Flotte’s Notes on
An Unofficial Encyclopaedia of
Mobile & Baldwin Counties
Promoting local history, culture,
outdoors, businesses, attractions, food, people, and places
Please submit all comments,
additions, and corrections to: admin@flotte2.com
Available through www.flottesnotes.com or www.notesonmobile.com
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·
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Daphne-Fairhope-Foley
micropolitan area ranked number one in the nation for population growth between
2000 and 2007, adding 31,350 new residents.
·
2006
U.S. Census estimates place the county's growth in housing stock at 38th in the
nation.
·
1993 Baldwin
County Long Range Plan
·
AREREC Baldwin
County Population and Household Projections 2000-2020
·
·
Baldwin County Genealogical Society
·
Pre-Mississippian
Native American cultures often referred to as “mound-builders,” flourished in
the area. To this day, a variety of burial, ceremonial and residential mounds
along with an occasional artifact can be found along
·
The
Delta interior lays claim to Bottle
Creek, a crucial pre-Columbian Indian ceremonial and political center.
o There are a series of earthen mounds,
the tallest being about 50 feet high. Scholars have been investigating Bottle
Creek since the 1850s, but only in recent years, with extensive excavations by
a team from the
o The current thinking is that leaders
of a Mississippian Indian culture lived and ruled atop these mounds in a
dynasty that began about 1200 A.D. and lasted some 400 years. By the time the French
had settled in the area, Bottle Creek was uninhabited, but was revered the
place as sacred. They took Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to see it in
1702.
·
In
1519 Alonzo Alvarez De Pineda sailed into
·
1702 The French found
·
1715 Joseph Simon de la Pointe received a grant for land
measuring "one league," or three miles, along
·
By
the 1740s, several homes had been built in an area that came to be known as The Village, or
·
Augustin Rochon,
established a plantation in what is now Spanish Fort around 1760.
·
1763 The
British take control of West Florida, including present-day
o
British
Maj. Robert Farmar
built a large plantation along the Tensaw, near what is now
·
1780 A Spanish army captured
o
1800 Francisco Suarez, a Spaniard, had received thousands
of acres in
·
1809
o
o McIntosh Bluff (now in
·
1810 The Town
of
o Settled
by Josiah Blakeley
and others from
o Property owners and developers in the
Blakeley area filed a petition in 1996 requesting the dissolution of the
inactive town of Blakeley, which was incorporated in 1814 and never dissolved
in order to avoind zoning restrictions.
·
1813 The 19th century's largest Indian
massacre of white Americans occurred at
o In July 1813, American militiamen
ambushed Creek Indians at Burnt Corn
Creek, near today's border between
§ In July
1813, Peter McQueen and a large party of "Red Sticks" proceeded to
o Delta settlers tried to protect
themselves by gathering in wooden stockades, including one owned by Samuel
Mims, a wealthy local trader, near
o Historians accept that at least 250
men, women and children were killed at
o The cry "Remember Fort
Mims!" took hold, and brought avenging militiamen to
·
1815 During the War of 1812, at
·
1864 In the Battle of Fort Morgan in August, Admiral Farragut entered Baldwin /
o The Tecumseh, a Federal Ironclad,
struck a mine and sank during the fighting in a narrow inlet where it still
lies with its entombed crew near
o In March 1865, federal forces under
Gen. Edward Canby marched north from
·
1865 Spanish Fort went under siege in March and April 1865,
with Confederate
o Union troops dug a ring of trenches
and gun positions in a line stretching 4 miles, from near the present site of
the Larry D. Cawyer Scenic Overlook on Interstate 10 through Spanish Fort to
Bay Minette Creek
o While the battlefield at nearby
Blakeley is preserved in a state park, the site of the battle of Spanish Fort
has been covered by development. A developer has proposed a new subdivision for
48 acres that includes the site of three Union artillery batteries and
earthworks that bombarded Fort McDermott, located across Alabama 225 from
Spanish Fort Elementary School – PR 5/4/2007
·
1865 During
the Civil War the Confederate Fort Blakely (spelled this way during
the Civil War years) was built near to the abandoned town, housing an army camp
of upwards to 4,000 soldiers.
o
On
April 9, 1865, some six hours after Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Confederate
Army of Northern Virginia, Union troops defeated Confederates at the Battle of Fort Blakeley. It is
estimated that a total of 4,475 soldiers were killed or wounded in this final
engagement.
o
At
least 6,000 of the Union troops were blacks, one of the largest such
representations in the war.
o After
1865 Blakeley was deserted for more than 100 years until Historic Blakeley State Park was created in 1981.
o
Remnants
of two small Confederate batteries - Forts Huger and Tracy - can still be seen
in the
·
1868 The
County Seat was moved from Blakeley to Daphne.
·
1893 Adherents of the economic theories of
Henry George founded a Single Tax Colony called Fairhope; Friends (Quakers) also settled there.
·
1901 By an
Act of the State Legislature, the County Seat was authorized for relocation to
the City of
·
Around
the turn of the century, immigrants from many regions of the
·
1911 Daphne held its first May Day celebration which became a
county-wide celebration held the first Saturday in May. Each community in
·
1916 The first black school, the
·
1927 The
·
The
oldest surviving church in the county,
·
The
Baldwin County Commission unanimously adopted a $204 million 2007-2008 budget
-- a record high which was increased 30 percent compared to the prior year.
·
The
pay-as-you-go program would allow
·
Jacksonville,
Fla.-based Genesis Group was hired to compile a comprehensive plan for
Economics
·
Baldwin Economic Development
Alliance (BCEDA)
o The BCEDA Small Business Incubator
Network Feasibility Study proposed an incubator network of five new facilities
of 12,000 square feet each in Daphne,
·
Alabama Gulf Coast
Chamber of Commerce
·
Central Baldwin Chamber of
Commerce
·
Eastern Shore Chamber of
Commerce
o The ESCC is holding a series of
monthly business training workshops beginning in February as part of the
chamber's Blueprint for Tomorrow initiative
·
North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce
·
South Baldwin
Chamber of Commerce
·
The Alabama Gulf
Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau is a quasi-governmental agency funded
by a portion of the state's lodgings tax
·
Envision Coastal Alabama is a
regional development organization.
·
·
·
Don
Epley at the University of South
Alabama Center for Real Estate Studies estimates that between 2003 and
2007,
o
o Epley said
·
o
A
·
Throughout
most of the twentieth century,
·
In the 1970s, some
·
In the 1980s and 1990s, tourism and real estate became a
large part of the economy.
·
L-3
Crestview Aerospace Corp.'s announced the closure of its Fairhope plant in
December 2007.
·
Standard Furniture of Bay Minette in year 2003 did over
$250 million in gross business, with 1250 employees, making wood bedroom
furniture. W. M. Hodgson, Sr., with four or five friends, started the company
in the 1940s and later he purchased the interests of the others. In the 1950s,
W. M. Jr., and Bob Hodgson took over the operations.
·
·
BRATS
is the Baldwin Rural Area Transportation System
·
A
recent
·
BRATS
and its
o BRATS has talked with
o Baldwin's low unemployment rate, under
3 percent, may be driving transportation discussions, but
o The goal is to link
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
The Foley
Beach Express and toll bridge over the
o The three sons of former Gov. Fob
James, namely Patrick, Tim and Fob III, along with brothers Tim and John
McInnis of Montgomery, were partners in the Baldwin County Bridge Company, LLC.
