Wadley, on the west bank of the Tallapoosa River in southwest Randolph County, emerged around 1901 with the coming of the Atlanta-Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad and was named for George Dole Wadley, vice president and general manager of the railroad construction work. It was incorporated on September 15, 1908, with a population of 333. The first store was owned by the first mayor, Minus H. Radney, who supplied materials for railroad construction. Its unusual railroad depot, still standing, cost more than $12,000 to build and was called “one of the handsomest along the line” in an October 6, 1908, Roanoke Leader newspaper supplement. Conceived and designed as a Model City by the Callaway Development Co. of LaGrange, Georgia, with Fuller E. Callaway as president, Wadley is one of few planned communities, with a main street of businesses and a central park bordered by three churches: Christian, Baptist, and Methodist. First Bank was one of few banks that did not close during the Great Depression. The town’s first major industry arrived in 1946, when W.P. Clegg organized Clegg Manufacturing, which grew from four employees to 180. Wadley is home to Southern Union State Community College, which began as Bethlehem College supported by the Congregational Christian Church and became state owned on Oct. 1, 1964. Plantation Patterns, which produced wrought iron furniture, was Wadley’s largest manufacturing plant in 2009.