Headland, Alabama

Headland is the largest city in Henry County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Dothan, Alabama metropolitan area. At the 2010 census the population was 4,510. Ray Marler is the current mayor.HistoryJames Joshua Head founded Headland in 1871 as "Head's Land". He patented land, plotted the town and built his home. The Post Office opened, as Headland, on October 10, 1871.The Headland Public Square was laid off in 1871 by J.J. Head with a vision for a branch courthouse. Henry County voters decided in the 1879 and 1885 court house site elections not to locate a court house on the public square, Henry has been Alabama's only county with three court houses at the same time.J.J. Head sold Headland to Hosey C. Powell in 1879, who sold to Dr. Wyatt S. Oates in 1880. J.J. Head moved to Tampa, Florida in 1883 and later established Lake Magdalene, Florida.Headland incorporated in 1884 with 26 white and 4 black petitioners. The railroad was built in 1893 along with the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Depot. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 4, 1980. It has since been disassembled.Headland's "Spirit of the American Doughboy" statue was the first public statue in Henry County. It was erected on the square in 1926 as a tribute to the town's military dead. The square was paved in 1935.As of the 1960 U.S. Census, Headland had grown into Henry County's largest city, narrowly edging out Abbeville, which had been the largest since Dothan was removed into Houston County in 1903. It lost that distinction to Abbeville again in 1970, but regained it in 1980 and has since solidified its hold. In 2000, it broke Dothan's then-Henry County 1900 record of 3,275 residents with 3,523 and added nearly 1,000 more by 2010.