§ The partners financed the $44 million
project with $36 million in private bonds underwritten by the John Hancock Company
of
§ They refinanced the project for $64
million with HRH Nordbank, with the assistance of
§ Then-Gov. Fob James signed into law a
bill allowing counties to license such bridges in May 1996, shortly before
their proposal was publicly announced.
o In 2003, the Orange Beach City Council
approved a deal with the bridge company in which the city agreed to give the
firm $1.2 million annually for 10 years in exchange for a fee for each car that
crosses the bridge.
o In 2005, The U.S. subsidiary of
Australian financial giant
§ Macquarie, which recently bought
long-term rights to operate the Chicago Skyway toll road for $1.83 billion,
also owns stakes in major pay-to-use roads in
·
Southern Evacuation Parkway: The Orange Beach City Council contracted
Figg Bridge Engineers to start designing the structure connecting the Foley
Beach Express to the Gulf-front via an elevated highway. A third of the 1½-mile
road will need to pass through wetlands in Gulf State Park. – PR 9/20/07
·
There is a $50 million-plus plan
to construct a four-lane highway from the Foley Beach Express to I-10 via what
is now Baldwin County 83 in Robertsdale and east of Loxley.
o
Construction will probably take
12 to 18 months for each section of the two-phase project. The first section will
be from the Foley Beach Express to U.S. 90, with the second continuing to I-10. Baldwin County Engineer Cal Markert
said that project would be completed by the summer of 2012.
·
o The city is creating a bridge
authority, choosing an engineering firm and soliciting private investment from
firms that include
o
o In March 2007, Figg Engineering Group
completed a study that found a bridge across
o The Orange Beach City Council approved
a one-year deal with Goldman Sachs to share the costs of the engineering. – PR 4/1/07
o
o A bridge
over
o Wolf
Bay Bridge Feasibility Study. Orange
Beach Transportation Plan.
·
The
state plans to widen a 15.8-mile stretch of
·
o The state is planning a $19 million
interchange at Baldwin County Road 13, which is currently scheduled for
construction in 2010.
o A $9 million service road north of
I-10 between U.S. 98 and
o TimberCreek will donate land and $2
million.
o Infirmary Health System plans to purchase
100 acres of property from TimberCreek to construct a medical facility on the
site, but only if it has access to I-10.
·
Gov. Bob Riley’s administration is considering a proposal
to build an elevated road through
·
A
hurrican evacuation route between I-10 and I-65 is also being studied. - PR 7/26/08
·
The
Baldwin County Evacuation Route Analysis was completed by Post, Buckley, Schuh
& Jernigan in May 2008
·
The
Utilities
·
GulfTel Communications, previously Gulf
Telephone, is the telephone company that has served south
o Gulf Telephone was founded by Ward
Snook in 1929. His son, John
Snook, was president of the company until his death in 1994.
o Madison River Communications bought
Gulf Telephone in 1999, when the Foley company was purchased for $312 million,
and renamed it GulfTel.
o In 2007 CenturyTel of Monroe, La.,
purchased
o In 2008, it was announced that the name would be changed from GulfTel to CenturyTel.
·
Alabama
Power only serves the Bay Minette and Perdido areas. Alabama
Power sells wholesale to Robertsdale Municipal Power Authority, which furnishes
power to Fairhope and Riviera Utilities, and Alabama Electric Co-operative,
which in turn, serves power to Baldwin County Electric Membership Corporation.
Education
·
Baldwin County Board of Education
·
Orange
Beach and Gulf Shores held a referendum in March 2007 to form an independent
school system funded through a 7.5-mil property tax increase which failed by
more than a two-to-one margin in both cities.
·
For
the third year in a row, the number of
o
In
2007, state auditors discovered that
·
Blakeley Historic
Park: This 3,800-acre park was the site of a Civil War battle.
Regular festivities include an April Civil War festival and an October
Cajun/Bluegrass celebration.
Municipalities and Communities
·
·
The
Perdido
·
Jim
and Marianne Eddins, came to Perdido in 1971 after Jim retired and opened
Bay Minette
·
1861 Bay Minette was founded. It was named for the French
colonial surveyor Minette
·
1901 The county seat was relocated from Daphne to Bay
Minette.
o Bay Minette was still little more than
a sleepy north
o In 1901, he swayed the Legislature to
move the seat of government from Daphne to Bay Minette. Hand made himself
chairman of a courthouse construction committee, donated the property where the
courthouse still sits today and contributed $1,600 toward its construction
cost.
o When residents of Daphne filed a
lawsuit to block the move, they failed to get a restraining order. So on the
night of Oct. 11, 1901, Hand and 21 other men from Bay Minette sneaked into
Daphne and hauled off the courthouse records, furniture, the bars from the
jail, furnishings in the circuit courtroom, nearly everything "from the
judge's desk to the spittoons," according to a newspaper account. The
Legislature and the Alabama Supreme Court later ratified the transfer.
o In 1902, Hand was one of the chief
investors when the L&N Railroad sold $1.5 million in bonds to build a spur
from Bay Minette to Navy Cove, a distance of about 60 miles. Hand envisioned
Bay Minette turning into a major railroad hub between
o In 1906 the dredging of the Mobile
Ship Channel and the Hurricane of 1906 destroyed
The
·
In the days before the bay causeway, which opened in 1929, wealthy
·
The Eastern Shore Trail for hikers and bikers will run from the
battleship to Weeks Bay Estuary--33 miles altogether.
·
Punta Clara Kitchen, in Point Clear, for homemade pralines, fig
preserves, and other tantalizers to cart home. Lunch at Fly Creek Cafe; Sunday
afternoon jazz and a sunset Pelican Punch (white rum, triple sec, cranberry and
other juices) at Pelican Pointe Grill; and dinner at the Fairhope Inn &
Restaurant, which has a lovely setting.
·
The
Eastern Shore housing boom started decades ago in Daphne, Fairhope and Spanish
Fort, and is now pushing up
Spanish Fort
·
There are actually 3 Forts in Spanish Fort, but our location got
its name from the first one that was built in 1781 by the Spanish. It is
located near the end of
·
In
1929, George Fuller had accumulated 2,500 acres. He began developing it in the
1950s, and most of that land has been developed as Spanish
Fort Estates. His family continues to develop the area as Fuller Brothers
Real Estate.
o Developer David Fuller expects Spanish
Fort Estates to reach the banks of Bay Minette Creek, where his family's
property ends at
·
In
1949 the Buzbee Fish Camp was at the
end of what is now Highway 225. The road was just a dirt lane then, and its terminus
was the base of their boat launch. Beyond that, it was pure Delta wilderness.
·
Spanish
Fort was incorporated in 1993.
·
The
$12.8 million
·
In
2007, Spanish Fort annexed 11,000 acres of the Highlands of
Spanish Fort development by International Paper Realty. The project could
take 50 years to complete.
