Demopolis is the biggest town within Marengo County, in west-central Alabama. The population was 7,162 as of the date at the time of the United States census, down from 7,483 in the census of 2010. The city is located at the confluence of two rivers: the Black Warrior River and Tombigbee River.
The top 10 activities to visit to do in Demopolis of Alabama
1. Ravine Golf Course, Demopolis
It is located in the Demopolis Sports-Plex 299 acres of park that is located just one mile north of Highway 80 near Highway 43 South. The park is home to three fields that are lit, four fields for youth and adult baseball/softball facilities with restrooms and concessions, six multi-use soccer fields (5 with lighting) as well as an open pond to fish and picnicking, a pavilion for picnics with a playground, one-half miles of walking trails and an 18-hole golf course that includes professional shops, the putting green as well as a driving range as well as office spaces and shops selling equipment to The Parks and Recreation Department.
2. Demopolis Yacht Basin
The marina offers full-service amenities, including dry and in-water storage for boats. A restaurant and motel are available on site. Demopolis offers fuel Security 24 hours a day to protect you and a full-service yard. Water and power at every slip T.V. and telephone, Courtesy car, shipping Store. Two days’ travel time out of and to the Gulf of Mexico, Mild weather-year and round-boating
3. Lyon Hall, Demopolis
Lyon Hall The Lyon Hall remained with the Lyon family until 1997 when it was donated in1997 to the Marengo County Historical Society. Preserved is the best description for this historic house museum. Its numerous original Empire furnishings, glassware quilts, china, and volumes of books and family portraits painted by Wilhelm Frye, are set against the smooth, smooth plaster walls and gorgeous Greek Revival wood casings. Watch out for the faux graining on the doors in the interior.
This is so beautiful you’ll believe it’s been painted. Lyon Hall wears the patina of the years. Apart from the art, architecture, and furniture, Lyon Hall boasts original family papers as well as the family Bible and a myriad of stories about Lyon Hall and the Lyon family.
The health of the community is our primary priority which is why MCHS has taken steps to ensure you are on an enjoyable and safe tour. The COVID rules for LYON Hall * small groups of guests that are limited to 4 guests per tour currently The tour guide and the guests must wear masks throughout the tour * guests are required to keep a safe with the guide throughout the tour. Hand sanitizers are provided before guests arrive and must be used prior to entering.
4. Kingfisher Bay Marina
One of the most beautiful marinas along the Tenn-Tom and Black Warrior Waterway, located at mile marker 217 North of the Demopolis Yacht Basin. We are proud to have the best modern, clean, and well-maintained infrastructure for the residents as well as tourists who come to enjoy it. Kingfisher Bay Marina was the vision of two men: the late Mr. Arthur Taylor and Fred Hansard.
The vision was born some time back. The first time it was a field being cultivated by an individual farmer. Two dreamers were able to get the field cored in order to check the sand’s quality and depth. We discovered that the sand was perfect for the cement plant in the area. What happens here? You’re right! We began selling sand to our cement factory. At first, the sand was dug by troy hoe. As time passed, the hole grew larger and deeper, and so the dredge, and the dredging began.
In March of 2017, the dredging finished in Phase 1 of Kingfisher Bay Marina. We submitted our permits in the first quarter of 2010. The construction began in November of 2010. began at Kingfisher Bay Marina. This bulkhead project was the initial construction project to be started. The dock construction began and an additional travel lift dock was built. On the 15th of July, 2010 we moved the first boats into the marina. The restroom and laundry for the boater’s building were finished in September of 2010. The building also features an area for boaters to socialize with a wet bar located on top.
There is also an LCD TV for boaters, so they can get together and watch ball games and other sporting events on television. We hope that you will come to visit us at some time in the near future while traveling on the Tennessee-Tom Waterway. See ya soon!!
5. Demopolis High School Auditorium
Demopolis High School Theatre Demopolis High School Theatre is a modern building with high-end lighting and audio.
6. Foscue Creek Park
The park features a boat landing ramp that is accessible to the public with a trailer and tent camping areas; 54 campsites and a comfort station, sewer hookups, 50 Amp power as well as drinking water, banks fishing, and picnic areas. Foscue Creek Park is located in Demopolis, AL on the wooded shores of Demopolis Lake, the largest lake on the Black Warrior Tombigbee Waterway. The beautiful park is administered through the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers.
The park has a day-use area as well as a campground. Four shelters are available for gatherings with a capacity of 25 and 80 people. The park also has an outdoor nature trail that leads runners and walkers along the shoreline. There are benches for viewing wildlife as well as trails with markers to help identify trees. The campground is home to 54 campsites. All come with electricity as well as water connections, a picnic table, a lantern holder, and a grilling area with a fire ring. Camping sites are spacious, quiet, and near the water.
7. Laird Cottage/Geneva Mercer Museum
Laird Cottage Laird Cottage, built c. 1870, is now the headquarters for the Marengo County Historical Society, Inc. and also the home for Geneva Mercer Museum. Geneva Mercer Museum.
Dr. Walter Marcellus Laird, b. 1878. A dentist who was a Kentucky native was married to Dora Mercer, b.1881, from Jefferson, Alabama. The couple bought the house as well as the property (once called”the Wheeler estate) in the Foscue family on the 7th of November 19th, 1914.
The south-facing patio of the home was eventually enclosed (date unknown) and the bathroom, kitchen, and sitting room were added, which freed up the kitchen in the northwest corner as the bedroom.
Doctor. Laird died suddenly and peacefully on Easter Sunday, the 30th of March, 1918. a little less than a year since his daughter’s birth. Elizabeth is his third child.
