The Rise and Fall of America's Wickedest City: Phenix City, Alabama

Comments · 223

• PA

  @paulcarney7495 · 3 months ago (edited)

  I used to work as a recruiter in college admissions for many years. &nbsp;On one occassion just before the Covid-19 pandemic, I arrived 15 minutes early for my appointment at the main high school in Phenix City only to discover that I was 45 minutes late.<br>I thought that the whole state of Alabama was in the Central Time Zone. &nbsp;I was informed that because a sizable chunk of Phenix City&apos;s citizenry work across the river in Columbus, Georgia, Phenix City is in the eastern time zone. &nbsp;They told me that it&apos;s the only place in Alabama that is not in the central time zone. &nbsp;They also let me know that I wasn&apos;t the only college rep to be late for an appointment. &nbsp;D&apos;oh!

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• HE

  @Heydrich43 · 1 month ago

  I’ve seen the film about Phenix City several times. This helps to fill in the gaps.

• AL

  @alpate7864 · 3 months ago

  I found an old well on Ft &nbsp;Benning full of slot machines while on maneuvers 1977.

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• RI

  @rickywaters3001 · 2 months ago

  Born and raised in Columbus and Phenix City... good stuff.

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• GA

  @gatorhkman · 3 months ago

  OUTstanding! &nbsp;I did not know the backstory and online sources never painted the picture solicited in this montage. THX!

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• JO

  @josephscarpaci3688 · 3 months ago

  I was a youngster, &nbsp;with my family for an evening at Idlehour Park , on the way home we witnessed the murder of Patterson! The next morning my father was ordered to park &nbsp;a tank on a bridge to Phenix City to keep GIs &nbsp;from Sin City.

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• AL

  @alanhuskey2404 · 3 months ago

  I was at Benning in the 80&apos;s, Our CO told us Phenix City was off limits.

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• JA

  @jamesking4544 · 3 months ago

  Im from Phenix City, but live in Columbus...My grandfather used to tell me how Phenix City was crazy back in the day...They even made a movie about how crooked it was...Military members were bared from coming there

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• OR

  @ordabee · 1 month ago

  My brother was born in Phenix City in 1958, I was born in Fort Benning in 1960, my father was stationed there, my mother’s side of the family all worked at the mills in Columbus.

• EB

  @eboutwell1264 · 3 months ago

  The Coulter Building is still there, and a statue of Albert Patterson is across the street from it sitting on a bench. You didn&apos;t talk about 14th street, but a lot of the clubs were on that street also.

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• RE

  @RenikOlssen-rn1sk · 3 months ago

  I have a relation to this story, considering that I was born in Phenix City in 1959, the year they cleaned house. I was born at Cobb hospital, the one mentioned in the video. It has been demolished for years now. In 1952, my mother came to Columbus, following after a soldier she knew from back home in Ohio. While she was here, she met my father, a soldier stationed at Fort Benning. When I was five years old, my mother put me and my siblings into an orphanage, and we basically never saw her again. However, as an adult, I gained access to information from people who knew her that told me she was pretty much a floozy. &nbsp;I know she spent her share of time in Phenix <br>City, enjoying it’s vices. I live in Columbus and I can tell you that Phenix City still doesn’t have a signature identity. There’s a little industry, but not much, and even to this day people in Columbus sort of look down their noses at Phenix City. I would think that most of them probably don’t know this story, and simply look down their nose at Phenix City, because they perceive it as lower class, and poor. I’m not sure how to feel about &nbsp;it all. It seems surreal to think that my mother was a part of that time and place.

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• KA

  @kairussell415 · 3 months ago

  Crazy enough, I live in Phenix City across the river from Columbus. When I retired from Fort Benning and moved here, locals told me about an old &quot;mob house&quot; off Riverchase Drive that&apos;s supposedly fortified like crazy. Then someone told me General Patton had to come out here to rescue soldiers at one point. Not sure how much is fact versus local legend, but the stories around here are wild.

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