·
The
southern border of Spanish Fort abuts I-10 in two areas: a two-mile stretch
east of
History
·
1702 The French established a colony in
·
1743 British take
·
1779 The Spanish take
·
1781 A revolutionary battle was fought at the Village when
the British from
·
1787 Louis D’Olive
receives an 800 arpen Spanish land grant (approximately 800 acres), part of
which is Village Point Preserve. 1803 Louis D’Olive establishes a permanent
residence at Daphne, now Village Point Park Preserve. His interests were
cattle, goats, hogs, and woodland products. He also established a hotel, La
Belle Rose. During this same period, he established the cemetery located in
the Village Point Park Preserve. The cemetery may be visited on one of the
walking trails.
o 1819 Major Lewis Stark, who also
served under Andrew Jackson, contracted to furnish brick to build
·
1814 During the War of 1812, Gen. Andrew
Jackson rallied his troops, who had just fought the Creeks and British at
·
1820 The Village suffered a severe yellow fever epidemic and,
for the most part, was abandoned. Some of the remaining names locally are
Yancey, Crane, Phillips, Harrub, Rice and Stapleton.
·
1833 A
o Howard built the
o Captain Howard built a flume for the
spring and sold water to ships, and ran a water delivery service to the ships
too large to enter the bay. Later, when the bay boats were calling at the
various wharves (Halls, D’Olive, Stark, Howard, Short and
o The first post office was established
on Howard property, and Capt. Howard became Daphne’s first postmaster. Mrs.
Howard was credited in naming the post office Daphne because of the many laurel trees that grew along the shore.
According to Greek mythology, Daphne was a nymph who was loved by Apollo, but
did not return his love. She fled, pursued by Apollo, and when she could run no
more, was turned into a laurel tree, hence the name Daphne.
o 1858 A church was constructed on land
donated by Captain William Howard served all Protestant denominations until
1870, when it became Methodist. Worship services were held in the church until
1976, when a new sanctuary on
·
1845 Gavin Yuille
purchased 72 acres, established a cabin and farm and called the place Magnolia Hill. The land lies along
Belrose and Magnolia Avenues. His great-granddaughter, Miss Jean Yuille still
lives on the estate. The family was prominent in the bakery business in
·
1847 The steamship Cora made runs twice daily across
·
1847 William Patterson
died. He was a very colorful person who had purchased 4 acres from Louis
D’Olive. He was buried on the property and his grave lies along the street
about 27340 North Main Street.
·
1851 Hollywood Hotel
was established near
·
1865 During the Civil War, the Union fleet
landed and camped at the Village during the campaign to capture Spanish Fort
and Fort Blakeley. Rebel
forces set up a cannon at Raggedy Point, firing upon a union ship killing one
and wounding three. In retaliation, the ship fired upon some bay front homes and
the
·
1868 The county seat is moved
from Blakeley to Daphne
·
1874 Daphne Post Office is opened. Mayor Lewis Stark donated
two acres of land to former slaves for the Little Bethel church on
·
1888 The first Italians of the Italian Colony arrive: Dominico Trione
and the Castagnolli brothers, Dominico and Cesare. Founder Allasandro Valerio
bought a tract of land and advertised in newspapers in large cities, where many
Italians lived in ghettos. None of the families came direct from
o 1898 The Italian Catholic Church of the
Assumption was built; prior to that time, mass was held in private homes. Fr.
Angelo Chiariglione was known as “the priest of the flying mission” as his
territory was
·
1901 The county courthouse is
forcibly removed to Bay Minette. Between 1907 and
1940 the Courthouse became a Normal School, for training teachers.
·
1927 Daphne is incorporated.
The Mobile Bay Causeway is built. A dirt road is cut from
Spanish Fort to Fairhope which was paved about 1936 and is now Scenic Highway
98.
·
1930-1940s Downtown Daphne consisted of Trione’s
Store, a post office, a barber shop, Frank Hill’s Dry Goods Store, Peterson’s
Store (formally Bertagnolli’s), Dryer’s Drug and Sundries Store and Rayford and
Baggett’s General Store. A principal business was the Daphne Pottery, run by
Clarence Dryer, with the potter being Ed Grace. Several men were employed
digging the clay and preparing it for pottery as well as loading the kilns. The
main output was charcoal furnaces. The original building still stands. Dan
Pruitte Eddins operated a garage and a paper wood business located north of the
current Bulletin Office. One of the final uses of Yuille’s wharf was the
loading of wood on the barges for shipping to International Paper Company. With
WWII and the increase in
·
1950s-1960s, The water system, city hall, and other
infrastructure is built
·
1988
·
During
the 1990s, areas north of I-10, including TimberCreek subdivision, were
annexed.
·
Source:
Alfred Guarisco, Jubilee Breeze, June-Dec 2006.
·
The
City of
·
Daphne has an economic development program guided by a Strategic
Plan for Economic Development. The Industrial Development Board of the City
of
·
In
2006, Lamar Advertising Co. filed a lawsuit claiming the city's sign ordinance
violates the company's constitutional right to free speech. U.S. District Judge
Kristi Dubose issued an order sending the Lamar Co. vs. Daphne case to the
state court system, saying that Lamar's claims of the sign ordinance's
unconstitutionality failed to meet the standard for federal court involvement
without a prior state ruling.
·
Olde
Towne Daphne Association
Attractions
·
Old Daphne Church Museum opened in 1998
·
The
second-largest known collection of Jim Beam decanters on display is in Daphne,
at Manci's Antique Club, Inc
·
Judge Roy Bean’s burnt down February 15, 2005. It was
uninsured. Owner John Sack said the bar's two mascots - a goat named ``Billy''
and a Macaw named ``Tattoo'' - survived the blaze, but everything else was destroyed.
Sack and Jack West founded the bar and restaurant in 1977. Judge's gained fame in the late 1970s
and '80s because of its big-name musical guests including Emmylou Harris, the
Marshall Tucker Band, Alabama and Jimmy Buffett, who played Judge's about 25
times. West said the original building at Judge's was erected in 1946 and was
known as the Embassy Lounge. He bought the property in 1976. In 2002, West sold
the business and leased the property out to Sack and Steve Anderson. Sack said
he bought out
·
The
Jubilee Festival takes place on the
streets of downtown Daphne.
