City of Guin Alabama: The Early Years - Guin, AL
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 33° 57.945 W 087° 54.880
16S E 415497 N 3758735
Small neat, well kept town
Waymark Code: WMPXQA
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 11/06/2015
Views: 7
County of marker: Marion County
Location of marker: US 278, city park, Guin
Marker erected by: Alabama Tourism Department and The City of Guin
Marker erected: May 2010
Marker Text:
CITY OF GUIN, ALABAMA
THE EARLY YEARS
In 1889, Dr. Jeremiah Guin gave land to the Kansas City, Missouri & Birmingham Railroad to allow completion of its Memphis to Birmingham railway. The rails connected at Dr. Guin's farm, about ¼ mile west of the present railroad crossing, with a ceremonial golden spike being driven to commemorate the occasion. A flagstop (depot) called Guin was established and soon thereafter 32 citizens petitioned the Alabama legislature for incorporation of a town. The depot was operated until the 1960s, and was the site where many local soldiers boarded trains to fight in WWI, WWII and the Korean War. The Town of Guin, incorporated on December 30, 1889, initially had about 350 citizens, 13 storehouses, four hotels, two cotton yards and a livery stable. Over the following years, Guin became home for Marion County's first high school, a bank, automobile dealership and America's first combined Senior Center/Disaster Shelter facility with the Collins Life Center.