Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Bay Minette

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
CHistory
History · Bay Minette

Bay Minette’s post office opened in 1868, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns · #113 of 187 in Alabama. What drives it

Most of Bay Minette was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Its Register listing is the First Baptist Church. Below: maps from 1927 on and the census since 1910.

1868first post office
1on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
8famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Bay Minette began

When was Bay Minette founded?

1868

The Bay Minette post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 749 in 19102020 census: 8,107158 years

How historic is Bay Minette?

C

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Bay Minette post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Bay Minette’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bay Minette is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #113 of 187 in Alabama. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bay Minette’s overall grade.
Founding era1868, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19402.1% of homes (±1.3) · typical AL town 3.2% · U.S. 8.4%C−National Register1 listing, 1.2 per 10,000 residents · typical AL town 2.7 · U.S. 2.4B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 28%
NewerOlder
Alabama towns of 2,500+ (187)Ahead of 40%

Alabama towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Alabama town has 2.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bay Minette’s 1.2 sits near the middle of its state (54% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C. The pre-1940 share (±1.3 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Bay Minette’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Bay Minette are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages4 hamlets and corners are still on the map.Famous sons and daughtersEllis Hooks, Joe M. Rodgers and 6 more were born here.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bay Minette’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bay Minette’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Old corners and burying grounds

Bay Minette’s post office has been open since 1868.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Dickman Mobile Home ParkDouglasvilleEastwoodSpence Mobile Home Park
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Bay Minette
Bay MinetteStanmyer

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Famous people

8 famous people were born in Bay Minette

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Ellis HooksAmerican blues singer · b. 1974
J
Joe M. RodgersAmerican diplomat · b. 1933
Wallace GilberryAmerican football player · b. 1984
A
Anthony MixAmerican football player · b. 1983
D
Delphine Feminear ThomasAmerican educator and civic leader · b. 1890
H
Harry ShiverAmerican politician · b. 1946
The story

How Bay Minette came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bay Minette.

Read it all →

In the first days of Baldwin County, the town of McIntosh Bluff (now in Mobile County, west of Baldwin County) on the Tombigbee River was the county seat. After being transferred to the town of Blakeley in 1810, the county seat was later moved to the city of Daphne in 1868. In 1900, by an act of the legislature of Alabama, the county seat was authorized for relocation to the city of Bay Minette; however, the city of Daphne resisted relocation. The citizens of Bay Minette moved the county records from Daphne in the middle of the night on October 11–12, 1901 and delivered them to the city of Bay Minette, where the Baldwin County seat remains to this day. Bay Minette was not incorporated as a city until 1907. A mural for the new post office built in 1937 was commissioned by the WPA and painted by Hilton Leech to commemorate this event.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bay Minette, 1868 to 1984

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1868Post officeThe Bay Minette post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1933Born hereJoe M. Rodgers is born here
  5. 1941On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1974Born hereEllis Hooks is born here
  7. 1983Born hereAnthony Mix is born here
  8. 1984Born hereWallace Gilberry is born here
By decade

Bay Minette, decade by decade

Today6 recent
FEMA - 13958 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-14-2005 in Alabama2005FEMA - 13958 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-1…FEMA - 13957 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-14-2005 in Alabama2005FEMA - 13957 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-1…FEMA - 13956 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-14-2005 in Alabama2005FEMA - 13956 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-1…FEMA - 13955 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-14-2005 in Alabama2005FEMA - 13955 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-1…FEMA - 13954 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-14-2005 in Alabama2005FEMA - 13954 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 07-1…ALMap-doton-BayMinette2004ALMap-doton-BayMinette
On the map

Bay Minette on the map, 1941 to 1980

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bay Minette. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Bay Minette on the 1941 USGS mapBay Minette on the 1980 USGS map1941Bay Minette sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bay Minette.

Every building

Bay Minette, building by building, 1927

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Bay Minette fire insurance map, 1927, sheet 11927Sheet 1 of 6
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Bay Minette

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1988
First Baptist Church
First Baptist Church
Buildings
First Baptist ChurchBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Bay Minette, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,0001920194019601980200020208,107

Grew from 749 people in 1910 to 8,107 in 2020, more than tenfold.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bay Minette’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

StapletonIts storyD−

Questions about Bay Minette’s history

What year was Bay Minette founded?

The Bay Minette post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Bay Minette rank for history?

Bay Minette is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #113 of 187 in Alabama. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Bay Minette?

One place: the First Baptist Church (listed 1988).

How old are the homes in Bay Minette?

2% of Bay Minette’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.3 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1977.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.