Welcome to Hobson City Alabama

By Nathan Young on January 19, 2012

Welcome to Hobson City, Alabama. The population is under 1000 people and the city was founded in 1899. The town was the first black city established in Alabama and it’s one of the oldest black cities in the country. The city was once a pretty busy town with many shops, restaurants, and other businesses. But in the last couple of years the town has died off slowly. Most of the business in Hobson City is now gone. Many of the homes and structures in the town are old and some have collapsed. And the town has no fire or police protection.

The town is surrounded by Anniston and Oxford. So the town is suffocated and it makes it hard to attract any new businesses. It is trying to start-up a bingo hall to make tax revenue for the town but state laws are making it hard to start-up the business. But there are people dedicated in bringing back the town. The town has recently reopened the town’s library. And the town has started a community garden for the people to use. It also has plans to bring back fire and police protection which it really needs. But Hobson City has a long way to go to be back where it was when it was a bustling small town. I went around Hobson City and took some photos of some scenes of the small town. Here is video of the Hobson City Traffic Light.