Waverly, AL

Waverly is a small town in Chambers and Lee counties at the edge of east-central Alabama, with town limits reaching toward Tallapoosa County as well. It was settled in the 1830s, grew more steadily after the 1870s, and incorporated in 1910. U.S. Highway 280 once carried through traffic down the middle of town; when the bypass opened in 2000, Waverly turned the change into a street party. That Old 280 Boogie became an annual gathering for more than a decade.

ATTRCivilengtiger ( talk ) / CC BY-SA 3.0

The old highway now gives Waverly room for a different kind of town center. The town maintains a business guide, permits, ordinances, emergency information, and a calendar of grassroots gatherings, while downtown trees and rural landscapes keep the setting small. Waverly's position between Auburn, Opelika, and the farms of Chambers and Lee counties gives it a wider orbit without erasing its local scale. It is an Alabama town where a bypass, an old main street, and community-made events all help shape the present.