Archaeological evidence shows that the area along the Flint River that came to be Albany has been inhabited by man for at least 10,000 years. The first recorded history of these native people is found in accounts of Spanish explorers who visited Georgia in 1560. They discovered the people they called the Creeks living along the river banks. The Indian name for the Flint was Thronateeska, meaning "the place where flint is picked up." The river was the center of life for native people. Creek hunters chipped arrowheads and spearheads from the hard flint stone found along the rivers and creeks. They used the river clay to make pottery. The fertile soil supported their fields of crops. The water yielded fish for eating, water for drinking and bathing and a means of transportation by hand-hewn canoes.
When the Revolutionary War freed the American colonies from British rule and the Creek Indians came under the protection of the United States. This spelled the beginning of the end for the Creek nation. The original natives of this area are still remembered with the annual Indian Festival at the Parks at Chehaw.
With the disappearance of the Creeks, a new world was opening up for white settlers. As the Indians before them, these new inhabitants would begin to settle along the river. One man, Nelson Tift proved instrumental in the next chapter of history, the founding of Albany, Georgia. The northern planters began to establish towns along the rivers so that the cotton could be transported to market via the waterways. In 1837 the first shipment of cotton left Albany by steamboat on its way to Bainbridge and Apalachicola. While steamboats were used for the next 50 years or so, steamboat navigation proved irregular due to low water and sandbars. Soon, a new world was opened up for commerce and travel the railroad. The earliest train reached Albany in 1857. Although intended primarily as a way to carry cotton and other produce to market, the addition of passenger cars made trips to Macon, Savannah and Augusta easier and safer.
In 1857 Tift hired Horace King, a former slave and master bridge builder, to build a bridge across the Flint River. The Bridge House, which originally housed offices for Tift and the toll taker on the first floor and a theatre called Tift Hall on the second floor, still stands today. This historic building houses the new Albany Welcome Center. The toll for crossing the bridge ranged from 75 cents for a carriage drawn by four horses to two cents per head for livestock. Those traveling on foot could cross for free.
The civil war affected Albany as it did the rest of the country. Several companies were raised, in Dougherty County to fight. When war finally erupted following the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, soldiers left Albany from the newly built railroad station, a building still standing today near Heritage Plaza on Roosevelt Avenue. Albany was spared any bloody battles, but the war touched the city in many other ways. Southwest Georgia was known as the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy" because of the quantity of food the area supplied. Confederate soldiers were hospitalized in Albany for a brief time. Empty churches, vacant houses and railroad boxcars were the only quarters available to house the sick and wounded men.
Federal troops arrived in southwest Georgia following the Confederate surrender in 1865, and begun the emancipation of one of the most heavily slave-populated regions in the South. Following the war, the African- American population of Dougherty County rose by a third to 9,500 while the white population remained the same at about 2,000. The sheer number of freed, uneducated former slaves with little opportunity available to them gave rise to a number of problems.
The Freedman's Bureau, established to protect former slaves and their new rights under the Constitution, opened an office in Albany. Teachers were brought from the North and opened schools. Reconstruction, while awakening many possibilities and opportunities, failed to provide freed slaves with land. African-Americans, though freed, still needed work and a way to provide for their families. Out of these circumstances arose the system of sharecropping, by which blacks and poorer whites worked the land in return for a share of the crop, typically cotton. This system again made cotton king. Cotton production in Albany soared during Reconstruction. Albany's rail connections made it the focus of ginning, pressing and shipping the new bonanza in cotton. By the 1930s Albany would have seven railroads. Most of the connecting rail for these was laid in the 20 years after the end of the Civil War.
When Armistice Day ended World War I the post-war boom brought renewed prosperity to Albany. By the twenties Albany boasted a hydroelectric power plant, new industries such as the Famous Candy Company (later Bobs), increased pecan production and a role as railroad center for southwest Georgia. During the 1920s, a new Albany High School was built, and Madison High opened as the first secondary school for "Negroes." The term "plantation life" took on a different meaning as wealthy northerners began buying up cheap land to develop shooting preserves. A distinctive lifestyle emerged which centered around the bobwhite quail, hunting dogs and the great outdoors. Although available to only a privileged few, the mystique of this way life continues to draw visitors today.
The Flood of 1925 was a tragedy that grabbed headlines when the Flint River rose to 36 feet, overflowing its banks and flooding low-lying areas north and south of town. Albany rebuilt and then faced the Depression. The public works projects of the New Deal led to community improvements and the development of parks and public facilities. Chehaw Park, established in 1937, was one of Albany's benefits from this movement. The Parks at Chehaw are today a principle attraction for tourism and education.
The only event to overshadow the war in Europe was the tornado that struck Albany in the pre-dawn hours of February 10, 1940. When the 500-mile-per-hour winds subsided, 18 people were dead or dying, and a major portion of the downtown business district was destroyed. Property damage was estimated at $5 to $10 million dollars, a large amount for such a small city to absorb.
