Five Points

Five Points is located in northeastern Chambers County in the east-central part of the state. It has a mayor/city council form of government.

History

Charlie F. Higgins House Five Points was founded in 1887 on a line of the East Alabama Railway (purchased by the Central of Georgia in 1888) that connected Roanoke, Randolph County, with Opelika, Lee County. (The town lies about midway between Roanoke and LaFayette in Chambers County.) The town’s first post office was built in a nearby community named Lystra. It was relocated to the current site of Five Points, and both the site and the post office were named Five Points for their location at the convergence of five major routes at the center of town. By the late 1880s, the town had several stores, a bank, and a hotel. In 1925, the town became one of the earliest communities of its size to have electrical power after citizens made an agreement with the Alabama Power Company to provide the labor for creating the town’s electrical infrastructure. Citizens hauled poles, dug holes at intervals to place them in, and ran wire for miles around the community. The Bank of Five Points opened in 1914 with a starting capital stock of $50,000 and served local financial needs until it was liquidated in 1926. A small school opened in the vicinity of Five Points in 1872 and operated for 17 years until it was torn down to build a larger frame building school. That school was later abandoned when the town incorporated in 1916 and opened a public school.

Demographics

According to 2020 Census estimates, Five Points recorded a population of 158. Of that number, 50.6 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 48.1 percent as African American, and 0.6 percent as two or more races. The town’s median household income was $46,250, and the per capita income was $25,535.

Employment

According to the 2020 Census, the workforce in Five Points is divided among the following industrial categories:

  • Manufacturing (31.5 percent)
  • Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing (16.4 percent)
  • Construction (15.1 percent)
  • Professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services (11.0 percent)
  • Educational services, and health care and social assistance (9.6 percent)
  • Public administration (9.6 percent)
  • Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (4.1 percent)
  • Retail trade (1.4 percent)
  • Wholesale trade (1.4 percent)

Education

Schools in Five Points are part of the Chambers County school system; the town has one elementary school.

Transportation

U.S. Highway 431 bisects Five Points going southwest-north, and County Road 222/258 runs through town from southeast to northwest.

Events and Places of Interest

The Charlie F. Higgins Farmhouse (ca. 1898) is listed in the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Additional Resources

Chambers County Heritage Committee. Heritage of Chambers County, Alabama. Clanton, Ala.: Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc., 1998.

External Links

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