Lynn

Lynn is located in the southwest corner of Winston County, in the northwest corner of the state. It has a mayor/city council form of government.

History

Natural Bridge The area around what is now Lynn began to be settled in 1814, five years before Alabama achieved statehood. The settlement remained a sparsely populated farming community for a number of years.

In 1888, resident John Lynn, a Civil War veteran who owned one of the few houses in the area, gave some of his land to the Northern Alabama Railroad for a right of way for a rail line with the proviso that the surrounding community be named after him. Resident E. P. Rose donated land for a depot. The first post office was established in August 1888.

Lynn’s population expanded when the lumber industry became established. Two planing mills turned out finished board, and the lumber was then shipped by railroad to markets throughout the country. In the late 1890s, coal mines began to open around Lynn, and at one point the area was the fourth-largest coal producer in the state. These industries sustained Lynn through the first half of the twentieth century.

Lynn’s first school was built in the early 1890s, a one-room log structure that was succeeded by new schools in 1916, 1925, and 1970. Lynn was incorporated in April 1952.

Demographics

According to 2020 Census estimates, Lynn recorded a population of 832. Of that number, 99.5 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 2.6 percent as Hispanic or Latino, and 0.5 percent as two or more races. The town’s median household income was $36,115, and the per capita income was $20,816.

Employment

According to 2020 Census estimates, the workforce in Lynn was divided among the following industrial categories:

  • Educational services, and health care and social assistance (22.0 percent)
  • Manufacturing (21.2 percent)
  • Construction (11.7 percent)
  • Retail trade (10.6 percent)
  • Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (9.2 percent)
  • Professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services (8.1 percent)
  • Transportation and warehousing and utilities (6.6 percent)
  • Public administration (3.7 percent)
  • Wholesale trade (2.2 percent)
  • Finance, insurance, and real estate, rental, and leasing (1.8 percent)
  • Other (1.8 percent)
  • Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (1.1 percent)

Education

Schools in Lynn are part of the Winston County school system; the town has one elementary school and one high school.

Transportation

State Highway 5 bisects Lynn going northwest-southeast. U.S. Highway 278 skirts the northwest border of the town.

Events and Places of Interest

Lynn maintains two baseball/softball fields for public use. The William B. Bankhead National Forest is located less than five miles east of Lynn as is the longest natural stone bridge in the eastern United States.

Additional Resources

Winston County Heritage Book Committee. The Heritage of Winston County, Alabama. Clanton, Ala.: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 1998.

External Links

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