Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. According to 2019 Census estimates, the city had a population of 21,287.

Named “The Model City” by Atlanta newspaperman Henry W. Grady for its careful planning in the late 19th century, the city is situated on the slope of Blue Mountain.

Though the surrounding area was settled much earlier, the mineral resources in the area of Anniston were not exploited until the Civil War. The Confederate States of America then operated an iron furnace near present-day downtown Anniston. until it was destroyed by raiding Union cavalry in early 1865. Later, cast iron for sewer systems became the focus of Anniston’s industrial output. Cast iron pipe, also called soil pipe, was popular until the advent of plastic pipe in the 1960s.

In 1872, the Woodstock Iron Company, organized by Samuel Noble and Union Gen. Daniel Tyler, rebuilt the furnace on a much larger scale, and started a planned community named Woodstock, soon renamed “Annie’s Town” for Annie Scott Tyler, Daniel’s daughter-in-law and wife of railroad president Alfred L. Tyler. Anniston was chartered as a town in 1873.

Though the roots of the town’s economy were in iron, steel, and clay pipe, planners touted it as a health resort, and several hotels began operating. Schools also appeared, including the Noble Institute, a school for girls established in 1886, and the Alabama Presbyterian College for Men, founded in 1905. Careful planning and easy access to rail transportation helped grow Anniston. In 1882, Anniston was the first city in Alabama to be lit by electricity. By 1941, Anniston was Alabama’s fifth largest city.