February 23, 1953

The city of Alabaster was incorporated Feb. 23, 1953. Alabaster was first developed near the mill village of Siluria in the 1930s. The community took its name from the white high-calcium limestone which was abundant there. The city was approved for a new post office in 1951, which soon led to the First Bank of Alabaster and efforts to incorporate the town. On Sept. 21, 1959, the Shelby Memorial Hospital (now Shelby Baptist Medical Center) was dedicated, and the Alabaster City Hall was completed in 1960. The city’s population has increased from 1,623 in 1960 to more than 33,000 today.

Read more at Bhamwiki or Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Shops in downtown Alabaster are seen along U.S. Highway 31 in May 2011. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photograph by James P. Kaetz)

Alabaster City Hall, 2012. (Rivers Langley, Save Rivers, Wikipedia)

Buck Creek in Alabaster. (Luck0124, Wikipedia)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.