Wadley, AL

Wadley is a Randolph County town with a college campus that gives it a regional role. Southern Union State Community College's Wadley campus began as Bethlehem College, opened in 1923 with 51 students, and later became part of Alabama's public two-year college system. The college was chosen for Wadley in part because local churches supported the site and banker John M. Hodge donated 40 acres. That is a lot of institutional history for a town this size, and the campus reaches into east-central Alabama and nearby Georgia.

ATTRRivers Langley / Saverivers at English Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0

Southern Union's current Wadley campus offers academic, technical, nursing, and allied-health programs, while Wadley High School serves local students. The town was incorporated in 1908 and was named for railroad official George Dole Wadley, so transportation and education stories overlap here: the railroad name, the college campus, and the school town all remain part of the map. Wadley's local clue is the way a 1923 college still shapes the present community, with regional programs attached to a Randolph County town.