History · Fairfield

A history of Fairfield,
since 1910

Postcards, papers and photographs of Fairfield from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.

1910established
12old images & papers
0recent photos
From Fairfield’s archive · credits on each photo

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

This city was founded in 1910 in which the featured speaker at the dedication ceremony was former President Theodore Roosevelt. It was originally named Corey, after the President of U.S. Steel Corporation. Corey departed U.S. Steel under a cloud of scandal, and the town's name was later changed to the city in which his successor as president lived, Fairfield, Connecticut. It was planned as a model city by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company to house workers in their new Fairfield Works plant, now owned by U.S. Steel, similar to its northeastern city of Ensley.

In May 2020, the city entered bankruptcy. Jefferson County had declared bankruptcy in 2011.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

built from the dates on the items below
1910Established
1880s2 items · 1940 Census Enumeration District Maps…Commons
1890–1929Nothing in the archives yet
1930s10 items · Home of C.L. EargleCommons
1940–1999Nothing yet. Family albums go here.
Help out

Finish Fairfield’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old view1940 Census Enumeration District …, 1880: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Famous people from Fairfield

See all 24 →
By decade

Fairfield, decade by decade

Then & now

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as 1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jefferson County - Fairfield - ED 37-134 - ED 37-143 (1880) and it appears here side by side.

🔁 Retake this view · +15

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history

From Wikimedia Commons (3) and the Library of Congress (9). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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Fairfield

Alabama · AL
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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01