CRESTVIEW — Purl G. Adams Sr. was famous for finding ways to make things happen against the odds.
The attorney started his lifelong public service as Crestview High School's principal in 1920 and became mayor in 1922. He was a county prosecuting attorney and served in the state Legislature and Senate.
One of his first challenges was bringing electricity to the county seat through an $18,000 bond issue placed before voters.
Many superstitious homeowners feared electricity “would attract lightning and destroy their house,” Adams wrote in a short memoir transcribed by his daughter-in-law, Barbara Adams.
“The non-homeowners didn’t give a ‘hoopie,’” Adams wrote, and because any property owner could vote — and “property” wasn’t limited to land — Adams pursued their support instead.
Adams, interpreting a state Supreme Court decision granting voting rights to tax-paying property owners, informed elections officials “that anybody could vote … if they owned land, a car, a wagon, a mule, a cow, calf or even a shoat,” all of which were taxable property.
Crestview’s electricity bond issue passed by a small margin.
STREETS AND WATER
Next, Adams helped found a municipal water system with the help of “Calamity Jane,” a 300-pound sow with a penchant for knocking over residents’ outhouses.
“For the last three nights before the election, my friend would let Calamity Jane out of her pen, and the next morning there would be at least a dozen ‘shacks in the back’ turned over,” Adams wrote.
With indoor plumbing's value reinforced, voters passed the water bond measure, again by a small majority.
Paving Crestview’s streets was Adams’ next challenge. During the Depression, the Works Progress Administration furnished free labor, but the city had to provide street paving material.
“Our town had no money to buy the material,” Adams wrote. But again, the attorney found a way to secure funding.
WPA rules allocated $12 daily to use a private truck for a worksite. Crestview leaders secured 20 second-hand trucks, bringing in $240 daily to buy paving material.
“Yes, we had water, lights and streets, but our folks had no work,” Adams wrote. “In 1937, a town couldn’t build a factory, but a town could build a town hall, and if they had excess space, they could use it.”
Then came the Alatex Building, Adams’ most visible legacy and probably the first county example of government-built infrastructure to attract business.
Crestview borrowed $19,400 for its “town hall.” Local business leaders agreed to sell Adams building materials and he built the edifice for $19,400.
“I lost eight months from my law office and $850 on the contract, but it has been a life-saver for Crestview,” Adams wrote.
Today the Alatex Building houses the Florida A&M University Rural Diversity Healthcare Center.
POOL FRACAS
Adams’ last project did not become part of his legacy. In the late 1940s, he built a spring-fed public swimming pool with picnic grounds and a dancing pavilion for residents.
The main building had an observation room above the lockers, changing rooms and a snack bar.
Political rivals accused Adams of filling the pool by tapping into the city water system he helped create.
With the pool's rising operating cost, Adams shut down the park rather than entertain the accusations. Decades later, the spring keeps the pool's ruins filled with sparkling, clean water.
Purl Adams Sr. died on Dec. 5, 1966, and is buried in Liveoak Park Memorial Cemetery.
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The Northwest Florida Daily News and the Crestview News Bulletin are producing a hard-bound, coffee-table, pictorial book to commemorate the county’s centennial.
Pre-order it now at http://okaloosaco.pictorialbook.com/
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Purl Adams Sr. found ways to help the county progress
