LOXLEY – A new city museum and Town Hall are planned on the site where potatoes were once loaded on boxcars when trains ran through Loxley, city officials said.

Alexander "Andy" Bertolla donated the property where his family operated packing sheds along Railroad Avenue to the city. On Friday, Feb. 25, Bertolla gave the keys to the building on the site to Mayor Richard Teal.

The building, constructed in 1935, will be renovated and made into a community museum.

"This was the Bertolla office," Teal said. "Today we want to say thank you to Andy for donating this property and the building for the museum. Andy, we appreciate it. Your longstanding history with Loxley. I know you love Loxley like we do, and we really appreciate it."

The mayor said museum organizers and the Bertolla family have been working on the project for more than a year.

Teal said the city also plans to build a new Town Hall at the site and move municipal offices to the location.

When the L&N Railroad ran from Bay Minette to Foley for most of the 20th century, the area along the tracks was the center of commerce and activity in Loxley. Teal said community members want to revitalize the region.

"Because of you, we're going to be able to make this our Loxley downtown area in the future," Teal told Bertolla. "We plan on moving Town Hall and our facilities off of Highway 59 back into this downtown corridor."

Councilman Kasey Childress said several packing sheds were located along the railroad in the area. The Corte and Barnhill families also had facilities where crops from local farms were loaded on trains to ship from Loxley.

"This really means a lot," Childress said of the donation. "Hopefully, it's going to even be bigger one day. We're going to make the building a little bigger. Make it look the same and hopefully everybody in town's family will have some artifacts and cool pictures in there and keep our history going."

Childress said a fire in 1962 destroyed most of the sheds and buildings in the area. The Bertolla office was one of the few structures to survive.

He said museum organizers want to renovate the office building but do not want to do anything to affect the historic integrity of the structure.

"It's an old building and we certainly don't want to do anything to keep it from being considered as a historic building down the road," Childress said. "We do need to add central heat and air. People are going to be lending us their family heirlooms and we don't want anything to happen to them."

Childress said residents have started contacting the town about providing items from Loxley's past. He said museum organizers will continue to work to collect items for exhibit and to prepare the building opening.

He said an opening date for the museum has not been scheduled.