Calera: The Lime Kiln Town

Calera is Spanish for lime kiln, and the name fits perfectly. Settled in the early eighteen twenties, this Shelby County community sat atop limestone beds rich enough to supply kilns through the Civil War era. The place went by a series of frank names: Limeville, Lime Kilns, Lime City, Lime Station.

When a post office was established in eighteen sixty-nine, officials chose the elegant Spanish word instead. The Alabama and Tennessee River Railroad had come through in the eighteen fifties, and by the mid-eighteen eighties a group of Montgomery investors formed the Calera Land Company to develop the town formally. Incorporation followed in eighteen eighty-seven.

The Spanish name stuck long after the last kiln cooled.