In 2015, the City of Andalusia expanded its recreational and leisure activities past the realm of just sports to offer the children of this community a broader array of activities. Through the A.P.P.L.E. out-of-school-time program, after school and summer activities are available for all children, grades K -8, who currently attend Andalusia City Schools. Mayor Earl Johnson and Superintendent Ted Watson forged a partnership to provide the very best program for the youth of Andalusia. Mayor Johnson and current Superintendent Dr. Daniel Shakespeare are excited to continue the A.P.P.L.E. program.
The A.P.P.L.E. after school program follows the Andalusia City Schools calendar. There is a $50 fee per child per semester for the after school portion of the program and a $40 fee per child for the summer program, which runs from the first Monday through the last Friday in June.
Since its inception, the program has been immensely popular. Because there is limited availability, the program is filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Applications are available at the Woodson Center and can be completed on site.
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In 2009, the City of Andalusia purchased the old AlaTex Textile Mill and has since rehabilitated the site to create a chamber of commerce office, welcome center and a national textile workers monument to pay tribute to the thousands who worked at the site and in textile mills all over the United States.
AlaTex, founded in Andalusia in the 1920’s, occupied a thirty – five acre complex on River Falls Street until about 1995. In its heyday, in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, the company produced millions of Arrow men’s dress shirts, private label shirts for department stores and other apparel. The company employed thousands of Andalusia citizens and others in plants that it operated in other cities and towns in South Alabama and Northwest Florida. Generations raised families, sent children to college and built a community by working at the AlaTex.
When the last successor to the AlaTex closed its doors in the mid 1990’s the property was gated, padlocked and largely left to ruin. The numerous buildings at the site fell into a state of disrepair; including the art deco style office building that even predated the AlaTex and was constructed by a meatpacking company during the 1910’s.
In 2009, the City of Andalusia, under the leadership of Mayor Earl Johnson and the Andalusia City Council, began a $5 million restoration project of River Falls Street that the AlaTex Plant fronts. The street was once home to many thriving businesses during the height of the AlaTex operation and served as a major artery into Downtown Andalusia. River Falls Street was one of the main entrances into the city when it was founded in the early part of the nineteenth century.
The restoration project consisted of a resurfaced street, new sidewalks, curbs and gutters and decorative lighting. New landscaping easements were acquired so that the project could be further enhanced with green areas that include shrubs, trees and flowers. While the project was underway, the old AlaTex site became available. Mayor Johnson and the Andalusia City Council went to work putting a plan together to acquire the old plant and options for future development.
About the same time, the Andalusia Chamber of Commerce began to look for options to relocate to a more central and prominent area in Andalusia. The Chamber was on the southern side of Andalusia in an inadequate building. Mayor Johnson developed a plan that would move the Andalusia Chamber of Commerce to the old AlaTex Office building and turn the site into a monument to the business that occupied the site and the thousands of citizens who worked there for many, many years.
Mayor Johnson appointed one of the last vice presidents of the AlaTex, Bill Hamiter, who had retired in Andalusia after completing a long career with a successor to the company, to head a committee to raise money for monuments and a park around what would become the Chamber of Commerce Office. The monuments would memorialize the AlaTex and the apparel manufacturing industry. The committee, made up of former employees, raised over $40,000, initially, to purchase monuments to the founder of the AlaTex, John G. Scherf, also a four term mayor of Andalusia, and other company leaders. Bricks were sold, engraved and installed on walkways to honor others who worked there.
Finally, Mayor Johnson personally designed and commissioned a giant, white, men’s dress shirt that is fourteen feet high by eleven feet wide, weighs 2,500 pounds and installed on a pedestal at the park in front of the new Chamber of Commerce office. This huge shirt represents the millions of dress shirts and other apparel items produced at the AlaTex Plant in Andalusia and is dedicated to the thousands of people who produced them not only in Andalusia, but all over the nation.
“I fully expect this giant shirt to become an attraction for visitors to come to Andalusia and see what we have become and how we have honored those who worked to build a city. I think that it is very important to preserve the heritage of our city and a major part of it is the AlaTex. The primary product of the AlaTex for many, many years was shirts. Now, we have a symbol of that shirt and want everyone to come see it,” said Mayor Johnson.
The project, in conjunction with the River Falls Street renovation, is a perfect example of public investment in an area that was destined to become a blighted area which would have negatively impacted every citizen in Andalusia. Today, the area has recently seen private investment in a variety of forms that clearly validates what the city began. Several businesses have expanded or remodeled which has led to increased employment and economic activity.