·
·
Village Point Preserve opened in 2002
·
Montrose
·
Ecor Rouge, the highest coastline
point between
·
Poser
Business Forms Inc. in Montrose was started in 1949 in a small plant in
Fairhope by Walter Poser. It was acquired in 1998 by Mail-Well and now operates
as PrintXcel, headquartered in
Fairhope
Fairhope History
·
Before
it was Fairhope, the city was called
·
1893 The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation was founded by 28 Iowans seeking to
put into practice the economic theories of Henry
George.
o The Fairhope Industrial Association
incorporated in 1894 and changed the name to Fairhope Single Tax Corp. in 1905.
o The corporation
established their colony by pooling together funds and purchasing land known as
Stapleton's pasture. Then dividing the land into leaseholds they were able to
pay all government taxes and rents making a single tax. This single tax system
would maintain the value of the land by providing incentives for using the land
productively. Incorporated
under
o The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation still
operates 1800 leaseholds covering more than 4000 acres in and around Fairhope in return for the payment of a rent
(the "single tax") based on the land's valuation; the combined rents
are used to pay taxes and to provide and improve community services.
o In the late 19th century, after Swedish
settlers clear-cut the land that would later become Fairhope, rains created
deep gullies in the denuded landscape. The Fairhope Single Tax Corp. wrote into
the city's constitution the permanent preservation of the gullies and the land
surrounding them. And so today the ravines -- among them so-called Bayou
Charbon and Stacks Gully -- represent a large portion of the city's protected
green space. – PR 1/3/08
o The corporation has long led
preservation efforts in the city, such as
·
1907
·
1908
The City of
·
Early
visitors came by Bayboat from
·
In
the 1930s, the city became the caretaker of Fairhope's beachfront park, Henry
George Park,
·
The 1980s beautification program was led by James P. Nix - mayor from 1972 to 2000
·
H.L.
"Sonny"
Fairhope Government
·
Fairhope doesn't have a sales tax. Rather, the town owns Fairhope Utilities -- water, electric
and gas – and sells the services to residents, and then reinvests the revenue
in the community. Mayor Tim Kant says utility revenue represents more than 40%
of Fairhope's $30 million budget.
·
Fairhope
Mayor Tim Kant makes $16,000 as mayor and over $70,000 as head of
utilities. The Fairhope City Council has
appointed a committee to investigate whether both positions should be held by
one person.
·
Fairhope
made national news when 7-year-old yellow lab Willie Bean Roscoe P. Coltrane,
who’s owner is artist and Coffee Loft
manager Tress Turner, began a campain for mayor against the seven human candidates
in an acerbic election
Fairhope Art and Attractions
·
Fairhope and De La Mare Avenues, the town's main
shopping streets, are lined with small antique stores, art galleries,
independent book sellers and upscale clothing boutiques. Ordinances prohibit
big-box outlets such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart from opening within town limits,
and developers face rules and restrictions.
·
The Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope is home to four galleries
with exhibits that change monthly. ESAC features a gallery with member artists’
work for sale. The galleries feature paintings, sculpture, photography and
multimedia artwork. The Academy at the
·
The Arts & Crafts Festival, started in Fairhope in 1952 and
sponsored by the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce, began as a tour of exhibits
by local artists inside store windows. Over the years, the festival changed,
and exhibitors now come from across the
·
The
Fairhope Center for the
Writing Arts (FCWA) has a mission to carry on the literary legacy of
the
o The
o The first conspicuous act of the group
was to lease and renovate a tiny city-owned cottage at
·
The
·
The
Fairhope Museum of History will open in Fairhope’s old 1927 City Hall in the
Spring of 2008
·
Fairhope
Residential Development
Point Clear
·
Named
Punta Clara by the Spanish
·
The Grand Hotel was originally built by F.H. Chamberlain 1847, a two-story
building with 40 rooms. A separate building housed the dining room and kitchen
while still another building held the bar named "The Texas". Guests
traveled to the hotel by steamboats and docked at what is now the marina.
o During the Civil War, the 21st
Alabama Regiment camped on the hotel grounds and the hotel was used as a base
hospital. In 1869 a fire broke out destroying the hotel.
o In the 1870's Captain H.C. Baldwin
purchased the hotel and, using some of the old foundations, built the second
Grand Hotel at a cost of $75,000. It was much like the first, except it was 300
feet in length and contained 60 suites.
o In 1901 Major James K. Glennon of
o In 1939 Mr. E.A. Roberts purchased
the hotel. His dream was to have an elaborate resort. Mr. Roberts bought 25
additional parcels of land and along with his architect brother, Mr. J.P.
Roberts, the third Grand Hotel began to evolve. In 1940 the old buildings were
demolished and using some old timbers and hard pine flooring, the main building
was built. Soon after completion, World War II broke out and the hotel was used
as a training base.
o After World War II was over the hotel
was conveyed to Waterman
Steamship Company, Mr. Roberts' Company. A marina, two tennis courts, an
18-hole golf course, and a 750,000-gallon swimming pool were built. In 1955
Waterman Steamship sold out to Southern Industries.
o In 1966 James K. McLean purchased the
hotel. During Mr. McLean's ownership he added the hotel's current Bay House. At
that point the hotel had grown to 172 guestrooms. In 1967 a second 9-hole golf
course and the first conference center were added.
o In 1981 the Marriott Corporation
bought the Grand Hotel. Shortly after the purchase, the Marriott added two
buildings, the North Bay House and the
·
Punta
Clara Kitchen, 17111
Scenic Highway 98, 1
mile south of the historic Grand Hotel; started in 1952 in a circa 1897
Victorian home
·
Mullet Point is at the end of Highway 1. Pelican
Point Grill is there.
·
Point Clear Polo: Ed Bernard and Wilson
Greene brought Polo to the
Malbis
·
1906 Malbis
o
The
Malbis Plantation had its own bakery, dairy and community with dorms for men
and women. The bakery was located in downtown
o
The
community continued under generations of leadership after Jason Malbis died in
1942, selling land to Diamondhead Corporation to create
o Malbis Plantation began selling some
of its several thousand acres in 1997, first with the 150-acre Historic Malbis
subdivision at 181 and U.S. 90. The Malbis family have retained most of their
land on the south side of U.S. 90, and have a commercial lot across from Lowe's
on
·
Loxley
·
In
Loxley Ace Hardware has built a major distribution center employing 300.
·
Loxley
Strawberry Festival
·
Burris’
Farm Market
Robertsdale
·
The Southern Plantation Corporation of
·
The town was named after one of the officials of the Corporation,
Dr. B.F. Roberts, and was incorporated in 1921.
·
Robertsdale is home to
Silverhill
·
Silverhill
was founded in 1896 by settlers from
Summerdale
Magnolia Springs
·
Magnolia
Springs stands on land granted by the Spanish to Joseph Collins in 1800. In
1834 the administrators of the Joseph Collins Grants sold the land to Joshua Kennedy, and in
1855 the lands were transferred to Kennedy , Moore, and Co. Those two and
another partner were engaged in the turpentine business , and worked hundreds
of slaves in the woods gathering pine sap. The business thrived until the Civil
War. Confederates burned the turpentine still to keep the Union forces from
using it.
·
In
1872, Kennedy & Moore sold their tract of land to a widow from
·
The
village has the only all-water mail route in the
·
Magnolia
Springs voted to incorporate in 2006
·
Sources:
“Restore
Elberta
·
In
1904, a group of German businessmen from
·
The
Town of
·
Baldwin
County Heritage Museum
·
Elberta Sausage Festival was started in 1978 by the Elberta
Volunteer Fire Department and is held on the last Saturdays in March and
October
o The original secret recipe for
Elberta's famous sausage is credited to Alfred Stucki who managed Elberta's
Locker Plant from 1953 until his death in 1973.
