Flotte’s Notes on
Mobile Neighborhoods
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
Flotte’s Notes
on Mobile are now being updated on Mod Mobilian: (www.modmobilian.com)
Church Street
East/Government Downtown
Dauphin
Street DeTonti Square Other Loop Oakeigh Garden Leinkauf Old Dauphin Way Midtown DIP/Dog River Riviere Du Chien Campground Toulminville Crichton Springhill West Mobile Causeway
Historic Preservation
·
The Historic
Mobile Preservation Society
was founded in 1935. HMPS's mission includes curating
the Oakleigh Historic Complex
·
In 1962 the Historic Districts Ordinance was passed
by the Mobile City Commission creating the Mobile Historic Development
Commission
o The DeTonti Square and Church Street East districts were created in 1962,
followed by Oakleigh Garden
District in 1969.
o The
Architectural Review Board regulates buildings in the historic districts.
§ In 2008, The
Mobile City Council
reorganized the board by removing the six at-large members who recommended by
the Mobile Historic Development Commission, replaced with eight new positions -
one representative from the historic commission and seven from each of the
city's seven historic districts. The reorganization came after a handful of
high-profile complaints about its rulings. – PR 4/30/08
·
The Mobile Revolving Fund has bought dilapidated properties for
renovation
·
There
are eight historical districts in
o All districts are on the Department of
the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places, providing federal funding
and protection.
o Property owners (except in the Midtown
and Campground districts) must get permission from the city's Architectural
Review Board for construction or changes, including garages,
sheds, fences, driveways, and exterior painting.
Maps
Downtown Business Improvement
District Map
Mobile County
Revenue Commissioner (Tax Assessor)
Areas of Minority
Concentration, 2000 Census
·
About
1,500 people live inside the Hank Aaron Loop, including residents of the Church
Street East and De Tonti Square 
neighborhoods (2006).
·
The "String
of Pearls" initiative
undertaken by the administration of former Mayor Mike Dow – PR 6/25/06
o Downtown had bottomed into an ugly
trough in the 1980s, with one of the final blows coming with the closings of
department stores Gayfers and Zoghby's
in 1985 and 1986, respectively.
o
Lawyer
Jack Miller headed the volunteer Downtown Redevelopment Commission and coined
the phrase String of Pearls.
o
Mayor
Mike Dow, Jack Miller, current cruise terminal chief Al St. Clair and others
began plotting to change that after Dow was elected in 1989. The first step was
for Dow to "make peace," as St. Clair put it, with the plans for a
waterfront convention center. Dow had opposed those plans during his campaign,
and the issue helped him to turn out incumbent Mayor Arthur Outlaw, for whom
the convention center is named.
o
In
1990, city officials hired a
o
From
1992 to 1995, $176.8 million was spent on downtown projects, including $152
million in local, state and federal funds, according to a city report. That
includes $125 million just for the 
effort kicked off. Big projects have
totaled more than $570 million, according to Press-Register files.
o
The
String of Pearls includes:
·
The
·
Mobile
Landing: Arthur
Outlaw Convention Center, the Cruise Ship Terminal, the Maritime Museum of the
Gulf of Mexico, a ferry service across Mobile Bay, and condominium and retail
areas.
·
The rebirth of Dauphin
Street.
·
The
Arthur Outlaw Convention Center was completed in 1993
·
Following
the building of the Cruise Ship Terminal,
Carnival Cruise Lines’ Holiday began sailing from
o
In
August 2008, Carnival announced that it would be replacing the Holiday with the 2,056-passenger Fantasy in November 2009.
o
When
the terminal was built in 2004, the city and RSA were set to share any profits
the terminal made, but the city would cover all losses. In 2008, the city sold
$18.6 million in bonds to buy out the RSA's debt and take complete ownership of
the terminal. The city's debt payments on that are about $1.2 million a year
for the next three years and then $1.8 million annually until 2030.
·
The
Downtown Mobile Alliance is a non-profit organization
established in 2006 as a partnership between the Downtown Mobile District
Management Corporation and Main Street Mobile, Inc.
o Zimmerman/Volk Associates wrote a
housing study for the Downtown Mobile Alliance in 2006 stating that residents
moving to downtown Mobile would fill more than 250 housing units a year for at
least five years if developers could build them, with a potential market of
1,960 households each year – PR 7/22/07
o
The
state granted the Downtown Mobile Alliance $44.4 million in tax-exempt Gulf
Opportunity Zone Act bonds – PR 7/25/2007
·
Main Street Mobile is a private philanthropic
organization whose focus is the entire area within the Hank Aaron Loop.
