Penn () is an unincorporated community in southwestern Morgan County, Alabama, United States, south of Danville and near the county lines with Lawrence County and Cullman County.
History Originally known as Basham's Gap () (spelled Bassham's Gap in the earliest records), the community was settled around 1818,Foscue, Virginia. Place Names in Alabama. University: U of Alabama Press, 1989. taking its name from the nearby mountain pass climbing steeply into the mountains of the Cumberland Plateau. An early reference to the community appears in an 1837 act of the Alabama Assembly, "An Act to establish a Public Road from Bassham's Gap in Morgan County to the dividing line between Walker and Tuscaloosa counties by the way of Jasper and James Cain in Walker county" (approved 25 December 1837).
A post office operated under the name Basham's Gap from 1847 to 1895 and under the name Basham from 1895 to 1907.John Knox, A History of Morgan County, Alabama (Decatur, Alabama: Morgan County Board of Revenue and Control, 1966), 130.
The community later became known as Penn, after Penn's School, a school in the community founded by Dr. Richard L. Penn.
Postmasters 1847–1866: James H. Basham 1866–1869: Mary A. Simpson 1869–1871: Doke W. Sherrill 1871: Sarah F. Basham 1871–1873: Sylvanus Gibson 1873–1882: Wiley B. Sherrill 1882–1888: John D. Sherrill 1888–1894: Sylvanus L. Sherrill (post office name shorted to "Basham") 1894–1895: Rather S. Sherrill 1895–1900: Martin T. Roden 1900–1901: David R. James 1901–1902: James D. Segars 1902–1903: Thomas J. Segars 1903–1904: Maggie Jones 1904–1907: Jennie Bennett 1907: Post office discontinued and mail sent to Danville.
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