Editing Anniston, Alabama (section)

==Arts and culture==
{{Unreferenced section|date=November 2019}}
[[File:World's Largest Chair, Anniston, Alabama.jpg|thumb|right|upright|The one-time [[World's Largest Office Chair|world's largest chair]] in Anniston]]

In 1899, the county seat of Calhoun County moved from [[Jacksonville, Alabama|Jacksonville]] to Anniston. More than 100 years later, the community is a bustling center of industry and commerce with more than 22,000 residents. Over the years, city officials and local citizens have worked to retain the environmental beauty of the area while allowing it to thrive economically and to preserve its history. The Spirit of Anniston Main Street Program, Inc., a nonprofit organization started in 1993, spearheaded the restoration and revitalization of historic downtown Anniston, with a focus on the city's main thoroughfare, Noble Street.

The Noble Streetscape Project encouraged local business owners to refurbish storefront façades, while historic homes throughout the downtown area have been repaired and returned to their former condition. The preservation effort included the historic Calhoun County Courthouse, located on the corner of 11th Street and Gurnee Avenue since 1900. The original building burned down in 1931, but the courthouse was rebuilt a year later. Thanks to a complete restoration in 1990, the stately structure is still in use today.

Anniston has long been a cultural center for northeastern Alabama. The [[Alabama Shakespeare Festival]] was founded in the city in 1972 and remained there until moving to [[Montgomery, Alabama|Montgomery]] in 1985 seeking more robust financial support. The Knox Concert Series produces an annual season of world-renowned musical and dance productions, and the Community Actors' Studio Theatre community theatre organization performs plays, musicals, and revues featuring local performers, actors, and musicians. CAST also features specially funded programs to educate area children in the arts for free. The city is home to the [[Anniston Museum of Natural History]] and the Berman Museum of World History. These institutions house mummies, dioramas of wildlife, and artifacts from a bygone age in contemporary, professional displays and exhibits. The [[Alabama Symphony Orchestra]] since 2004 has performed a summer series of outdoor concerts, Music at McClellan, at the former [[Fort McClellan]].

The city has many examples of [[Victorian architecture|Victorian-style]] homes, some of which have been restored or preserved. Several of the city's churches are architecturally significant or historic, including the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Grace Episcopal Church, Parker Memorial Baptist Church, and the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, a predominantly African-American church in what is known as the Zion Hill community. Temple Beth El, dedicated in 1893, is the oldest building in the state continuously used for [[Judaism|Jewish]] worship.

The original main street, Noble Street, is seeing a rebirth as a shopping and dining district in the heart of downtown.

The [[Chief Ladiga Trail]], part of a {{convert|90|mi|adj=on}} paved [[rail trail]] with the [[Silver Comet Trail]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], has its western terminus in Anniston.

===Fort McClellan===
[[Fort McClellan]]—former site of the U.S. Army Military Police Training Academy, a Vietnam era Infantry Training Center, [[Chemical Corps]] Regimental Headquarters, Chemical Warfare training center, and Women's Army Corps Headquarters—was decommissioned in the 1990s. A portion of the former fort is now home to the [[Alabama National Guard]] Training Center. Another {{convert|9000|acre|km2}} of the fort were set aside for the [[Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge]] in 2003. The [[United States Department of Homeland Security|Department of Homeland Security]] also uses a portion of the decommissioned fort for the [[Center for Domestic Preparedness]], the nation's only civilian "live agent" training center; emergency response providers from all over the world come to Fort McClellan to be trained in dealing with live agents and weapons in a real-time, monitored setting.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}