For over seventy years, Bowdon was a major manufacturing hub for men and women’s apparel in the west Georgia and east Alabama area.

Warren Palmer Sewell established the textile industry in Bowdon in 1932. By 1954 the major portion of Commerce Street in the Bowdon business area was occupied by Warren P. Sewell Clothing Company. In October of 1955, LaMar and Frances Sewell Plunkett formed LaMar Manufacturing operating in buildings on either side of City Hall Avenue east.

Bowdon’s apparel industry allowed local residents to work close to home. The transfer from a strictly agrarian economy to a more industrialized one, fueled growth for the city of Bowdon which lasted well into the 1990s.

Bowdon Area Historical Society is currently gathering pictures and documentation to be added as a spur to the West Georgia Textile Trail.

 

Anyone who would like to share pictures or information may contact Johnnie Huey at jbhuey1928@aol.com. Judy Rowell at Judy45R@aol.com