Delmar, Alabama

Delmar is a small, rural, community in west-central Winston County, United States. Delmar is located six miles north of Natural Bridge, five miles south of Haleyville and 15 miles west of Double Springs, the county seat of what was once the "Free State of Winston." Delmar has an elevation of 881 feet above sea level.

Delmar was originally called "Frog Level." Presumably, the community was called Frog Level because of the swampy land that existed around the area at the time. In the 19th century, the citizens of Frog Level asked the U. S. Postal Service to open a post office in their community, since the nearest post office was in Ark (where Needmore, Alabama is currently located). Their request was denied because there was another Frog Level, Alabama (now Fayette, Alabama) and it already had a post office. In order to get a post office, the citizens of the Frog Level in Winston County had to change their town's name. Around 1887, the town began to be known as "Delmar."

The exact origins of the name "Delmar" are unknown. A popular belief holds that a construction engineer with the railroad had a retired race horse by the name of "Delmar" or "Del Mar" (Spanish for "from the sea"). The horse was well known and loved by the community. When work on the railroad was completed around 1887, the community was renamed after the race horse.

After notifying the U. S. Postal Service of its name change, Delmar's first post office was opened on September 1, 1887. Newton L. Powell was the first Postmaster of Delmar. The current post office building was erected in 1971, during the service of Postmaster Mrs. Martha Roberts Stewart.

Today, the name of the town of Delmar is pronounced "Delmer."

According to legend, Delmar was not always the sleepy little community it is today. During the coal mining boom of the 19th century, there were several saloons in Delmar. Reportedly, Delmar was as lively as a town out of the Wild West, complete with drunken bar room brawls.

Byler Road was completed through Winston County in 1820. The historic highway, which ran through parts of what are today Delmar, Natural Bridge, Lynn, and Haleyville, connected the towns of northern Alabama with Tuscaloosa, which at the time was the capital of Alabama.

When Alabama seceded from the Union in 1861, the people of Winston County did not want to fight their Northern or Southern brothers and wanted to remain neutral in the Civil War. They decided that if a state could secede from the nation, then a county could secede from a state, and formed "Free State of Winston." The people of neighboring counties called the people of Winston County Tories (Northern sympathizers).