Frisco City

Frisco City is located in southwest Alabama in Monroe County. It has a mayor/council form of government.

The settlement that became Frisco City was initially called Jones Mill (incorporated in 1909), which itself was made up of the merger of two 1850s-era communities, Lufkin and Snider. Jones Mill was named for a prominent local businessman who owned a grist mill. The town was renamed Roy on November 4, 1913, after Roy Megargel, the owner of the Gulf, Florida, and Alabama Railroad (GFA), after he promised to construct a rail line to the town. A telephone system was installed in 1913, and the first bank opened in 1914.

Megargel did not make good on his promise, and in 1919 the town was renamed Jones Mills, a plural version of its original name. In 1925, the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad bought GFA and brought a rail line through the town in 1928, and the town became known as Frisco City. The town continued to grow in the decades that followed, with the streets being paved in 1937. Frisco City reached the peak of its growth during the 1960s, when more than 50 businesses were located downtown.

As in many small towns, downtown area businesses went into steep decline during the 1980s and 1990s. A fire in 2001 damaged several downtown structures. By 2009, the population had fallen to 1,331, and the city school closed its doors that same year.

According to 2020 Census estimates, Frisco City recorded a population of 1,786. Of that number, 61.8 percent identified themselves as African American, 28.3 percent as white, 4.1 percent as American Indian, 3.5 as two or more races, 1.9 as Asian, and 0.4 percent as Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. The city's median household income was $21,146 and per capita income was $15,773.

The workforce in present-day Frisco City, according to 2020 Census estimates, was divided among the following industrial categories:

Schools in Frisco City are part of the Monroe County School District; the town has one elementary and one high school.

Frisco City is intersected by State Highway 21 (northwest-southwest) and County Road 23 (northeast-southeast).

The Frisco City Town Park features several historic structures, including the J. W. Jones home (for whom the town was originally named), the Jones Mill one-room jail, the Jones Mill post office, and a caboose from the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad.

Additional Resources

The Heritage of Monroe County, Alabama. Clanton, Ala.: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2004.