Albany, Decatur

Albany, Alabama, also known as New Decatur, Alabama, was a city in Morgan County, Alabama, United States, situated immediately to the southeast of the city of Decatur near the Tennessee River. New Decatur/Albany existed as a city from 1887 until 1927, when it merged with the city of Decatur. Today, it exists as a neighborhood within the city of Decatur, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.HistoryDuring the American Civil War, the important transportation hub of Decatur, Alabama often changed hands between the Union and the Confederacy. Eventually, the entire city (except for three buildings) fell victim to the war and burned to the ground during the Battle of Decatur. Just as the city was coming back to life, a yellow fever epidemic swept the area in 1878, causing the population of the community to dwindle to approximately 400 by 1880.On January 11, 1887, as Decatur was still rebuilding from the destructive results of the war and the outbreak, the Decatur Land Improvement and Furnace Company, Inc., funded by Eugene C. Gordon, C.C. Harris, and W.W. Littlejohn, invested $7.5 million toward of land southeast of the city. The company formed a new city as a means of reinventing Decatur as a manufacturing and transportation center following the war. They named their new city New Decatur and gave it the nickname "The Chicago of the South," referencing its status as a transportation hub, and as a marketing tool toward Midwesterners. New Decatur was designed as a planned community with the help of famed landscape architect Nathan Franklin Barrett. The company set aside of this land for churches and schools and established what is known today as Delano Park, an oddly-shaped stretch of parkland designed to break the monotony of an urban-like street grid. New Decatur's charter was confirmed by the Alabama State Legislature on February 18, 1889.