Citronelle evolved from a health retreat to a small Alabama town
An abundance of healing herbs and natural springs brought people to Citronelle more than 200 years ago, but today the Alabama community’s main draw is a small-town lifestyle within 35 miles of Mobile. The settlement earned a reputation as a health resort in the 1800s, enticing tourists to the hotels that sprang up around town. Citronelle’s mineral-spring waters even wound up in households more than 300 miles away. “There were some entrepreneurs who bought the water and shipped it to Atlanta because of the healing aspects of it,” says Amy Merritt, president and broker of Citronelle Realty. Fewer than 5,000 people call Citronelle home, but it’s still one of the biggest communities for miles. That’s what brings new residents from surrounding states and counties today, rather than hopes that high-quality water and coastal breezes will cure their ailments. “It’s a wonderful feeling to know people when you walk down the street and have people call you by your name,” Merritt says. “In other places, if you smile at somebody in the store, they’ll smile back but they'll be shocked. In Citronelle, if you don’t smile at someone, they’ll ask you what’s wrong.”
Lot sizes increase farther from town
In the center of Citronelle, ranch-styles and traditional homes are scattered along a grid of streets. Some of the properties were built during Citronelle’s peak as a tourism destination in the late 1800s. Houses often come with lots measuring a third of an acre or more, and live oaks and magnolias shade these spacious yards. On the outskirts, the landscape is more rural, with ranch-styles and farmhouses often spaced out on acre-plus properties. Turnkey homes start around $140,000 and can sell for as much as $380,000.
Citronelle High offers career-specific programs
Children attending public school can go to McDavid-Jones Elementary School and Lott Middle School. They can then advance to Citronelle High School, where teens can join one of six academies, pathways that tailor courses to career-specific fields such as technology and agriculture. Manufacturing is the high school’s signature academy, enabling students to earn industry certifications in welding, automotive services and more. All three schools get Niche grades of B-minus.
The Oil Queen Pageant is an ongoing tradition at Citronelle High that harkens back to the town’s midcentury oil boom. Oil was discovered in Citronelle in the 1950s, and hundreds of wells were drilled by the mid-‘60s, earning the community the nickname the Oil Capital of Alabama. Oil production has waned in recent years, but the industry’s legacy lives on through Citronelle High’s annual pageant, when one student is crowned the Oil Queen.
Baseball, golf and fishing around Citronelle Municipal Lake
Citronelle’s multiple parks include Kennedy Park near the middle of town, where a wooden playground’s design mimics a castle, and a splash pad is open Memorial Day through Labor Day. To the west, youth baseball and softball teams use the fields at the Lawrence Clayton Complex. The complex is near Citronelle Municipal Lake, where residents get discounted rates on fishing and boat launch permits. Some of the 18 holes at Mill Creek Golf Course border the lake; the public course welcomes three annual tournaments to its greens and fairways. It’s a little over an hour's drive to Alabama beach towns like Dauphin Island.
The city government turned a former Boy Scout campground into a green space that hosts community events. The most notable is the annual Surrender Oak Festival. In 1865, one of the last remaining Confederate armies surrendered under an oak tree in Citronelle, signaling the end of the Civil War east of the Mississippi River. The town remembers the event every May with a reenactment of the surrender and a gathering of craft artisans, food vendors and musicians.
A strip of shops and restaurants in the center of town
Most local businesses sit along U.S. Route 45 in the heart of the community. The Iron Skillet is a local staple for American comfort food; the restaurant has changed owners and names over the years, but the building has been home to a restaurant since at least the 1950s. Farther north, Citronelle Market Place carries groceries and Andrews Ace Hardware, founded as Andrews Hardware Co., has been in business since 1923. A wider selection of shops and restaurants is available in Mobile.
Congregations have gathered for more than 120 years
More than a dozen churches are spread across town; many have been meeting since before Citronelle was incorporated in 1892. For example, Citronelle Baptist Church completed its sanctuary two years prior in 1890. Today, the church, known as Restoration Church, supports the community through acts of service such as grocery giveaways and organizes fundraising events like the Spring Fling marketplace.
Highway connects to Mobile, interstates lead across the Gulf region
Citronelle lies beyond the reach of Mobile’s transit system, but drivers can use Route 45 to reach Mobile in about 40 minutes. Interstates in the Mobile area lead to New Orleans, Pensacola and Montgomery.
History of hurricanes, low crime score
Part of the Gulf Coast region, Citronelle is at risk for hurricanes. In fact, Hurricane Zeta toppled trees and power lines across the community in 2020, damaging some homes. Falling trees hurt a few residents, but none of the injuries were critical. Storms occasionally knock out power, but Citronelle generally avoids catastrophic damage, Merritt says. “We are far enough inland. We don’t normally get the bad brunt of the storm, except for the major ones.”
The CAP Index Crime Score is 2 out of 10, lower than the national average of 4.
