Aldrich is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Shelby County,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States, that is now part of

Montevallo Montevallo is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. A college town, it is the home of the University of Montevallo, a public liberal arts university with approximately 3,000 students. As of the 2020 census, the population of the cit ...

History

Coal was mined in the area around Aldrich beginning in 1839. In 1875, Truman H. Aldrich purchased the town surrounding the mines and named it Aldrich. He leased the mining operations to his younger brother, William F. Aldrich, who was married to Josephine Cables Aldrich, spiritualist, Theosophist, editor, and publisher.

Convict labor Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included invo ...

was employed at some time during the operation of Aldrich's coal mines, and is mentioned in Douglas Blackmon's '' Slavery By Another Name''. A prison was built to house the convicts, and the convict cemetery is located near where the prison once stood. The community was once home to churches, a school, and houses that were all built by the operators of the mines. A post office was established in 1883, with William Aldrich as the first postmaster, and was in use until it was closed in 1965. From 1895 to 1902, Aldrich had a locally published newspaper, ''The Alabama time-piece''. The mines were closed on July 5, 1942. Today, Aldrich is home to the Aldrich Coal Mine Museum.

Demographics

Aldrich never reported a population figure separately on the U.S. Census as an unincorporated community on the U.S. Census according to the census returns from 1850-2010.http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-1-2.pdf, 2010 AL Census It has since been annexed into Montevallo.

Gallery

File:PERSPECTIVE EXTERIOR VIEW OF RIGHT END AND FRONT. - Farrington Hall, Shelby County Road 203, Aldrich, Shelby County, AL HAER ALA,59-ALDR,2-1.tif, Farrington Hall File:EXTERIOR VIEW, FRONT (WEST) FACADE. - Aldrich Commissary, 137 Shelby County Road 203, Aldrich, Shelby County, AL HAER ALA,59-ALDR,1-1.tif, Aldrich Commissary File:INTERIOR VIEW SHOWING HENRY EMFINGER'S MINING ARTIFACT COLLECTIONS. - Aldrich Commissary, 137 Shelby County Road 203, Aldrich, Shelby County, AL HAER ALA,59-ALDR,1-2.tif, Artifact collection located in commissary File:FRONT FACADE AND SURROUNDING LANDSCAPE. - Superintendent's House, County Road 203, Aldrich, Shelby County, AL HAER ALA,59-ALDR,3-2 (CT).tif, Superintendent's House (colorized from original photograph)

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Shelby County, Alabama Unincorporated communities in Alabama Neighborhoods in Alabama Coal towns in Alabama Company towns in Alabama