Historic downtown
Downtown Enterprise is where the Chamber's story began and where its festivals still happen: brick sidewalks, storefronts, the 1919 Boll Weevil Monument at the heart of it all, and a trail of painted weevils waiting to be found.
formulanone, 'Enterprise Alabama Town Square - Mar 2014', Wikimedia Commons / Flickr · CC BY-SA 2.0 — attribution required
Photos: Carol M. Highsmith (Library of Congress) · Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Boll Weevil Monument
Dedicated December 11, 1919, at the intersection of Main and College, the Monument thanks the boll weevil for the prosperity that followed cotton's collapse. A Classical female figure holds the weevil aloft; the insect itself was added in 1949.
Councilman Roscoe “Bon” Fleming proposed it after Coffee County, following George Washington Carver's advice to diversify into peanuts, posted the largest peanut harvest in the nation in 1917. The Monument is listed on the Alabama Register and anchors every downtown festival, the Christmas Parade route, and Enterprise's identity as the City of Progress.
Weevil Way
This time, they won't be destroying crops or ruining the local economy. Reinforced fiberglass weevil statues, each artistically decorated by its sponsor, stand throughout downtown for visitors to find and photograph. Pick up a trail card and go hunting.
Public art
Weevil Way turns the city symbol into public art. Sponsors choose each statue's design, local artists paint them, and the results stand in front of businesses, parks and civic buildings across Enterprise.
For Chamber members, sponsoring a weevil is a conversation starter that never stops working. For families, it's an afternoon. For the city, it's proof that a town can laugh at its own history and still take its future seriously.
Downtown today
Guests 21 and over may carry alcoholic beverages in approved containers within district boundaries: 11 AM to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, 5 to 11 PM other days, except Sunday. Hours may be adjusted by the City Council.
Gifts, clothing and jewelry, health and beauty, furniture, home improvement, outdoor supplies, office and printing, plus breakfast and coffee, sweet treats, lunch and dinner.
Main Street Enterprise leads downtown revitalization and programming. The Chamber's Tourism Action Team works alongside it and Visit Enterprise to bring people downtown.
