Centreville, AL

Centreville is the county seat of Bibb County, set beside the Cahaba River where rocky shoals made a natural crossing. Before the city took its present form, the area was known as Falls of the Cahaba, and a ferry carried people and farm goods across the river. Sarah Willis Chotard laid out a town on land granted to her in 1823. Centreville became Bibb County's permanent seat in 1829, incorporated in 1832, and reorganized its city government in 1890.

ATTRJackson Davis / Public domain

River, courthouse, and highways still define the place. The Centreville Historic District gathers buildings around Court Square and Walnut Street, while U.S. 82 and Alabama Routes 25 and 219 carry traffic through the county-seat community. Bibb County High School and Centreville Middle School give shape to the local school map, and the Cahaba remains the town's clearest geographic feature. Centreville grew from a ferry and river landing into a civic center, with the old courthouse square still tied to the water and roads that made the location matter.