This opera house has been a cultural center of Dothan Alabama since it was constructed as a municipal auditorium and office building in 1915. Originally constructed by Mayor Buck Baker at the cost of $44,000, this building has seen many different types of events throughout the past century. From being home to city offices and hosting performances, graduations, and concerts, this building has been the setting for many of the significant events in Dothan’s history. In 1977, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places and in 1978 a historical marker was dedicated by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission.
This historic federal building located on West Troy Street in Dothan Alabama stands as one of many early 20th century Classical Revival style government buildings that were created between 1900 to 1929. This building was built in 1911 at a construction cost of $85,000 as part of the national effort to install federal buildings in many developing cities. From its inception, it served as a Courthouse and Post Office until the new Dothan Post Office was built in 1064. In 1974 a historical marker was added and later that year on December 31st the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Located in a former Greyhound bus station, the George Washington Carver Interpretive Museum's mission is to educate all visitors about the contributions African Americans have made throughout the country's history. The original Greyhound station was built sometime in the 1940s, before 1948. In its original configuration, the building reflected the segregation period it was built in. The building was structured to have two entrances, two separate restrooms, separate drinking fountains, and waiting areas, much like other segregation period buildings. The museum was founded in 2000 by Dr. Francina Williams after being purchased by the African American Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. The museum opened in 2002, now featuring several exhibits: the science-themed Discovery Zone; Designing the World We Live In; Black Scientists, Inventors and Explorers; Social Progress Heroes Timeline; and the Dr. Carver Room, which chronicles the life of the museum's namesake, George Washington Carver. Also, the museum has a mural of Dr. Carver painted by Wes Hardin, the artist who painted the other 11 murals of Dothan.
This 100-foot tall metal pillar that stands near the center of Dothan Alabama is now over 120 years old and can hold a maximum of 180,000 gallons of water coming from a natural spring under Dothan. This tower, called the Dothan Dixie Standpipe, was built in April of 1897 by the City of Dothan to help the young city grow with a stable clean water supply. Constructed of industrial age steel and thousands of riveted bolts this tank is a prime example of early industrial engineering. To build the tower the mayor at the time, Mayor J. R. Young sold municipal bonds to fund construction. This is notable because Mayor Young sold the bonds in increments of $1,000, meaning that he could only sell the bonds to wealthy investors, having to negotiate large buy-ins. On December 13th, 2016, the Dothan Dixie Standpipe was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Constructed in 1907 by the Atlantic Coastline Railroad, this Passenger Depot stands as a reminder of Dothan’s early growth and success as the center of the Wiregrass Region. The station was built during a period of economic growth and this structure replaced a smaller depot that was constructed shortly after the Atlantic Coastline Railroad first arrived in Dothan in 1889. Dothan was incorporated in 1890 with 247 residents, but the town grew quickly in part due to the railroad which connected Dothan to Montgomery Alabama, Tallahassee Florida, and Thomasville Georgia. By 1900, the population in Dothan had grown to 3,275 residents and by 1910 the town was home to 7,106. The depot served passengers until 1979 when the last passenger train departed from this station. The railroad used the building as an office until 1985 and four years later, the City of Dothan to prevent the historic building to preserve the structure. The former depot is now the headquarters of the Wiregrass Transit Authority. On December 13th, 1993 the depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places and in 2008 a historical marker was added near the building by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, Dothan Landmarks Foundation, and the Wiregrass Transit Authority.
This two-story brick educational building has had a long and storied history. It was built-in 1902 to be the new grammar school for the City of Dothan after the previous grammar school burned down in 1901. The school building features a stylistic blend of Late Victorian, Romanesque Revival, and Renaissance Revival Styles. The building was originally named the “Dothan College Grammar School” before 1916 when the building was renamed in honor of recently deceased Dr. John Robertson Graves Howell. Dr. Howell was a transplant to Dothan who relocated to establish a physician practice in 1887, he also served as the Mayor of Dothan when the first grammar school had been built in 1889. The Howell School served as Dothan’s primary grammar school for white children until it was replaced by Minnie T. Heard Elementary School in 1942. During WW2 the building was converted for use by the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Club to house soldiers. On Dec 31, 1946, the Dothan Chamber of Commerce advertised that new investments in the industry would bring 8 new companies to Dothan and provide 2,000 new jobs. The school building was converted into a textile factory for the Indian River Textile Company, employing 100 people. The building and factory would shift hands several times over the next two decades, eventually coming into the hands of the Dothan Downtown Redevelopment Authority in 2009. In 2014 after years of searching for contractors and gaining approval from various preservation authorities, work started to renovate and restore the building turning it into a senior living facility. The new senior living home opened in October of 2020 and is now an occupied building after having been vacant for 21 years.
Cherry Street African Methodist Episcopal Church was constructed in 1908 by its members. The congregation was founded in 1877 and built its first meetinghouse on a small plot of land donated by Ms. Elivira Guilfor. In 1903, pastor Rev. William Hightower raised $8000 for the construction of this new chapel. After the brickyard owners in Dothan refused to sell the congregation bricks, members of all ages and their extended families in the region gathered unused bricks from abandoned buildings until they had enough to complete this church. In 1979, a historical marker was erected by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission and the Dothan Landmarks Foundation.
