St. Clair Courthouse

St. Clair is the only Alabama county with two county seats: one in Pell City, to the south, and one in Ashville in the north. Ashville (then St. Clairsville) was the sole county seat from 1821 to 1907, when the second seat at Pell City was added for the convenience of the county’s southern citizens, who had to travel over Backbone Mountain to get to Ashville.

Courtesy of Jimmy Emerson