POWERGRAMS

13 F ew stopovers on the path to the Gulf Coast see more people pull over than Interstate 65 exit 130, where anxious families often zip in for gasoline or refill hungry stomachs some two hours before or after reaching the famous white sands of Alabama. Greenville may be an easy mark for travelers needing a quick fill-up or fries, but just beyond those familiar fast-food restaurants and gasoline stations stands something special on either side of the old Federal Road. Settlers on a wagon train in 1819 during "Alabama Fever" founded the town that is now a picturesque mix of the past and future. To the east is a historic downtown, to the west is an internationally heralded golf course. The government seat of Butler County is known as the Camellia City, stemming from a campaign 80 years ago by The Greenville Advocate editor Glenn Stanley. He pushed the camellia concept until the Alabama Camellia Society was organized in Greenville in 1948. Politicians promoted the camellia to finally make it the state flower in 1959. There are camellias in Greenville that were planted more than a century ago, and 14 unique local varieties are registered with the American and International Camellia Societies. Nearly half the old town is on the National Register of Historic Places. More than 30 houses, churches, businesses and government buildings reaching back to as far as 170 years ago are officially recognized as historic. The Buell House is spotlighted in the book "Historic Architecture in Alabama" and the Dunklin Home is highlighted in "Ante-bellum Mansions of Alabama." Within the city are 33 churches, none more heralded than Harrison Street Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached on Dec. 6, 1965. Exactly four months after the Voting Rights Act was signed, King spoke to a packed house, as many people stood outside and all gathered afterward under a congregationally cherished chinaberry tree for final benediction. First United Methodist was built in 1872 on the site of two earlier wood buildings. First Presbyterian was built in 1885 and retains its original pine wainscoting, pews and stained-glass windows. Saint Thomas Episcopal was built in 1896. Nearby is Saint Elizabeth Catholic Church, built in 1904 with 14-inch- thick walls and a three-story bell tower. First Baptist opened in 1908. All five churches stand within four blocks of each other. Pioneer Cemetery includes the grave of county – and original town – namesake Capt. William Butler, who died fighting Indians near Butler Spring in 1818. Opened on what was once Greenville's western boundary, the cemetery is the burial site of founders of the town and county, which is one day older than the state. Butler County was created in 1819 by the Alabama Territorial Legislature from lands ceded by the Creek Indian Nation from the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814. The county seat was moved from Fort Dale to Greenville in 1821. With the completion of a railroad through town in 1861, Greenville became a major trade center between Montgomery and Mobile, which led to the downtown's current brick commercial buildings completed by 1890. Just past the 10-foot-high concrete columns of the railroad trestle heading into downtown is the 110-year-old Greenville Railroad Depot, with a red tile roof and stuccoed walls now housing the Greenville Area Chamber of Commerce. "The downtown area is really beginning to revitalize," says Chamber Executive Director Tracy Salter. "Last year, we had two breaths of fresh air coming into Greenville." Those breaths were the Alabama Grill reopened by Resa Bates and a new city lodge at Sherling Lake replacing one destroyed by a tornado in 2011. Twenty years ago, Greenville was ranked No. 1 in a national survey of Best Small Towns in America, and many among the 8,000 residents today keep working to make that assessment reality. Bates and Adam Bloodworth had a dream to revive the 73-year-old Alabama Grill. They sanded and painted every nook and cranny, recovered, refurbished, rebuilt, knocked down and built up the place so familiar to Greenville people. The restaurant is now packed nearly every day and night because the new From top to bottom: Cambrian Ridge welcomes 30,000 golfers annually; the Alabama Grill is downtown's most popular nightspot; a state historic marker notes Butler County is older than Alabama; and First Presbyterian is one of 33 churches within Greenville's city limits.

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