Editing Boaz, Alabama (section)

==History==
First settled in the 1850s, the town of Boaz was officially founded November 11, 1878, by the Sparks family of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref name="EofA">{{cite encyclopedia|author=James P. Kaetz |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3178 |title=Boaz |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Alabama]] |access-date=October 13, 2016}}</ref> A post office has been in operation since 1887.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp?task=display&state=AL&county=Marshall | title=Marshall County | publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | access-date=October 30, 2015}}</ref> The city was named after [[Boaz]], from the Bible.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sqYfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=d9YEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3110%2C3238606 | title=Tenbroeck in DeKalb County was named for runaway horse | work=Gadsden Times | date=June 17, 1984 | access-date=October 30, 2015 | pages=B1}}</ref> It was incorporated in 1897.

Prior to World War II, Boaz hosted a primarily cotton-based economy, only diversifying to livestock and poultry with the pressures of boll weevil infestations and the [[Great Depression]]. After the war, Boaz developed a thriving automotive sales industry, which in many instances survives to this day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Boaz |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/boaz/ |access-date=September 26, 2023 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |language=en-US}}</ref>

In the early 1980s, the [[VF Corporation]] opened an [[outlet store]] in an abandoned factory, whose success prompted other retailers to open stores. In the late 1980s, Boaz was a [[tourist attraction]] with 130 outlet stores, attracting five million people per year. Retailers moved away from Boaz due to a dwindling customer base, dropping to 80 stores in the early 1990s, with the [[Great Recession]] of the 2000s driving away even more. In 2016, three buildings of the outlet center were demolished.<ref name=":0"/>

The [[Julia Street Memorial United Methodist Church]], [[Snead State Community College|Snead Junior College Historic District]], the [[Thomas A. Snellgrove Homestead]] and the [[Edward Fenns Whitman House]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. The [[Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage]] lists the Boaz Elementary School, the First Baptist Church and Cemetery, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.<ref name="EofA" />