Foley
·
Foley Convention & Visitors Bureau
·
Foley Performing Arts Association
·
The City of
·
The L & N
Depot was built in 1905 when the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Line
came to Foley. The railroad was first known as the Bay Minette and Fort Morgan
Railroad. The town became the center for shipping
o
In 1971, L & N was discontinued service to Foley and
announced it would destroy the building. John Snook bought the building for
$1.00 and moved it to Magnolia Springs to serve as storage for Gulf Telephone.
In 1995, it was returned to the original site and made into a museum.
·
Hotel Magnolia was built in 1908 by John Foley. John Snook bought the
hotel after WWII and refurbished it. It was closed for over 30 years until Marjorie
Snook, John Snook’s widow, renovated and reopened it in 2005. The glass in the
front door of the Hotel was taken from John Snook's grandfather's home in
·
The
Foley Hotel opened in 1927. The
Foley Hotel cost $200,000 to build and furnish in an era when good
·
Goodrich Aerosructures has both its
·
The Tanger Outlet
Center was built
in 1988 and helped spur the growth of Foley.
·
In
2008, Foley adopted the comprehensive plan prepared by Barge Waggoner Sumner
& Cannon.
Bon Secour
·
Bon Secour lies on the
·
Bon
Secour means "safe harbor". Although the name
·
Land
titles can be traced in existing record books as far back as 1793 when John
Ward purchased a house and tract of land in Bon Secour. An eminent historian
mentions specifically the claims of N. Cook, J. Cook, and Augustin LaCoste on
the north side of
·
Nichlos
Cook, the father, and Jacques Cook, the son, have many descendants around Bon
Secour. Edna Bertrand Laurendine who lives in the original Cook homestead
started by Jacques Cook and completed by Jerome, his son. Near their homes the
Cooks built a small school for their children and their neighbors' children.
The Cook family also gave land for a cemetery across the road from their homes.
This cemetery was started in 1835 and was originally planned as a private
burial ground for the Cook family and their heirs. It was consecrated for the
use of Roman Catholics. The earliest decipherable date on a stone now is 1868.
·
The
first Roman Catholic Church in the Bon Secour area was built on the south side
of the river on land near the LaCoste home. It is generally thought the church
site was a gift of the LaCoste family. This church, Our Lady of Good Health,
was dedicated about 1890 by Bishop O'Sullivan according to his diary. Before
that Mass had been said in either the Cook or the LaCoste home. This church
served its congregation well for many years. It was damaged in the storm of
1917. After that it was carefully dismantled and carried across the river piece
by piece and reassembled on land given by Mrs. Odile Cook Bertrand. It is built
on the spot on which the Nichlos Cook house stood. Only the name was changed,
for Mrs. Bertrand requested upon giving the property that the church henceforth
be called Our Lady of Bon Secour.
·
A
Baptist congregation was founded in Bon Secour by Thomas Nelson as early as
1849 or 1850. The church stood on Plash's
·
One
of the earliest settlements on
·
Bon
Secour was a center of salt making during the Civil War. Salt was in short
supply during the war. 'Wells' where salt was distilled are still evident
today. A round hole about eight feet deep and twelve feet wide or wider was dug
near the edge of the river. The sides of the wells were reinforced with logs.
On the edges were built platforms or shelves for the workers to stand on. The
water seeped through the ground from the bottom into the wells. The water was
left standing for about a day, then bailed out by big dippers, put into big
boilers and heated until the salt crystals were left by the evaporation of the
water. Some water was hauled from the Gulf. At least once a month, a schooner
would sail from Bon Secour to
·
The
first post office was established in 1875 kept by Theresa Margaret Keller
Miller and was called "Theresa." It has been discontinued.
·
Services
at St. Peter's-by-the-Sea began in 1878. It was built by Baltic German
immigrants.
·
In
1896, Frank E. Nelson, immigrated
from Denmark, settled in the community of Oyster Bay, and founded the company
that has become Bon Secour Fisheries.
The schooner MARY ETTA was acquired by
the Nelson's in 1896 and used as an oyster dredger, transporter, and shrimp
boat. She was retired in 1969 to the
·
Oysters
were gathered from private plant beds as well as public reefs. They were kept
alive in pens offshore from the growers' residences and transported by sailing
vessel to
·
Construction
of the
·
There are several major seafood businesses in Bon Secour.
Bon Secour Seafood, Safe Harbor Seafood, Aquilla Seafood and Billy's Seafood
all ship Gulf of
·
Just
inside the mouth of
·
Billy’s
Seafood
·
The Oar House & Riverside Inn on Baldwin County 6 on
·
Plash Island Bon
Secour Land Use Study 2005
·
Formerly
the northernmost tip of the
·
·
Plash's
store was at the mouth of the south fork of
·
About 600 acres on or near
Lillian
·
Much
of the land in what is now Lillian, as well as around
·
A
16th century Spanish cemetery is maintained within the Spanish Cove community.
·
Lillian
was named after the first Postmaster's daughter in the 1880s.
·
Lillian
residents voted against incorporation in 2007
·
The
Spanish Cove community was first developed in the 1970s. The subdivision
consists of about 750 acres with four neighborhoods. The community began with
the building of traditional houses on the bay side of Baldwin County 99 (called
Bay Side), and eventually three more neighborhoods were created on the west
side of highway 99: one of conventional homes (Spanish Oaks), one for
manufactured housing (Perdido Pines), and one for RVs and Park Model homes
(Land Harbor).
Perdido Beach
·
The
Perdido Beach Property Owners and Residents Association, which has been pushing
for township out of concern about the impact of a planned bridge, began
petitioning for incorporation. According to state law, a referendum can be held
if supported by owners of at least 60 percent of the property in the
incorporation area, along with 15 percent of the registered voters there. The
county owns the 10-acre Perdido Beach Volunteer Fire Department and park site
in the proposed new town limits. Commission legal counsel Scott Barnett
recommended that commissioners not sign the petition. The proposed town is home
to about 500 people.
·
·
·
The
original 50 investors in the Ono
Island Development received an
exterior lot for $15,000. The developers cut canals through the interior of the
island, allowing those with
interior lots access to the water.
·
There
are now about 840 houses on the island,
about half of those are year-round residents.
·
To
enter the island, visitors must
check in at a guard shack at the foot of the
·
The island is contained entirely within the city of
·
In
2001, prices were: *Perimeter lots, which include access to the main waterways,
range from $400,000 to $500,000. *A canal lot, which has water access via
canals, range in price from $125,000 to $130,000. *And the interior lots, which
don't include access to the water, range from $35,000 to $40,000. "
·
Well-known residents include actor Tom Selleck and
musicians Jimmy Buffett and Reba McIntyre.
·
Alabama
Point
Perdido Key
·
Perdido Key is a
·
Early maps indicate that at the time 
boundary.
