydro-electric power to the central region of the state. It was founded in 1890 by railroad investors and named after George H. Pell of the Pell City Iron and Land Company, one of its financial backers.

The city was incorporated on May 6, 18…

Pell City, situated on Interstate 20 between Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia is the largest city in St. Clair County, Alabama. The city is located on the shores of Logan Martin Lake, created by the construction of Logan Martin Dam in 1964 to provide hydro-electric power to the central region of the state. It was founded in 1890 by railroad investors and named after George H. Pell of the Pell City Iron and Land Company, one of its financial backers.

The city was incorporated on May 6, 1891, but it nearly completely failed during the Panic of 1893. However, it was revived in 1902 when Sumter Cogswell built the Pell City Manufacturing Company, which subsequently became Avondale Mills which was a major landmark of the town until Thunder Enterprises, a Tennessee company, bought the building and began dismantling the factory in 2008. During the process, however, it was destroyed by a accidental fire. Pell City increased its size in 1956 when the nearby towns of Eden and Oak Ridge were merged with the city.

The residences of Sumter Cogswell and Green Evans (Pell City’s first mayor) are two of the earliest structures, dating from the late nineteenth century. The majority of the historic structures date from 1902 to 1905.

Ashville, Alabama in the northern part of the St. Clair County, was the only county seat from 1821 to 1907. A constitutional amendment in 1907 established Pell City as the second county seat. For many years, St. Clair County was the only county in the country with two full-service county seats. Both county seats remain operational to this day although Pell City has far outstripped Ashville in growth thanks in no small part to the convergence of both I-20 and Logan Martin Lake.

After a period of growth in the 1980s Pell City voted to split its school system off from the county system, becoming independent. The system has over 4500 students spread across Pell City High School Duran Junior High School, Duran South, Iola Roberts Elementary, Walter M. Kennedy Elementary, Coosa Valley Elementary, and Eden Elementary. In addition, a new 5-6 school is under construction, eventually bringing the number of campuses in the Pell City School System to eight.

Recently, Pell City has experienced a period of rapid residential and commercial growth (estimated population around 16,000, excluding the unincorporated residential areas just south of the city along the lakefront) spurred, partly, by the opening of the Honda Plant in nearby Lincoln, Alabama a new industrial park on its northeastern border and by a new retail area on the north side of I-20 anchored by a super Wal-Mart,Home Depot, Cracker Barrel and a movie theater, soon to be constructed. Additional retail and entertainment development is expected in the near future.