The Daleville Inn...
A lovely landmark in Dale County

The seventeen acres on which the Daleville Inn & Apartments is situated is a sea of green in the heart of the city of Daleville.  Immediately adjacent to Fort Rucker, a guest at the Inn can emerge from her room, turn right onto "Main Street", cruise a half-mile past restaurants and businesses and enter Fort Rucker in under five minutes, regardless of whether they catch the light in front of the high school.

Proximity to Fort Rucker is one of the Inn's many assets.  Others include its friendly, efficient staff, all of whom exude southern hospitality; its recreational amenities, including two swimming pools and a tennis court; the live oaks and palm trees and bird bath fountain that grace its verdant lawns; and the varied multitude of services the Inn offers both recreational and business travelers.

That this remarkable complex even exists seems improbable in retrospect.  Before its construction, Daleville's population numbered 700 and very few businesses lined its one street.

The landscape changed in 1960, thanks to three men of great vision.  Douglas Brown, a former mayor of Ozark, teamed up with two Georgia businessmen, L.C. Hall, an insurance executive, and Bob Culpepper, owner of the vending machine concessions at Fort Rucker and Fort Benning, to develop the city.

The intrepid trio convinced a bank to lend them $1.5 million dollars.  They purchased 400 acres of land in Daleville, constructed a lagoon sewer system and began to build the town, house by house, shopping center by shopping center.  Their most ambitious undertaking however, was development of the Daleville Inn & Apartments.

The Inn's name derives from the two-story colonial edifice that sat on the property.   The old structure served as a hotel when first constructed over 150 years ago.   The developers moved the building to the center of the motel property and remodeled it for use as the motel office.  Today it still serves that purpose, having been rehabilitated after suffering damage inflicted by a devastating tornado in 2001.

Two motel units were placed on either side of the office, each with 24 rooms.  A restaurant of colonial design, modeled after the old hotel, was installed on the property along with two swimming pools, one of tile, and a block of apartment houses that were furnished and built house soldiers stationed at Fort Rucker for brief periods of training.

Additional motel and apartments units were added over the years until completion of the complex in 1976.  Mr. Cuplepper became the sole owner of the property, and he bequeathed it to his daughter, Nancy Chancey, who owned it with her husband Jon and their family until its purchase by the Gene Hughes family in 2001.

During the Vietnam War, the Inn housed many soldiers who were at Fort Rucker for flight training.  This period of its history chronicled in fictional form by the popular author W.E.B. Griffin, who has used it as a setting for scenes in his novels.

In the past year, over a million dollars has been invested in renovation of the Daleville Inn & Apartments.  When completed, the motel rooms and apartments will feature an updated decor, the landscaping will be further enhanced, and another restaurant and lounge located on the property adjacent to the motel office will join the existing Mexican restaurant that thrives in the original Colonial-style restaurant building.   Other upgrades include an improved conference room and digital phone service.   Call them for more information!