York’s origins are tied by legend to a blacksmith shop called Old Anvil at a crossroads a few miles northwest of the present city. Around 1833, settlers at a site east of modern-day York on the old Livingston-Gaston stagecoach road named their community New York Station. As railroads expanded and drew business from the stagecoach line, the two communities merged in 1838 and gradually grew toward the railroad. Rail lines through York included the Southern Railway System, the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad. In the 1850s, the permanent community of New York Station was established, with a train station and hotel built to serve the railroad. The name became York Station in 1861 and, after it was found that another community had the same name, was shortened again to York when the town was officially incorporated on April 6, 1881. The Coleman Center for the Arts was founded in 1985 through grassroots efforts by local citizens under the leadership of York native Dorothy “Tut” Altman Riddick. On York’s historic Avenue A, its campus includes buildings that once housed an auto mechanic’s shop, a general mercantile store, a hardware store, and the original Bank of York. Donated and renovated through contributions from local families, individuals, and organizations, the center developed into a contemporary arts organization with a gallery, an educational program, and an internationally recognized artist-in-residence program focused on community-driven public art. It was created to foster partnerships between artists and the community to meet civic needs and build local pride, and it is a member of the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Warhol Initiative.