Brewton may be smaller than Asheboro but it has two murals.

The seat of Escambia County, Ala., Brewton has a population of about 5,500. Add to that East Brewton’s 2,500 and you have a greater Brewton in the neighborhood of 8,000 folks.

Compare that to Asheboro’s 25,000 or so and the first impression is that Brewton would be somewhat deprived, compared to our fair city, in cultural advantages.

I found that not necessarily so. Ginny and I visited Brewton last week when we visited her sister Janette and her husband Bill. They moved there last spring from Mississippi to be closer to daughter Dina and her family.

Brewton is in extreme south central Alabama, only about eight miles from the Florida panhandle.

It’s 57 miles from Pensacola, Fla., 84 miles from Mobile, 100 miles from Montgomery, 269 miles from Atlanta and 578 miles from Asheboro.

Located amidst a southern pine forest, Brewton is a logging town that had its beginnings in 1848, when a sawmill was built on the banks of Cedar Creek. Ownership changed in 1872 and the W.T. Miller Mill Co. continues to harvest timber and produce wood products today.

The lumber industry was aided in the early years by the confluence of the Murder and Burnt Corn creeks, which feed the nearby Conecuh River. Lumber was floated downstream to ports on the Gulf of Mexico.

When the railroad was completed in 1861, the town flourished. It was incorporated in 1885 and named for the first railroad station agent, E.T. Brewton.

Mr. Brewton is memorialized in one of the two murals downtown. Painted on the side of a building, the artwork is enhanced by a brick plaza and fountain.

The train still comes through daily. When I was downtown one day, a 135-car train held up traffic as it lumbered northward beside Highway 31, the town’s main drag.

Just like Asheboro, Brewton was built along a north-south highway. Alabama Highway 31 is called Douglas Avenue in town.

Janette and Bill live in one of a number of homes along the thoroughfare, where retail establishments also vie for attention.

While visiting, I took extensive walks in the residential neighborhoods to the west and south.

Parallel to Douglas and three or four blocks away is Belleville Avenue. There I saw old mansions and newer homes built with neatly-kept lawns and paved driveways.

I walked twice a day from Jan and Bill’s, to T.R. Miller High School and the nearby YMCA to the north, to D.W. McMillan Hospital to the south, then back home, about two and a half miles.

I almost felt like a well-known citizen of Brewton since so many of the locals passing in cars would wave and smile at me.

Brewton, by the way, likes to boast that it’s been included in Norman Crampton’s book, “The 100 Best Small Towns in America.”

I really can’t disagree with Mr. Crampton. But I think he should pay Asheboro a visit as well.



Larry Penkava, who has written Now and Then since 1994, wouldn’t mind going to Brewton’s Blueberry Festival in June.