·
The
Mobile Business Improvement District
(BID) grew out of a study commissioned by Main Street Mobile, Inc. in 2002. In
2005, a majority of the property owners and the City Council approved the
formation of the BID.
o
The
Downtown Mobile District Management
Corporation (DMDMC) is the property owner-funded management organization
that coordinates services within the 75-block Business Improvement District
(BID). The BID provides district-wide security, beautification initiatives,
concierge patrols, intensive litter collection and economic development
programs. Currently, more than 1,000 BIDs exist in the
o
The
BID is supported by an assessment on property within the 75-block district.
Assessment levels are based on a sliding scale, depending on value as
determined by the County Revenue Commissioner. Owner-occupied, single-family
property is exempt and property owned by a 501(c)(3)
designated nonprofit organization are eligible for a 50 percent reduction.
Average annual assessments are $1234.35.
·
The
acres of surface parking lots downtown are one target for development.
Consultants who have studied
o
John and Winifred McMillan
own more than 15 parcels downtown, most of them parking lots marked with
distinctive yellow signs and chains. The lots are now being leased by Central
Parking. That company, based in
o
A
report was commissioned by the Downtown Mobile Alliance, says the city has a
bad deal with Central Parking Corp. In 2003, when Central Parking briefly
handled ticket-writing, downtown business owners protested because the
company's yellow-jacketed "parking diplomats" were handing out nearly
100 tickets every weekday. Then-Mayor Mike Dow reacted by hiring retired police
officers to write tickets, and giving them unofficial marching orders to not
work as hard as the diplomats. – PR 7/23/2007
·
Source:“Big
Buildings, Big Challenges”, Jeff Amy, PR 3/12/2007
Downtown Development
·
Downtown Mobile Investment Report (PDF) – Aug.
2008
·
Downtown Mobile Public Spaces Improvement Report
(PDF) – Nov. 2002
·
The
New Plan for Old Mobile was unveiled
in Oct. 2008 after the city of Mobile hired EDSA planning firm of Fort
Lauderdale, Fla. to create a new comprehensive plan for the downtown. This will
be the city's first plan for downtown
o
The
planning area is bordered on the east by the
o
Project
manager Dan Dealy, of DSD Services Group in
o
Mayor
Sam Jones said that three major downtown landowners have been in discussions
with developers, but none are prepared to move forward with any deals until the
city adopts a downtown plan.
o
The
plan is outlined at www.newmobileplan.com.
o
New Plan for Old Mobile (PDF)
·
Bring Back Broad
was funded in 2005 and started construction in May 2008. The stretch of S.
Broad Street between Canal Street and Virginia Street will be narrowed from
five lanes to three lanes with a median. It will have new sidewalks, lighting
and landscaping. The $2 million project is funded by federal grants from the
Federal Highway Administration and the Small Business Administration.
·
Out-of-town
developers are increasingly interested in working in downtown Mobile and with
the construction of the RSA Tower downtown, Mobile is becoming an attractive
"two-tier" city to out-of-state firms according to realtors.
·
Recently
renovated and reopened downtown buildings include the
·
Besides
the land bought for RSA, developers have assembled whole blocks for a new FBI
building and a new Social Security building in the last decade.
·
There
are about 6,000 hotel rooms citywide.
o
The
owners of the 170-room Radisson Admiral Semmes Hotel on Government Street planned
the addition of 200 rooms on land behind the hotel.
o
Two
Renaissance brand hotels on
o
The
150-room Hampton Inn & Suites at the corner of Royal and Conti streets was
opened by developer Mike Cowart of Cowart Hospitality Services in Birmingham
and the Edmonds family based in Brent, Ala., who own a chain of hotels and
restaurants.
·
Water Street Landing:
Millennium Mobile, a Pasadena, California-based development company owned by
the Yi family, planned an $80 million 239-unit condominium development with 60,000
square feet of retail space at the foot of Government Street at the site of the
CSX building. They paid CSX Railway $1.8
million for 1.6 acres. Andew Oliver, a Mobile native,
first introduced the downtown riverside condo project in 2004. It was later
revealed that Oliver had a criminal record, including a conviction in
connection with a bank robbery and murder in Georgia in 1965. Construction
slowed after the lead developer, Jim Maloney, died. An $869,724 lien was field
against the developers by the local architect for the project, Watermark Design
Group., and another was filed by White-Spunner
Construction. – PR 1/28/07, 7/22/07
o
In
June 2007, Sharman Egan of Lagniappe reported the project was canceled, based
on information from James Ellis, president of MDi
media, the marketing firm representing the developer. On July 22, the
Press-Register reported the project was still on track, quoting the lead
partner, James Bostick. On Aug. 28, Egan reported
that Millennium Pacific Icon Group had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In June
2008, PR reported the project had been canceled, and the property put up for
sale for $2.25 million. The property is in "receivership" in the
Superior Court in Los Angeles County. Mobile County Commissioner Steve Nodine said he thinks the city and county should buy the
property for the planned Mardi Gras park there instead
of on the old Mobile County Courthouse land on Government Street, which Nodine has said he wants used for a condo or retail
project. – Egan, Lagniappe, 8/22/07; PR 1/28/07, PR 7/22/07, PR 6/20/08 Website. Old Website.