What now stands as the Wiregrass Museum of Art was once the Dothan Municipal Light and Water Plant in the early 20th century. Constructed of red brick, this small two-story building was constructed by W. F. Thornton Consulting Engineering in 1913 to be a power plant and water provider for early and growing Dothan. Once constructed it was the only coal-generated power plant in the Wiregrass region. Originally the power plant complex was much, much bigger than this single building. The building that exists here is just the main powerhouse of the plant, the plant previously had: a powerhouse, garage and tool shed, prison yard, cooling pond, coal yard, two pump houses, a machine storage building, a small tool shed, a covered reservoir, substation, auxiliary reservoir, underground gasoline tank, two scales, a well, and two small office buildings. Due to the outdated design of the plant by 1928, it had become prohibitively expensive to maintain, leading to the city purchasing power from the Alabama Power company and shutting down the plant. The city would once again attempt to provide their own power in 1933 but would eventually shut down the plant for good in 1949. In 1986 the building that housed the power plant was selected to be the location for the new Wiregrass Museum of Art and on October 3rd, 1991 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
This historical marker and bronze statue are placed here in recognition of the City of Dothan’s origins and the creation of its name. The marker here tells the story of how when the small trading community of Poplar Head requested a post office in 1858, they were rejected due to there already being a Poplar Head in Alabama. According to this marker, the postal authorities at the time granted the Poplar Head community a post office under the temporary name of Dothan. Other sources claim that the origin of the name comes from a minister who recommended the name Dothan when the community voted to incorporate in 1885. The name Dothan comes from the Bible passage “For I heard them say ‘Let us go to Dothan’” (Genesis 37:17). This historical marker was erected in 2001 by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission and the Wiregrass Museum of Art, the Houston County Kiwanis Club, and the Downtown Group. The statue was erected as part of Millennium Park in 2011.
This historical marker shares the story of Marvin Holman, a mule and tractor salesman who operated one of the South's largest stables in Dothan. Holman's stables were located near the marker, and the 27,000 square foot red brick structure was a center of trade and also a gathering place for local farmers and townsfolk. Mules were vitally important to the agricultural sector, as were the tractors Holman sold following the construction of a new building at this location in 1917. While the 1917 building was demolished long ago, this historical marker was dedicated in 1981 by Edith Holman Jones and Maxwell E. Jones.
Near this historical marker is the Poplar Head Spring, a small freshwater spring that served as the starting point for Dothan. Before Dothan existed and white and Black settlers came to the region, Alibamu Indians of the Chattahoochee River basin and the Creeks of the Choctawahatchee River basin met at these springs to trade. The first settlers arrived in the early 1830s, these families came in covered wagons from Charleston, Savannah, and Jacksonville. Once these travelers arrived at the springs and camped, many decided to move on due to the sandy soil and dense pine trees making it difficult to farm. Those that remained here formed the small community called Poplar head and by 1858 the community called Poplar Head had nine families. The community only barely survived the Civil War and by 1885 had enough families settled in Poplar Head to meet the minimum size needed to incorporate. In 1885 the community became the town of Dothan and nearly 100 years later in 1978, a historical marker was erected here by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission to commemorate the origin point of Dothan.
This historical marker was erected in memory of Johnny Mack Brown, a Dothan native, college athlete, and a cowboy western movie star. Brown was born in Dothan on September 1st, 1904, to John Henry and Hattie McGillivray Brown and was one of their nine children. In high school Brown excelled as an athlete, gaining a football scholarship to the University of Alabama. During his time at the university, he helped push the team to win over the University of Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl, thrusting him into the football spotlight. Resulting from this, the media attention that he had garnered gained the attention of Hollywood director and producer King Vidor. Brown participated in and won a Hollywood screen test, scoring him a contract with MGM Studios. The following year in 1927 Johnny Mack Brown debuted in his first film “Slide Kelly, Slide” followed by the film “Bugle Call.” Brown would play parts in light comedies and romantic films at first, eventually moving into westerns in the mid-1930s. Between 1933 and 1943 Brown would change studios multiple times, eventually finding his way to Monogram Pictures. From 1943 to 1953 Brown was a top cowboy star and one of the top ten biggest money-makers in B westerns of the era. Johnny Mack Brown’s career would end along with the B Western Film bubble in 1953, having acted in a total of 165 movie productions. Brown died in his California home at the age of 70 due to heart failure on November 14th, 1974. This marker was erected by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, Dothan Landmark Foundation, and the City of Dothan in 2005. Today the city honors Brown’s memory with the Johnny Mack Brown Western Festival, held in May in Landmark Park.
This Tour is a Walking Tour.
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This 1.7 mile walk makes a loop around downtown Dothan and includes a variety of historic and notable buildings and other landmarks starting with the Dothan Opera House, Federal Building, G. W. Carver Interpretive Museum, and Dothan Dixie Standpipe. The tour ends with the city's historic rail station, Howell School, Cherry Street AME Church, Wiregrass Museum of Art, and several historical markers.
