Dothan is a city located in extreme southeastern Alabama. It is the seat of Houston County, and portions of the city are located in Dale County and Henry County. The city's name derives from a town mentioned in a Bible verse, Genesis 37:17 - "For I heard them say, let us go to Dothan." As of the 2000 census, the city's population was 57,737.
It is the home of Ricky B. and Lucy Sharpe, frequent characters on the John Boy & Billy Big Show.
Dothan is located at 31°13'38" North, 85°24'26" West (31.227225, -85.407258).
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 224.9 km2 (86.8 mi2). 224.3 km2 (86.6 mi2) of it is land and 0.5 km2 (0.2 mi2) of it is water. The total area is 0.23% water.
Dothan is the self-proclaimed Heart of the Wiregrass of southeastern Alabama.
Dothan is also known throughout the state of Alabama and Gulf Coast region as "The Circle City" with Ross Clark Circle being one of the main highways in Dothan.
As of the census of 2000, there are 57,737 people, 23,685 households, and 16,034 families residing in the city. The population density is 257.4/km2 (666.6/mi2). There are 25,920 housing units at an average density of 115.5/km2 (299.3/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 67.33% White, 30.11% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.85% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 0.96% from two or more races. 1.32% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 23,685 households, out of which 31.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.9% are married couples living together, 15.4% have a female householder with no husband present, and 32.3% are non-families. 28.4% of all households are made up of individuals, and 10.6% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.39, and the average family size is 2.94.
In the city the population is spread out, with 25.4% under the age of 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 14.6% who are 65 or older. The median age is 37 years. For every 100 females, there are 88.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 83.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $35,000, and the median income for a family is $45,025. Males have a median income of $34,475 versus $22,572 for females. The per capita income for the city is $20,539. 15.6% of the population and 12.7% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 23.2% of those under the age of 18 and 15.0% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
After the boll weevil brought about the local death of "King Cotton," Dothan-Houston County found a new crop: peanuts. Dothan is home to the National Peanut Festival, established in 1938 and held each fall to honor peanut growers and celebrate the harvest. Approximately half of all peanuts produced in the United States are grown within a 100-mile radius of Dothan.
The city of Dothan currently is undergoing the largest economic boom in its history with a number of multi-million dollar retail centers in their planning or pre-construction stages. The city of Dothan also is ranked as the #1 city in the nation for most available restaurants in a city of its size. The people of Dothan enjoy one of the lowest costs of living in the country, including low local taxes mainly due to increasing tax revenue from retail and restaurant businesses impacted by the vast travelers on Highway 231 (Eastern Alabama's main highway) which runs through the heart of Dothan. Dothan's vastly diversified economy varies with agriculture, aerospace, distribution, retail, and advanced technology. Dothan is also home to the nation's #2 video rental chain, Movie Gallery.
Dothan's healthcare system is among one of the highest rated and cheapest in the country due to it being the home of 2 hospitals: Southeast Alabama Medical Center and Flowers Hospital.
In the late 1700s and 1800s, horse and ox-drawn covered wagons from Charleston, Savannah, and Jacksonville, creaked and groaned across the South as pioneer families searched for a place to build new homes and to start a new life. Those pioneers who passed through the vast pine forests in the southeast corner of the territory that was to later become the state of Alabama would often stop at a spring known as Poplar Head, where they would camp for a while and rest. Most of those early travelers believed that the sandy soil which nurtured the thick pine forests would not be suitable for farming, so they moved on.
Poplar Head, named for the poplar trees that encircled the glade where the cool water, or "head" (as springs were often called) welled from the earth, was where ancient Indian trails met, crossed, and then continued on. The glade where the spring was located was often used by Indians from the various tribes of the Creek Confederacy as a meeting place and as a campground. In the 1830s a fort existed on the Barber Plantation, ten or twelve miles east of Poplar Head, where the settlers from the surrounding town and hamlets could go when they felt threatened by the Indians. By 1840 the Indian wars in Alabama were over and the fort soon disappeared.
By 1885, the hamlet had grown into a village. The new settlers realized that if the community's growth was to be sustained they needed a governing body and local law enforcement. On November 10, 1885, the people of Poplar Head voted to incorporate and took as the new town's name the name of Dothan after it was discovered that a "Poplar Head" post office already existed in northern Alabama. The city of Dothan was incorporated on November 11, 1885.
Original inhabitants were the Alabama and Creek Native American tribes.
Hyman Blumberg settled in Dothan in 1892 and started a retail apparel business. He married his sweethart from Baltimore, Esther Blumberg, and together they had six sons and one daughter, all of whom were active in building the largest department store in southeast Alabama. It was the first store in Dothan to install a moving escalator; people would come from many miles away just to ride this new innovation. Blumberg's and Sons was the first full line department store in Dothan and drew customers from as far away as Georgia and Florida. The store was closed in 1975, but the Blumbergs remain a prominient family in Dothan.
In 1902 Dothan resident W. M. Cooper released a revision of B. F. White's popular tune book, The Sacred Harp.
Dothan also took part in the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Dothan is the birthplace of Johnny Mack Brown (1904-1974), an All-American college football player and successful film actor. Actors William Gray Espy (the original Snapper of long-running CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless), Brandy Brown, and Donna D'Errico were also born in Dothan. Singer Bobby Goldsboro, famous for his 1968 Top 40 #1 hit "Honey" as well as many other Top 40 releases of the late 1960s and early 1970s, grew up in Dothan and graduated from Dothan High School, though he was born in Marianna, Florida. Former Miss America Heather Whitestone also was born and raised in Dothan.
Another Dothan native is "The Wrestling Pro" Leon Baxter, who was a legendary professional wrestler who got his start in the 1960s wrestling all over the South as "Tarzan Baxter." He feuded with wrestling legend Danny Hodge and teamed with Juan Sebastian as The Masked Guachos, then hit it big in the Gulf Coast area as "The Wrestling Pro" in the 1970s. Baxter went on to have a short feud with legendary world heavyweight champion Lou Thesz and a rookie named Terry "The Hulk" Boulder, who later became known as Hulk Hogan.
Published authors Justin Murphy and Charlotte Boyett-Compo are also from Dothan.
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Dothan, AL
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