Downtown Demopolis
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Demopolis

Downtown Demopolis, also, Demopolis. The People’s City. The Demopolis Historic Business District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has long served as a commercial center for West Alabama. The district contains 57 structures built between 1843 and 1926. Downtown Demopolis developed around the Public Square, dedicated in 1819. Its architectural treasures preserve lasting proof of local artistry by skilled craftsmen, masons and carpenters, who contributed their talents to building the town after its colonization in 1817, with its tradition of theaters, opera houses, and libraries. Demopolis has also been a regional home for cultural and literary arts. The town's businesses have included specialty shops, livery stables, hardware stores, law offices, banks, grocery stores, pharmacies, newspapers, and West Alabama's first noteworthy department store, Mayor Brothers. Julius Rosenbush, a German Jewish immigrant, settled in Demopolis in the late 1800s and established the Rosenbush Furniture Company on this site in 1895. After his death in 1911, his wife Essie ran the business, eventually passing it on to their son Bert Rosenbush Sr. The scion of the Rosenbush family, Bert Jr.. ran the business from 1950 until closing it in 2002. Bert and his wife Mary Louise donated the store's impressive brick building to the city for future use as a repository of Demopolis history., Reverse Side , Demopolis was destined for commercial success and a diverse population due to its prime location in the fork of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers. River transportation and the railroad positively influenced the town's growth. French colonists founded Demopolis in 1817. They created a spirited town that welcomed European merchants including Germans of Jewish faith and American planters from states on the country's eastern coast. The hard labor of African Americans enabled local cotton businesses to prosper and to construct prominent warehouses on riverbanks where they attracted busy riverboat traffic. The artistry and craftsmanship of enslaved workers are still evident in the city's vintage buildings, homes, and churches. Different nationalities, different religions, and different races have contributed to Demopolis, first envisioned by its French settlers as an American utopia and as a place they called "The People's City.”