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Did you know?
That the warmest month in our area, on average, is July? That the highest recorded temperature was 105° F. in 1952?
"Boom Days" in
Fort Payne, Alabama
February 1889-August 1890
The "Boom Days" (continued - page three)
The products of the Southern Pavement Company, whose plant is in the city, will enable the council to pave streets in the near future at a minimum of cost with asphalt blocks. Many difficulties in the topography of the city have been overcome, and as fast as streets are located they are built upon, often before they can be graded.
The city of Fort Payne was chartered by act of the legislature of Alabama February 28, 1889, and the first municipal election for mayor and councilmen was held July 1, 1889.
The following officers were elected: mayor, C.O. Godfrey; alderman, A.W. Train, J.J. Nix, W.H.H. Minot, A.F. Payne and S.E. Dobbs.
Under the charter thus obtained ordinances were passed for the government of the city, including laws against the sale of liquor. A police department was organized, sanitary inspection, street opening, grading, sewerage, etc., were provided for.
Care has been taken to provide parks and drives, and Gault avenue, the main business street and driving avenue, which runs the entire length of the city and into the adjacent country, and the Glen avenue boulevard, are as fine streets as any in the United States.
The class of dwellings built in the city are fully equal to any city in the North, as a few examples pictured in this book will show. Gault avenue has some fine business blocks, and a large number are under contract at present.
The city was bounded December 2, 1889, for the following purposes: Sewerage, $25,000; streets, $10,000, and a city building, $10,000.
A complete system of sewerage, under competent engineers, is now in progress, which includes a deoderizing cistern and a cremating furnace. It is the policy of the city to proceed as fast as possible to open and grade streets and avenues, thirteen miles of which were graded by July, 1890, and to extend the water and street light system as rapidly as possible.
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