Opelika Pepperell Mill Village

Opelika Pepperell Mill Village Page dedicated to those who reside or have resided in the Opelika Mill Village! Opelika expanded and grew in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Citizens built an opera house and funded the installation of brick streets. In 1896, Opelika became one of 10 experimental sites for the postal service's new rural free delivery program. In 1900, local investors established the Opelika Cotton Mill as the first plant in the city, employing 125 workers. The mill stayed in business until the close of the twentieth century and is best known today, alo

ng with its surrounding mill village and the Golden Cherry Motel, as filming locations for the 1979 film Norma Rae. In 1925, the Pepperell Manufacturing Company (later WestPoint Home) was established and flourished until its recent closing in 2006. No textile mills remain open in the city. In 1914, a training school for nurses was established at the local hospital, operating for 18 years before being closed in 1931. By the 1920s, Opelika had 24 daily passenger trains stopping in the town.

06/21/2026

We recently sold our house on the corner of 26th and 2nd- beside the foundry white church.

Our neighbor told us a group of young boys came onto the property this week and stole the back steps off of our house and were looking through everything on the carport. The new resident hasn’t moved in- and this isn’t a good look for our community to be stolen from before he even moves in.

When the neighbor told them it wasn’t theirs as they were carrying it away- they looked at her and shrugged/laughed and kept walking.

She thinks it may be a group that lives or stays with their grandmother in the neighborhood.

It’s a metal staircase with wooden steps, three steps.

If you know these boys or the grandmother- please help them to do the right thing.

If this continues, it’s only a matter of time before they are caught on camera doing something like this and will face juvenile charges.

They could have a better future by making better choices.

Stealing is wrong. Let’s help our kids understand this, please.

Address

3rd Avenue
Opelika, AL
36801

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