Graysville, AL

Graysville began as Gin Town in northwestern Jefferson County, where the only cotton gin for miles around drew a small farming community together. The city incorporated in 1897, lost its charter in 1927, and reincorporated in 1945 partly to control its water system. That stop-and-start municipal history still sits behind the modern city map. Graysville follows U.S. 78 north of Adamsville, with a community center and seven municipal parks providing the named places residents use inside the city. Jefferson County's Birmingham-area industrial history forms the wider backdrop, while Graysville keeps the cotton-gin name as its most memorable local clue. Graysville is a city whose story runs from one rural gin to a water system, city hall, and a spread of neighborhood parks.