Warner Robins celebrates their 80 year anniversary

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The City of Planes, Trains and Heroes is celebrating a milestone. On Monday, Mach 20, Warner Robins citizens, community leaders and political figures gather together at the front doors of City Hall to celebrate Warner Robins 80th anniversary.

Food, drink and space was shared as Warner Robins citizens celebrated the history of their city and the heritage that comes with it. As people from across the city mulled about, Mayor LaRhonda Patrick took her place at the podium in front of them.

“We were formed as an official city in 1943, just 80 years ago,” Patrick said. “On February 22, 1943, a bill was introduced into the upper house of the state of Georgia by Perry’s then Senator, John W. Bloodworth, for the incorporation of the city of Warner Robins. On March 5, 1943, 80 years ago, the bill was passed and the town of Wellston officially became Warner Robins.

“That same evening when that bill was passed, C.B. “Boss” Watson, who had been unofficially the mayor of the community for over 50 years, took his formal oath of office, which was administered by Judge A.M. Bill Anderson of the Macon Circuit Court.”

Prior to World War II, Warner Robins was a small farming community called Wellston; the area was smaller in population than the city of Perry, Houston County’s political seat. When the Wellston Army Air Depot was placed here, that all changed. The city’s historic relationship with Robins Air Force Base was celebrated in a document released by the city:

“The city’s history is deeply intertwined with that of Robins Air Force Base, which was originally called Wellston Army Air Depot when it opened in 1942,” the release said. “The base was renamed to become Warner Robins Army Air Depot on October 14, 1942, and the city was soon renamed in honor of General Augustine Warner Robins (1882-1940) of the United States Army Air Corps. The city’s unique name, shared with no other town in the United States, has become a symbol of the community’s resilience, innovation, and pride.”

With each decade that has passed, Warner Robins has grown and developed from a farm community to Georgia’s 11th largest city. Prior to Patrick’s reading of the proclamation celebrating Warner Robins anniversary, she recognized Warner Robins expansive growth in such a short period of time.

“We have come a very long way. The city of Warner Robins has grown and thrived ever since 1943, and we still have a lot of growing to do,” Patrick said. “We’re not that small Mayberry like we used to be in the Wellston days, but we still have the heart of a small community — that’s what I love about the city of Warner Robins.

“We are large in number, but the way we show up for our community, our neighbors, it shows that we have not lost all the pride and all the important values that our founders had way back in the 1940s and beyond.”

Though Warner Robins turned 80 as of March 5, 2023, and Houston County celebrated their 200th birthday in 2022, Patrick said the city’s not done. There’s still more to do.

“I look forward to having the next ten years be our best years, and [to] keep moving from there. We’ve made so many strides and so many accomplishments just in 80 years, and we have so, so far to go.”

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