Kinsey, AL

Kinsey grew around an old school story. Forest Home Seminary opened here in 1882, burned in 1885, and returned as Mallalieu Seminary before closing in the early 1920s. One of its notable students was Robert Reynolds Jones Sr. The school history still gives the town a distinctive first chapter. The town was first incorporated in Henry County in 1893, became part of Houston County in 1903, and was reincorporated in 1957. Its name honors Eliza Kinsey, an early postmaster.

Modern Kinsey sits along U.S. 431 on Houston County's northern edge, between Dothan, Webb, and Headland. There is no public school inside town; students are part of Houston County Schools, with Wallace Community College and Troy University's Dothan campus nearby. Landmark Park and the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens add regional destinations west of town, while the road network keeps Kinsey connected to the Dothan area. The result is a place whose local story is carried by a vanished seminary, a highway, and its position in the Dothan area.