Happy Hollow

Known as Fair Road, Sixth Street from Northington Street to the big curve was called Happy Hollow. The road led to the Fair home place and also curved right into Warren Circle. A small frame church stood there, and the congregation’s enthusiastic preaching, singing, and shouting gave rise to the name Happy Hollow Church. Bethlehem Colored Methodist Episcopal was relocated in 1947 to Chestnut and Sixth and renamed Bethlehem Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Within the Hollow, the Spring, one of Prattville’s signature artesian wells, provided water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing before the city had a central water system. The mail route ended at the home of Miss Molly Burt, where neighbors picked up their mail, and these gathering places helped create a close-knit community. A traditional African American neighborhood, the Hollow was home to domestic workers, farm laborers, landowners, and sharecroppers. Descendants of these families became leaders in Prattville and beyond as educators, nurses, doctors, accountants, carpenters, members of the armed forces, and ministers. Beloved as a place to grow up even in segregated times, the Hollow was also a place where black and white children, though unable to attend school together, played together in the branch that runs the length of the Hollow.

Prattville, Alabama · United States