Bon Air

Bon Air is located in southwest Talladega County in the east-central part of the state. It has a mayor/city council form of government.

Like many other Alabama small towns, Bon Air began as a company town established by the Danville Spinning Mill, which commenced production in 1914. The company constructed some 70 houses and duplexes to accommodate its workers. The mill was on one side of the main road through the area, and the houses were on the other; as was typical of such towns, the mill superintendent lived in a much larger house somewhat apart from the workers. Bon Air incorporated in 1932.

The yarn mill prospered and sustained the town through the 1960s, when it began to suffer from competition from more modern facilities. Alabama-based Avondale Mills purchased the Bon Air mill in the late 1970s and operated it for several decades. The mill and many others in Alabama closed in the late 1990s and early 2000s as jobs were shipped to nations with cheaper labor markets. Many of the original mill houses still stand, however.

Demographics

Bon Air's population according to the 2010 Census was 116. Of that number, 80.2 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 6.9 percent as African American, 6.9 percent as two or more races, 2.6 percent as Hispanic or Latino, and 2.6 percent as Native American. The town's median household income, according to 2010 estimates, was $34,075, and the per capita income was $21,568.

Employment

According to 2010 Census estimates, the work force in Bon Air was divided among the following industrial categories:

· Manufacturing (29.6 percent)
· Construction (16.7 percent)
· Transportation and warehousing and utilities (14.8 percent)
· Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (14.8   percent)
· Educational services, and health care and social assistance (11.1 percent)
· Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (5.6 percent)
· Wholesale trade (3.7 percent)
· Information (3.7 percent)

Education

Students in Bon Air attend Talladega County schools; no public schools are located within the town limits.

U.S. Highway 280/231 skirts the southwest corner of Bon Air. The Norfolk Southern Railway Corporation operates a rail line through the town.

Bon Air is located approximately five miles northwest of the Talladega National Forest and two miles southeast of the Coosa River.