·
The Flora-Bama Lounge
and Package is only feet away from the Florida-Alabama border, but
is officially located in
o In his 2004 book "Travels with
Barley," former Wall Street Journal reporter Ken Wells dedicated his first
chapter to the Mullet Toss and estimated that the Flora-Bama sold the
equivalent of 96,000 12-ounce beers over the three days. – PR 4/27/08
·
·
In
1996, Richard Pugh of Fort Morgan was appointed “special master'' over Orange
Beach's building permit department by the Baldwin County Circuit Court. He
concluded that despite an almost completely new government,
·
In
2006 developers Ken Wall and Jim Brown were found guilty in federal court of
bribing Orange Beach Mayor Steve Russo to use his influence in City Hall to get
their development The Water Club approved.
o Wall and Russo were tried and
convicted in
o Russo left office in January after
being charged and was convicted on corruption charges in Sept. 2006
o Russo is serving a 10-year sentence at
the Federal Prison Camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in
o Larry
Sutley, who authored the legal documents that founded
o
o During his testimony, Brown told a
federal jury that he and Wall set up a deal in which Russo would, using only
Brown's credit and none of his own money, make $400,000 by buying and rapidly
reselling two waterfront lots in
§ Russo
bought the property, just over an acre on the southern shore of where
o The City Council members later voted
unanimously against The Water Club because of a rule in
§ Owners of
the Water Club tract are listed as Romar Beach Acquisitions LLC, which,
according to corporate filings, is registered to Jim Brown, Bay Minette lawyer Dan Blackburn,
Tennessee investor Phil Martin and Romar Villas LLC, which is a corporation
shared by Ken Wall and former Gulf Shores City Councilman Greg Kennedy. – PR
2/6/06
o Councilman Ed Carroll and Councilwoman
Joni Blalock implied that the council was treating some developers unfairly
while catering to others. Carroll asked Mayor Steve Russo why he had scheduled
a vote on the three controversial items for Mandalay Beach, Portage Crossing,
and Turquoise Place at 9 a.m. "Because," Russo replied "I highly
resent the fact that we put all these people off at the last meeting when we
were here, and I will continue to do this as long as there is an attempt to delay
or stall things because some of you may or may not feel there's the votes to go
your way." Russo denied playing favorites with developers and called the
councilman an obstructionist.
o In a heated mayoral contest in 2004,
Russo edged city Councilperson Brett Holk by fewer than 200 votes to retain the
post. That contest was preceded by a frenzied campaign, in which Russo and his
political allies, including McCarron, fought to retain control of the rapidly
growing resort and the multimillion-dollar development decisions that came with
the job. Developer-funded PACs raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to
support the pro-growth slate. Russo, according to his campaign finance
disclosures, raised or accepted in-kind contributions totaling nearly $47,000
to support his election.
o Russo reported getting $8,000 from the
Beach PAC, which raised more than
$104,000 – including $35,000 from prominent developer Larry Wireman's partner,
Judy Ramey – to support Russo and his allies. Thomas Eugene “Gene” Brett of
Brett-Robinson gave $12,000. Dean Young, a former Republican candidate for
·
Orange Beach World Championship Red
Snapper Tournament
·
Walker
Marina and five acres on Terry Cove was acquired in 2004 by the
City of Orange Beach.
o It was
purchased using a combination of $7.6 million cash and property -- a small
tract fronting
o With several
marinas, including Griffith's, Capt. Trent, Hudson and Sun Harbor, destroyed in
Hurricane Ivan or torn down to be redeveloped as condominiums, city official
sought the Walker Marina property to ensure Orange Beach's charter fishing
fleet would have a place from which to operate. – PR 10/23/05,12/18/06
o Plans to
build a municipal marina for fare-carrying vessels have been revived after a
plan to buy San Roc Cay was abandoned – PR 6/7/07
·
Zeke’s Marina and its 5-acres
were purchased for more than $11 million in January 2005 by four people – Tom
Steber, Daphne resident Maurice Fitzsimons and two out-of-state investors,
under the name ZLM Acquisitions.
·
San Roc
Cay opened in 1999 on Cotton Bayou and combines four restaurants, about 20
high-end retail shops, a 120-space underground parking lot and a 54-slip marina
on four acres in a style that blends the architectural styles of
·
In August 2004, Dairy
magnate George Barber Jr. applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for
permission to build a 175-slip marina on the northern
·
o After annexing
·
o The Woerner family requested that
o A bridge
over
·
Horizons
20/20 is
·
Catman: Legend states during the
Great Depression, three men lived in the swamp south of
Restuarants
·
The Keg: In August 2006, the Orange Beach City
Council approved a law mandating that bars not sell alcohol between 2 a.m. and
6 a.m. and that patrons must finish their last libations by 3 a.m. Three years
before, the council passed a law that forced The Keg -- which had traditionally
served alcohol 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- to cease booze sales from 4
a.m. to 6 a.m.
|
Name |
Height |
Floors |
Year |
|
|
79.2 m |
26 |
2005 |
|
The
Colonnades |
67.1 m |
20 |
2006 |
|
Seawind
Condominiums |
67.1 m |
20 |
2006 |
|
|
67.1 m |
20 |
2001 |
|
|
67.1 m |
20 |
2002 |
|
|
64.0 m |
19 |
2006 |
|
Renaissance |
64.0 m |
19 |
construction |
|
Lighthouse
Condominium |
59.4 m |
18 |
2005 |
|
|
56.4 m |
17 |
2006 |
·
In
1956, the recorded population of
·
In
1979, Hurricane Frederic caused major damage to
·
In
2004, Hurricane Ivan hit
·
Hurricane Ivan Damage Photos
·
Investors
bought the entire 2.3-acre block of businesses on the beach side of
·
The National Shrimp Festival is held every
October at the
·
The
Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is
moving to 25-acres off Baldwin County 6 which was donated by the family of
Clyde Weir.
o The zoo rose to national fame after a
prime-time Animal Planet series, "The Little Zoo that Could,"
chronicled the menagerie's evacuation in the face of 2004's Hurricane Ivan as
well as its subsequent recovery from the storm.
o The zoo opened in 1989 as 
·
BJ’s Seafood Restaurant, one of the oldest
restaurants in Gulf Shores, was started by Mike Mitchell. It was bought by Birmingham-based developer Ronald
Durham who plans to build Periwinkle Place, a 93-unit condominium complex.
·
Souvenir City was started in 1956 by Clyde Weir. It burned and
was rebuilt in 1996.
·
The Hangout at the public beach was owned
by Atmore businessman Adolph
"Doc" Sutton, Sr. (died 2007) and his wife, Ouida. The Suttons moved
to Gulf Shores in the late 1960’s, and after Hurricane Fredrick they rebuilt
The Hangout, constructed a seafood restaurant Adolph's, built a dress shop
named Sutton's Place and The Barefoot Bar all on Hwy. 59 on the beach. The
Hangout was 
demolished. The inaugural Hangout
Reunion was held in 2007.
o “The Hangout” was rebuilt
and reopened as a restaurant in 2008. Developer Shaul Zislin
initially planned a high-rise condominium for the land, but opted to build the
restaurant in view of the depressed real estate market.
·
The Pink Pony Pub building first stood in 1950 as a 30-by-30
café/bar/bait shop at the foot of a fishing pier run by the Calloway family.
During the fifties and sixties, the pink wooden building was part of Seahorse
Cottages. The Mernik family bought the Seahorse Cottages and remodeled the tiny
shack in 1969 and called it the Pink Pony as a tiny offspring of the pink
Seahorse Cottages behind it. Hurricane Frederic leveled the wood building in
1979, and it was rebuilt out of solid concrete on concrete bridge pilings. It
is currently owned by Bert and Susan Sanders and Chopper Schaffer.
