Opelika, Alabama

• Open map evidence
• Research guide
• Lee County

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 9 records

• Dr. J.W. Darden Houselisted 2009
• Geneva Street Historic Districtlisted 1987
• Lee County Courthouselisted 1973
• Northside Historic Districtlisted 2001
• Pepperell Mill and Mill Village Historic Districtlisted 2014
• Railroad Avenue Historic Districtlisted 1984
• Spring Villalisted 1978
• Summers Plantationlisted 1991
• U.S. Post Officelisted 1976

Surveyed buildings and structures 8 records

• Gingerbread House, 405 South Ninth Street, Opelikafederal building survey, 7 photographs
• John W. Edwards House, Opelikafederal building survey
• Kilgore House, 411 Geneva Street, Opelikafederal building survey, 9 photographs
• McNamee-Torbert House, 410 Geneva Street, Opelikafederal building survey, 12 photographs
• Methodist Church (abandoned), U.S. Route 431, Mount Jeffersonfederal building survey, 1 photograph
• Moffitt's Mill, Opelikafederal building survey, 3 photographs
• Spring Villa, Spring Villa Road, Opelikafederal building survey, 4 photographs
• Tucker-Fincher House, U.S. Route 431, Mount Jeffersonfederal building survey, 9 photographs

Opelika grew from 26,477 to 30,995 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

• 1907 USGS Opelika quadrangle1:125000
• 1909 USGS Opelika quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
• 1955 USGS Phenix City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
• 1957 USGS Phenix City quadrangle1:250000
• 1958 USGS Phenix City quadrangle1:250000
• 1971 USGS Opelika West quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
• 1981 USGS Opelika quadrangle1:100000

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 21 fires within 5 miles of Opelika between 1994 and 2014, burning about 418 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Rocky Brook
• Chewacla
• Collingwood
• Crooked Creek
• Edgewood Forest
• Gwen Mill

Every fire recorded in Lee County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Opelika: 2 occurrences, 1 prospect, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Mica, Aluminum, Feldspar, Mica, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Lee County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Opelika in 60 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 28 hail, 23 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 3 lightning. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

Every storm recorded in Lee County

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 152814. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.