Miss Dora widowed with three children, started a career with Commercial National Bank, where she remained until she retired. She was a highly regarded person in the local community.
Walter Mercer Laird, the sole son, was born on the 11th of November 1911. the handsome Demopolis High School football star. He was a soldier in WWII as a First Sergeant. Q.M., Depot Co. Walter passed away in Demopolis in 1960.
Dorothy relocated from Washington, D.C. following her graduation from Demopolis High School. Dorothy returned home when her wedding to a Frenchman was divorced. Dorothy died on the 24th of October 1989.
Elizabeth Laird, a fine athlete who excelled at tennis, swimming, and golf, was a graduate of D.H.S. in 1936. Libby was a woman who worked and spent the majority of years as a Federal employee in Montgomery. She retired to her home of the family located in Demopolis to be near her mother in her final years and Dorothy.
Libby participated in Trinity Episcopal Church, the Friends of the Library, and The Marengo County Historical Society. Laird Cottage was donated in her will to MCHS when she died. her passing on 19 October 1993.
GENEVA MERCER MUSEUM
Geneva Mercer, a native of Jefferson, Alabama, and an aunt to Dora Mercer Laird was among Alabama’s most renowned artists and is among the very few artists to be recognized internationally and nationally. Born on the 27th of January 1889. Geneva Mercer is also the first Alabama artist to have all her work recorded through the Smithsonian Institution.
Miss Mercer of Jefferson, Alabama, showed her talent as a sculptor from an early age. Although she had art classes when she was a kid, however, it wasn’t until she was enrolled in the State Normal School (formerly Livingston University and now The University of West Alabama) in Livingston, Alabama.
In that school, she received support and guidance that inspired her to pursue a degree in professional art. The school’s president Miss Julia Tutwiler, recognized the talented young lady and set up an apprenticeship along with Giuseppe Moretti. Moretti was the famous artist who had been the Tutwiler family had requested to cast a statue of Henry Tutwiler for the University of Virginia. The renowned Moretti was in charge of the creation of Vulcan the iron sculpture that rises over Birmingham and is the city’s symbol.
After Miss Mercer completed her apprenticeship with Moretti and stayed at his side in his role as an assistant up to his passing in the 1930s. Since a large portion of the majority of Miss Mercer’s work during her time working with Moretti was performed in his honor, distinguishing the accomplishments of Moretti from the achievements of Miss Mercer is a challenge. She was a member of Moretti’s Moretti Studio and she continued to manage it even after the demise of Mrs. Moretti.
While Miss Mercer worked for a number of years outside Alabama and in other states, the public buildings at the state house a number of her artworks. In the 1930s in the 1930s, it was the State of Alabama commissioned her to create her Julia Tutwiler Memorial tablet for the Department of Archives and History.
She also designed Tutwiler memorials for various colleges and universities in Alabama which included The University of Alabama and the University of Montevallo. The Montgomery Museum of Art displays her Flimp Fountain. Outside of the state Miss Mercer independently and with Moretti worked on work for several of the most famous as well as influential families groups companies, and government agencies across America.
In her final years in her later years, in her later years, Miss Mercer was able to return to Demopolis, Alabama, and resided her final life in the white home situated next to her niece Libby. In the home close to Laird Cottage she wrote and painted verses. However, the sculpture was her main focus and it was in this art that she made her biggest and most lasting contribution.
8. Marengo County History and Archive Museum
It was founded out of the need for a museum and archive within Marengo County that will tell about the culture, history, and the inhabitants of one of Alabama’s most ancient counties within Alabama. It is a commercially successful county with an influx of people because of its location on the forks of the Black Warrior and the Tombigbee rivers.
The town was established with the help of the French at the end of 1817. built an exciting town that welcomed European merchants as well as American planters from various states across the Eastern Seaboard. The town was originally home to Merchants Grocery. It was built in 1895. The building was the first elevator in Demopolis.
Bert as well as Mary Louise Rosenbush purchased the building in the year 1970 and completely renovated it to accommodate the store’s furniture. Rosenbush Furniture began in 1895 with Julius Rosenbush, grandfather of Bert and Mary Louise. It was the first privately owned furniture shop in Alabama at the time Bert and Louise quit in 2002. They donated the building to the City of Demopolis to be used as a museum.
9. Gaineswood National Historic Landmark
Gaineswood National Historic Sites has opened and is operating at less capacity. Be sure to keep a social distance when at the site. Gaineswood is a National Historic Landmark and was built over an 18-year time period (1843-1861). The owner and architect Nathan Bryan Whitfield produced a series of extravagant interior suites that had domed ceilings. Whitfield borrowed many elements from popular architectural patterns by Minard Lafever, and another gardener of cotton, Whitfield can be described as a Renaissance man. The furniture of his family’s antebellum home as well as the most impressive decorative art complete the Greek revival building.
10. Bluff Hall
Established on September 7, 1961, The Marengo County Historical Society is an association that relies on membership. In 1967, while Demopolis began preparations for its Sesquicentennial celebrations Articles of Incorporation were created that allowed the Marengo County Historical Society to be a non-profit entity. In 1967 the Society purchased the first building, Bluff Hall, c.1832.
It was in 1993 that Laird Cottage is bequeathed to the Historical Society, followed by Lyon Hall in 1997. The purpose of the Historical Society is to collect as well as study, preserve and make public the artifacts and facts from the past of Marengo County. The continuous growth in the appreciation and appreciation of, the historical culture in Marengo County is the ultimate objective. The Society is a part of the rich history that is Demopolis, Marengo County, and this region in the Black Belt through tourism.
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