·
Bayou
Village
·
Amusement Parks include The
Track and Waterville USA. An amusement park was
located on the northwest corner of Highways 59 & 181.
·
Stretches
of the shore just west of Little Lagoon pass have long been subject to
erosion. In 2003, Gulf Shores spent
about $2.8 million to pump about 700,000 cubic yards of sand from the bottom of
Little Lagoon onto about 18,000 feet of shoreline west of the pass. That
emergency berm, portions of which washed away in subsequent winter storms, was
added to in 2006 as part of a 15-month, $25 million renourishment project that
bolstered 16 miles of beach from Perdido Key to West Beach with several million
cubic yards of sand from the Gulf floor.
Fort Morgan Peninsula
·
In
1937 the first road to Fort Morgan opened when the Works Progress
Administration completed 22 miles of pavement from Gulf Shores to the fort
"which heretofore had been virtually inaccessible by land".
·
In
the late 1940s, Frank
Boykin and Ben Rester owned about 3,000 acres on the Fort Morgan Peninsula.
They leased the fort from the state and sold lots on the peninsula.
·
In
2003, the Gulf Shores City Council voted to annex the 19.3-mile-long Alabama
180 right of way that bisects the Fort Morgan peninsula. Since then, Gulf Shores
has annexed more than 80 parcels along the peninsula and introduced new zoning
rules there that limit resort developments to about half the height and density
allowed elsewhere in the city. – PR 10/12/07
o Some area residents say they surprised
when it was introduced at the city council meeting. "To do it and not let the people hear
about it is wrong," Dudley Flotte said. Flotte, a Fort Morgan resident who
attended the meeting for other business, urged the council to reconsider the
measure and to vote on it at the next council meeting after more people were
made aware of the resolution. – PR 4/16/03
o Shortly afterward, the Fort Morgan
Civic Association sued the city, seeking to reverse the move, which the city
used to establish a border with and thus gain the ability to annex private
property along the peninsula. The civic association and three co-plaintiffs --
residents Ralph Gilges, Sarah DeMellier and former County Commissioner Charles
Browdy -- argued in the suit that the city's move was an illegal form of “long
lasso” annexation and would lead to over-development.
o A tentative settlement was approved by
the Gulf Shores city council but rejected by The Fort Morgan Civic Association. The settlement called for special zoning for
the peninsula and obliged the city to hire a consultant of both sides' choosing
to draft a development plan. – PR 12/18/07, 3/13/08
o In a February court filing, the city,
though noting that the idea of annexing the state property "was raised
multiple times over the past several years," described a meeting between
then-Mayor David Bodenhamer, Hand, Head and Head's lawyer, Sam Irby. "Mr.
Head brought up the issue of the city annexing the state property and the
possibility he may want to have property he owned annexed at some future
date," the city wrote, adding that "some time after this
meeting" Bodenhamer approached state officials about bringing the property
into the city. Gulf Shores also wrote in the filing that a trio of others in
the real estate business contacted City Hall before the annexation about
bringing their Fort Morgan property into the city: Realtor Larry Powell, Kiva
Dunes developer Jimmy Edgeman and Ron Owen, developer of the proposed Gulf
Highlands condo project.
·
Fort
Morgan Civic Association
Shell Banks
·
Shell Banks was a thriving resort community
around the turn of the century. There
was no way to get there except by sand roads or by boat.
o Around 1917, there were about fifteen
hundred inhabitants. There were two
schools, several stores, two churches and a post office.
o The popularity of Shellbanks was due
to the Henrietta Hotel which was built in 1906.
There was a pier described as extending three quarters of a mile into
deep water where passengers and freight were exchanged from converted
barges. These bay boats made stops at
nearby cities of Daphne and Montrose.
There was also a concrete promenade along the front of the bay for
strolling guests to see and be seen.
o The community began to decline after
the Hurricane of 1916 and the advent of World War I. The final blow came when the hotel burned
about 1926. All that remains today is a
Fire Department, Shell Banks Baptist Church, Shell Banks Cemetery, and a few
private residences.
·
Shell Banks Cemetery is a small cemetery with only 270
visible graves remaining. The earliest
burial with a remaining tombstone is dated 1864. It is located on Fort Morgan Road, eight miles
west of Highway 59, behind Shell Banks Baptist Church. Shellbanks Cemetery was created when the Old
Spanish Cemetery, also known as Persimmon Swamp Cemetery, became full. According to newspaper reports, shell banks
consisting of scattered shells, pottery shards and Indian mounds were still
visible around the 1940's. Shellbanks Cemetery is located in Gasque, about one
mile from the old cemetery.
Navy Cove
·
Navy
Cove reportedly got its name because the British Navy anchored its fleet there
to protect its commercial ships from pirates in the Gulf of Mexico
·
St.
Andrews Bay, on Navy Cove's eastern rim, was virtually paved with oysters,
according to 19th-century accounts.
·
Native
Americans piled the oyster shells in layers called "middens". Huge
sections of the middens still exist today; one site covers more than 12 acres
·
In
three test excavations at the site since 1934, no Indian burial grounds have turned
up. Early inhabitants may have cremated their dead, or placed them in a
communal burial mound elsewhere
·
It
was at or very near Navy Cove that one of Hernando De Soto's officers, Capt.
Francisco Maldonado, waited nearly two years for his arrival.
·
By
1822, bar pilots had established a base at Navy Cove - "Pilot Town" -
where French fishing villages had once strung along the shore. Like Frenchmen
and Spaniards before them, the American bar pilots soon plied a lucrative trade
from their knowledge of the entrance of Mobile.
·
By
1860, even though none of the pilots had a deed to the land, they had built 14
homes along the shore, bringing their families down from Mobile each summer to
enjoy the beach. Few families lived at Pilot Town year-round. The others had
homes in Mobile so their children could attend school there but spend their
summers at the beach.
·
By
1872, 14 bar pilots pooled their money - $338 - to buy the 620 acres where they
lived. They never divided the property, owning all of it equally.
·
It
was cumbersome to unload cargo from barges and rail cars in Mobile, ferry it on
small boats 30 miles to Navy Cove, unload it on the wharf at Pilot Town, then
reload it onto larger ships for the open Gulf.
·
By
the 1890s, Bay Minette railroad investors (The Mobile and Navy Cove Harbor and Railroad Co.) begins buying
up property at Pilot Town, even from some from the bar pilots, and closing up
legal loopholes to take possession of all the property. Their goal was to move
cargo by rail from Pilot Town to Bay Minette and then to either Mobile or Montgomery.
·
Mobile
became the base for bar pilots after the Hurricane
of 1906 destroyed Pilot Town, killing one 86-year-old pilot and the four
children and wife of Capt. Dennis Ladnier.
o There were six families, 53 people in
all, still at Pilot Town at the time.
o The hurricane of 1906 derailed work on
the railroad to Navy Cove long enough for the government to dredge a ship
channel in the Bay to a uniform depth. With a clear ship channel all the way to
Mobile, there was little demand for a harbor or a railroad at Navy Cove.
