Local city information for Anniston, AL

Anniston is a city in Calhoun County in the state of Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 24,276. According to the 2005 U.S. Census estimates, the city had a population of 23,741.. The city is the county seat of Calhoun County and one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Named the The Model City by Atlanta newspaperman Henry W. Grady for its careful planning in the late 1800s, the city is situated on the slope of Blue Mountain, and it has always been a small town.

Though the surrounding area was settled long before, the mineral resources in the area of Anniston weren't exploited until the civil war. During that time, the Confederate States of America established and operated an iron furnace near present day downtown Anniston, until the furnace was destroyed by Union troops in 1865. Later, clay pipe for sewer systems became the focus of Anniston's industrial output. Clay pipe, also called soil pipe, was popular until the advent of plastic pipe in the 1960s.

As Anniston took steps to becoming a small town, the largest city in the state became a boom town for the steel industry 60 miles southwestward in Birmingham. In 1872, Anniston's Woodstock Iron Company organized by Samuel Noble and Union Gen. Daniel Tyler (1799-1882), rebuilt a furnace on a much larger scale, as well as a planned community. Iron and steel manufacturing boomed during the post-Civil War period in the central part of Alabama. Birmingham 60 miles (100 km) became a major new US city overnight. Anniston maintained its company town demeanor where a few families governed the hierarchy of Southern gentilism. Though it was not opened for general settlement until twelve years later, Anniston was chartered as a "company town" in 1879. The community name reportedly derives from '''Annie's Town, named for Annie Scott Tyler, wife of railroad president Alfred L. Tyler.

Though the roots of the town's economy were in Iron and steel and clay pipe, planners touted it as a health resort, and several hotels began operating. Schools appeared. The Noble Institute, a school for girls, established in 1886, and the Alabama Presbyterian College for Men founded in 1905. Planning and easy access to rail transportation helped make Anniston the fifth largest city in the state from 1890's to 1950's.

In 1917, the United States Army established a training camp at Fort McClellan during the start of World War I. On the other side of town, the Anniston Army Depot opened during World War II as a major storage and maintenance site, a role it continues to serve as incineration progresses. Most of the old site of Fort McClellan was incorporated into Anniston in the late 1990s. The Army closed the fort in 1999, as part of the Base Realignment and Closure round of 1995. Some of the old Fort McClellan property is now being redeveloped for civilian use. As the northernmost edge of town, McClellan is hoped to become the star of Anniston's future.

The Anniston Eastern Bypass is set to be revived with the signing of the 2009 Federal Stimulus Package. According to the Birmingham News, "The Anniston Eastern Bypass and a Memorial Parkway overpass in Huntsville will be the big transportation winners if Congress gives final approval today to a $789 billion economic stimulus package."

The Anniston Eastern Bypass was planned to officially stop construction in 2009. The project stalled when the federal and state money for the bypass was used up purchasing right-of-way and grading about half the roadbed.

Alabama is set to receive more than $550 million for transportation under the Federal Stimulus Package. One of the first road projects to receive that money is Calhoun County's Eastern Bypass. That road connects Highway 431 to I-20. Road construction began years ago but stopped when the money ran out. With stimulus funding promised, drivers look forward to a shorter commute while Calhoun County leaders see dollar signs.

Anniston Mayor Gene Robinson says, "It's going to be the catalyst that gets McClellan and Anniston cranked up and going again."

Anniston has been a center of national controversy in the past. During the American civil rights movement, a group known as the Freedom Riders was riding an integrated bus in protest of southern segregation laws. One of the buses was fire-bombed outside of Anniston on Mother's Day Sunday May 14, 1961. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intent on burning the riders to death. An exploding fuel tank caused the mob to retreat, allowing the riders to escape the bus. The Riders were viciously beaten as they fled the burning bus, and only warning shots fired into the air by highway patrolmen prevented the riders from being lynched on the spot. The site is now home to a marker along Alabama Highway 202 west about five miles west of downtown.

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