Residents and visitors will have the opportunity to explore more than a century of local history this April during free walking tours of Foley’s downtown historic district.
The tours are part of a statewide initiative organized annually by the Alabama Department of Tourism. Alabama is the only state to host coordinated walking tours simultaneously in communities across the state, with more than 30 scheduled in April.
In Foley, the guided walks will take place each Saturday morning — April 4, 11, 18 and 25 — beginning at 10 a.m. Each tour lasts about one hour and covers approximately five city blocks in the downtown area.
The tours begin at the Foley Welcome Center, located at the intersection of Alabama 59 and U.S. 98. The building originally served as the Foley Public Library from 1927 to 1984 and later housed the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce before becoming the city’s Welcome Center in 2013.
From there, participants will visit the historic L&N Railroad Depot, built in 1909 after the original station was destroyed by fire. The depot served as a hub for commerce and travel in South Baldwin County for more than 60 years and has since been restored as a city museum.
Additional stops along the route include Centennial Plaza, the Holk Building, Magnolia Hotel, the Holmes Medical Museum — the site of Baldwin County’s first hospital — as well as the Foley Hotel building and the Foley Bakery building.
The walking tours are led by local community members and are free to the public.
For more information, call 251-943-1200.