·
A
1960 lawsuit over a couple of cabins, a fence and a claim of arson pulled in
hundreds of bar-pilot descendants, dozens of lawyers, six judges and the
Alabama Supreme Court.
o Eleanor Nicholls staked out 2 acres in
1960, which she said her family had been paying taxes on since the 1906
hurricane. In 1964, Peyton Norville's fishing shack went up in flames, which
was attributed in court documents to a suspicious wildfire. In a separate,
admitted case of arson, Nichols said that in 1957 she set fire to another
fishing shack that was built on what she felt was her property. Court records
30 years after the fact do not identify the shack's owner and those still
living couldn't remember.
o In 1960 Quincie Godwin of Fairhope files a lawsuit against the
Nicholls family of bar-pilot descendants over property Eleanor Nicholls had
claimed at Pilot Town. In 1964 other
descendants join in another lawsuit, which is combined with the 1960 case to
include 300 acres and the descendants of all 14 bar pilots.
o In 1986 Baldwin County Circuit Judge Harry J. Wilters rules that
families who have staked claims at Pilot Town for more than 20 years can keep
it by "adverse possession." In
1987 the Alabama Supreme Court
reverses the ruling, stating that some bar pilots cannot adversely possess
against co-owners.
o The suit finally ended in 2000, when a
Baldwin County judge issued an order to divide up the money from a 1998 land
auction.
·
Ninety
acres of the bar pilots' land, including the Pilot Town site, was sold in 1998
at auction to the Langan family of Mobile. 200 acres to the southeast sells for
$200,000.
o Baldwin County Circuit Judge Lyn
Stuart orders Gulf Shores attorney Sam McKerall, appointed special master to
sort out the title history, to split the proceeds of the sale among the bar
pilot descendants and Geo Resources, owner of the railroad's interest
o A separate court-ordered auction in
1994 brought $175,000 for the full 300 acres, but then-Circuit Judge Pamela
Baschab rejected the bids because she said they were too low.
o In the 1980s, Dot Dorgan pleaded with
other bar-pilot descendants to band together to preserve the property, saving
it as a memorial to their ancestors. She got nowhere, she said.
o Plans submitted by the Langan group
for development of lots on the westernmost 25 acres of the roughly 90-acre
property generated intense concern from area residents, environmentalists and
historic preservationists.
·
In
2005 PRM Realty Group Inc., a Chicago-based development firm bought nearly 148
acres from the Langan family for $18.85 million. They proposed a large-scale
residential and marina complex on land that includes the site of Pilot Town.
The marina would be linked to the deep water of the Intracoastal Waterway with
a 9,000-foot-long access channel.
o PRM Realty's property also lies within
the congressionally outlined acquisition area for the Bon Secour National
Wildlife Refuge's 1,990-acre Little Point Clear Unit. That means that the refuge could have
expanded from the eastern shore of St. Andrews Bay to encompass PRM Realty's
land if the property had been bought by the government or one of the
preservation groups that support the sanctuary, but any development would
preclude that.
·
The
Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance says that only two grave markers remain
at Navy Cove Cemetery; one of them is of a Charles Wallace, who died on Oct.
29, 1866. Wallace was one of the Mobile Bay bar pilots who settled the area.
·
Fort Morgan Marina has been known at various times as
“Hook, Line, and Sinker”, “Billy’s by the Bay”, and others. It was heavily
damaged by Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, and was annexed into Gulf Shores. It is
currently the site of the proposed development Waters Edge.
Birmingham accountant Wayne Burnett and investor partners purchased the former
Fort Morgan Marina and renamed it Gulf Shores Yacht Club & Marina.
Fort Morgan
·
During
the War of 1812, after Gen. James
Wilkinson seized Mobile from the Spanish in 1813, the Americans established Fort Bowyer at the mouth of Mobile Bay
and a shipyard about three miles east at Navy
Cove.
o On Sept. 15, 1814, four British ships
and 600 soldiers and Indians attacked the 130 American soldiers at Fort Bowyer.
The British lost 170 men and 70 more were wounded, while the entrenched
Americans lost only four soldiers.
o Returning from their defeat at New
Orleans and after the end of the war, 38 British warships and 500 foot soldiers
seized Fort Bowyer. The British quickly
abandoned it after learning the war had ended.
·
Construction of Fort Morgan was completed in 1834 and it
was first garrisoned in March of that year.
·
Alabama's
first lighthouse, a massive brick lighthouse more than a 100 feet high, was
built on Mobile Point in 1822. During the Civil War, the Union blockading fleet
used to send lookouts to the top of the lighthouse to spy on incoming ships.
One night, a group of Confederate volunteers, while being fired upon by the
fleet, rowed out and detonated a charge at the base of the structure causing it
to collapse.
·
Union
ground troops seized Pilot Town as a port to land ground troops from Aug. 9 to
Aug. 16 to mount the ground attack on Fort Morgan until Gen. R.L. Page, a
cousin of Gen. Robert E. Lee, surrendered on Aug. 23.
·
Fort
Morgan was purchased for $8,000 in 1927 by the state of Alabama.
·
In
the late 1940s, Frank
Boykin and Ben Rester owned about 3,000 acres on the Fort Morgan Peninsula.
Boykin persuaded Gov. Jim Folsom to give them a long-term, low-cost lease
(under Rester's name) to the fort itself and about 400 surrounding acres.
Boykin and Rester opened a hotel and restaurant and sold lots on the peninsula.
The state paved the main peninsula road and built an airstrip nearby. Boykin's
role was applauded at first by Hatchett Chandler, the eccentric historian and
caretaker of Fort Morgan. Later, Chandler turned on him, devoting one of his
many published essays to "Old Greedy," his name for the congressman.
Ultimately, the hotel and restaurant lost money, and Boykin and Rester let the
fort go back to the state
·
The
Civil War Preservation Trust has listed Fort Morgan among the nation's 10 most
endangered Civil War sites: www.civilwar.orgslashnews/topten2006/
·
The
Alabama Historical Commission, which owns and operates the fort, recently
approved a restoration plan that calls for hiring more staff, completing
hurricane repairs and working out arrangements with the Baldwin County
Commission and the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau to provide
additional services.
·
The
Perdido River runs
60 miles along the border of Florida and Alabama before emptying into the Gulf
of Mexico. The original, uncut Atlantic white cedar swamp is a rare habitat.
The river rises in Escambia County and becomes the Florida-Alabama border as it
travels 60 miles to Perdido Bay.
o Black
water means that it
is tannic water, which is tea-colored and acidic. Such rivers are uncommon
outside the coastal areas of the South, and few undammed, unaltered black water
rivers survive.
o The Nature
Conservancy purchased 14,000 acres along the river and transferred it to
the state Forever
Wild program in 2006. Conservationists aim to preserve the entire river.
Sources and Reference
Revised
6/8/08
Text
Copyright 2008
Disclaimer: These Notes are not
original. They are complied from various
sources, primarily the Press-Register (PR), Lagniappe, Mobile Bay Times (MBT), The
Harbinger, and websites. Citations are
being added retrospectively. These Notes are for personal, educational use
only. Address all comments and corrections to: admin@flotte2.com
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