By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – One of Alabaster’s most historic remaining structures soon will receive a new look, as the city recently approved funding to help pay for the renovations.

During its May 20 meeting, the City Council agreed to approve up to $20,000 to put toward the project, which will renovate the area surrounding the old Siluria cotton mill’s jail cell and water tower near the current site of Alabaster City Hall and the city’s Senior Center.

In 2017, the city’s Alabama Bicentennial Committee applied for and was awarded a grant, which it planned to use to landscape and beautify the area surrounding the historic Siluria mill water tower and jail building near Alabaster City Hall and the Alabaster Senior Center.

The area currently is surrounded by a simple chain-link fence.

After receiving the grant and getting cost estimates on the work required to provide landscaping, a decorative fence and a historic marker surrounding the historic structures, the city determined it would need to chip in some local funding to supplement the grant.

“This area was the Siluria textile mill for many years, and the water tower and jail are really the last historical buildings we have left in the city,” said Council President Scott Brakefield. “We’re trying to do all we can to preserve and spruce this area up. Hopefully with the grants and a little bit of city funding, we can make this into a nice historical marker.”