Albany was a small city prior to WWII. Its population numbered only about 25,000 in 1940. With the onset of the
war, the city drew new residents as people came to find wartime work at Turner Army Air Force Base, located on
the present site of Miller Brewing Company. For Albany, these war years were both a time of deprivation and a
time of intense pride and patriotism. Many were soon to see their ideals and beliefs tested as never before in the
pending struggle for civil rights. While Albany entered another time or growth and prosperity following WWII, this
time the change brought unimagined social challenges. Shared wartime experiences and Roosevelt';s integration
of the military brought hope to African Americans who for years had their aspirations deferred or denied.
One of these African Americans, Albany resident and Albany State track star Alice Coachman, made history as the first African-American woman to receive an Olympic gold medal when she won the high jump competition at the London Olympic Games in 1948.
In 1951, Albany landed a major boon to the area economy with the establishment of Marine Corps Logistics Base and remains today as major employer in southwest Georgia.
In 1960, Albany had grown to a city of 50,000. In November 1961, a coalition of African-American civic organizations was created, known as the Albany Movement after five African-American college students were arrested for a sit-in at the Trailways Bus Station lunch counter. On December 10, nine Freedom Riders arrived to test the segregated train station. Albany Movement President William Anderson invited the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Albany. On December 15, King spoke to overflow crowds at Mt. Zion and Shiloh Baptist Churches. The next day, King and 264 demonstrators were arrested when they marched to City Hall. The impact that King made on the Albany Movement is remembered today by a tribute exhibited at the Civil Rights Institute at Mt. Zion. Although King's efforts in Albany were not entirely successful, the resolve of local African-Americans for fair and equal treatment had been validated. Some whites were also inspired to rethink old ways. Slowly, things began to change.
With all the social unrest and change, many things remained fairly constant. The steady growth of the 97,000.
Culture evolved as the Motown Sound brought African-American music onto the pop charts. Ray Charles, who was born in Albany, recorded two wildly successful songs in 1959. One was "What'd I Say" and the other was "Georgia on my Mind," destined to become the new state song.
James H. Gray, a successful businessman, mayor for 15 years and five-time president of the Chamber of Commerce, was an eloquent spokesperson for economic progress in southwest Georgia. The Civic Center, completed in 1983, is a monument to Gray's determination to revitalize the city.
In 1972, Procter and Gamble broke ground on a new plant. The Albany Mall opened in 1976. In 1980, the Miller Brewing plant was built on the site of the old Turner Air Force Base. A new bypass enabled drivers to get from one side of town to the other in five minutes.
The event that had the greatest impact on Albany was the Flood of 1994. Flooding is a fact of life along the Flint River, but destruction has never been so widespread as it was when Tropical Storm Alberto generated a flood that crested on July 7, 1994 at 44.3 feet. Albany and areas adjoining the Flint River system experienced the devastation as 6500 buildings were damaged. The cost was a staggering $500 million in damages and recovery costs. As in earlier flooding, those most hurt by its effects lived in south Albany, the Radium Springs-Putney area, and along the larger creeks. Albany was declared a national disaster, and with the ensuring federal aid it would again recover. Recovery was much more difficult than anyone could have imagined. Many rebuilding projects had just been completed when the flood of 1998 hit. At 36.9 feet, it was the third worst flood in the city's history after those of 1994 and 1925. Damage was estimated at $25 million.
Despite the great devastation wrought by the floods, Albany suddenly seemed on the verge of positive change. With federal disaster relief funds, a county sales tax referendum that generated funds for both planning and implementing changes and ISTEA grants to the city, the only missing component in unlocking the city's potential was private sector participation.
Local leaders organized a group known as Albany Tomorrow Inc. (ATI) to meet that need. Attention was focused on the development of the riverfront and the revitalization of downtown. With the help of a team of planners, ATI projected a new vision for Albany with a $175 million master plan to guide future development.
The Albany Downtown Riverfront Master Plan, developed under the auspices of Albany Tomorrow, Inc., was designed to pack the center of the community with diverse activities and destinations that will be an irresistible draw to residents and visitors alike. The centerpiece of the plan is the Flint RiverQuarium, a hybrid educational facility that is part aquarium, part children's museum, part natural history museum, part botanical garden and part science museum. It opened in September 2004 to rave reviews. Other Albany Tomorrow projects included the Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center that opened in August 2005; the Ray Charles Plaza that opened in December 2007 and features a life-size bronze statue/fountain of Ray at his piano; additions to the Thronateeska Heritage Center and Civil Rights Institute which will both open in the summer of 2008; the newly opened Bridge House, home of the Albany Welcome Center; the GreenWay Trails that features the RiverFront Walk and the North Trail that now connects to Cleve Cox Landing on Philema Road with plans to connect to Chehaw and south to Radium Springs; and a downtown retail and entertainment district.