Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns · #67 of 187 in Alabama. What drives it
Most of Phenix City was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. 14 places in town are on the National Register, among them seven historic districts with 370 buildings between them. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1955 on, and the census since 1880.
Phenix City first appears in the census in 1880. Two smaller post offices, Girard (1839) and Lively (1880), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Phenix City is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #67 of 187 in Alabama. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Phenix City’s 97.7 sits above most of its state (82% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 376 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Phenix City.
What some claim was the last battle of the American Civil War, the Battle of Columbus, took place here on April 16, 1865, in Phenix City, then known as Girard. Union General James Wilson was met with Confederate opposition as he crossed the Chattahoochee River in an attempt to destroy the military industry of Columbus, Georgia.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archive1950 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Russell County - Phenix City - ED AL 57…BuiltBrooks-Hughes House is built
In the archiveAlabama - Phenix City
In the archiveNational guard phenix 1955
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereHarvey Glance is born here3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1950s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2025US 80 US 231 US 280 concurrency
2018Columbus Georgia - Phenix City Alabama Aerial
2014Readers are leaders 140118-A-EM181-004
2011Phenix City Russell County Library
2011Phenix City Alabama Post Office
2011Phenix City Alabama Municipal Building
2011New Russell County Courthouse
2009Phenix-city+1
2004ALMap-doton-PhenixCityThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Phenix City.
1955Phenix City sheet · 1:250,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Phenix City.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Phenix City’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 2,224 people in 1880 to 38,816 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Phenix City’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Phenix City post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1883.
Phenix City is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #67 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.
14 listings: 6 buildings, 7 historic districts with 370 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 376 historic buildings in all.
5% of Phenix City’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1984.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (16), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (14), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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