Auburn

A city that I went to last week was Auburn, Alabama. This is a city that I have been so many times, I could not even begin to guess. As I went to elementary, middle, and high school there. But I never knew the history of the town.

The land that Auburn is at was settled in the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832. And the first people moved here in 1836 from Harris County, Georgia. It was built to be a place of religion and education.

In 1856, a Methodist college by the name of East Alabama Male College of Auburn began. It would later be renamed to Auburn University.

With the start of the Civil War, the town of Auburn went into a sort of depression. Businesses closes, schools closed and were turned over to the state, and the residents started to abandon the town.

The Methodist college was also turned over to the state and later renamed Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College. It was actually the first four-year college to accept women. This helped the city to start to grow again and by 1910, it had hit the peak it was at before the war. Championships won by the college’s football team in the helped bring in new residents and students as well.

After World War II, when the G.I. Bill hit, more students began to enter the college. Making the city grow even more. With this, the city had to start expanding outside of the original boundary lines in the late 1950’s. The building expanded up to 24 square miles outside the city.

The building of Interstate 65 began in 1957. With this gave more people a chance to enter the city and help it grow even more. It gave people of the city easier access to bigger cities as well.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Auburn public schools were ranked in the top schools of the state and nation, and once again, helped increase the size of the town. Between 1980 and 2003, there was a 65% growth in population and a 220% growth in economy.

It is currently the largest city in eastern Alabama and is Alabama’s fastest growing metropolitan area. And it the 19^th fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States.

Auburn, Alabama truly lives up to its nickname of “Loveliest Village on the Plains.”