·
County
o
In
2002, when Mayor Sam Jones was on the County Commission, the body voted to
build a park on the land. When Jones was replaced by Juan Chastang
in 2005, Chastang said he wanted the land to be the
site of a condominium development that would help bring more residents downtown.
Nodine said he found the proposal worth considering.
After Chastang left office, the idea for a
condominium on that property lost steam. Dean said he was never very fond of
it, and Nodine said earlier this year that the land
should be used for a park.
·
Birmingham
developer Mike Cowart has a
contract to purchase half an acre at the corner of Conti and Royal streets from
the Irving Ripps
family and plans to build a 7-story hotel there. He also has a contract
to buy a parking lot owned by the Meaher family
at the corner of Government and Royal streets to be used for hotel parking. –
PR 10/1/06
·
Terry
Hillery, a Boston developer with roots in Mobile, had
originally planned to finance a seafood shipping business and office renovation
in a pair of historic properties he owns, but those plans have changed, he
said. Hillery is now considering turning his building
at
·
Law
firm Lyons, Pipes & Cook has either completed or nearly completed four
downtown renovation projects totaling more than $1.5 million (with the help of
GO Zone financing), including about a fourth of the downtown block at the
southeast corner of Royal and Dauphin streets, and had originally proposed a
parking garage and retail complex there. Those plans are indefinitely on hold
due to skyrocketing construction costs.
– PR 8/12/07
Downtown Skyscrapers
|
Height |
Floors |
Year |
|
|
|
227.1 m |
35 |
2007 |
|
|
129.0 m |
34 |
1969 |
|
Adam's |
114.0 m |
28 |
1983 |
|
Mobile
Marriott |
99.1 m |
20 |
1979 |
|
|
|
12 |
1994 |
|
|
|
18 |
1929 |
|
|
70.1 m |
16 |
1947 |
|
The
Lafayette Plaza Hotel |
54.9 m |
17 |
|
|
Radisson
Admiral Semmes Hotel |
44.0 m |
12 |
1940 |
|
Van
Antwerp Building |
36.6 m |
11 |
1908 |
|
Royal |
35.0 m |
8 |
|
|
|
|
13 |
1983 |
|
|
|
12 |
|
·
o
In
2001 The Mobile
City Council approved a deal with the Retirement Systems of Alabama for a
complete restoration of the Battle House Hotel, as well as construction of the
o
The
o
76
percent of the tower's 460,000 square feet of office space has been leased. The
tower's lease rates range from $18 to $19 per square foot to the low $20s
(current rates downtown average $15 to $16 per square foot for Class A office
space). About 20 percent of the tower's tenants have moved in, with the
majority expecting to finish their interior build-outs or finishes this year.
So far, the tenants that have leased space in the office tower include Regions
Bank; U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile; CitiGroup/Smith
Barney; the architectural firm Goodwyn Mills & Cawood; and the law firms Adams & Reese, Hand Arendall and McDowell Knight Roedder
& Sledge. – PR 1/6/08
·
o
The
AmSouth building is under contract to be purchased for $7.2 million by real
estate investor Alan Shuman of Reading, Pa. It was listed for sale for $11.5
million. It was owned by Mobile Tower Limited Partnership, the heirs of the
late Wylie Tuttle and Herbert Papock, of Collins
Tuttle & Co. in Manhattan. The building was scheduled for a foreclosure
sale in May 2008, but the partnership filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The loss
of AmSouth/Regions bank and other tenants cut the building's occupancy to 50
percent. Mobile Tower had reached an agreement in principle to sell 50 percent
of its ownership to BGK Group, a private real estate company based in Santa Fe,
N.M. that owns the 10-story Montlimar Place office
building and University Place, but it fell through. - PR 5/29/08, 10/17/08
·
Merchants/Regions Bank Building:
·
Waterman/Southtrust/Wachovia
Building:
Corner of
o
The
Modern building was built in 1947, as the
o
Giant
steamship boilers provide heat to the building and much of the mechanical
infrastructure of the building was built to steamship standards, with giant
pumps, and drives right out Waterman's steamship's inventories. The building's
common area finish is imported Italian Marble, with chrome accents, common to
the era. The elevators are also period.
o
Now housed in the
o
Featured are 1930s Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals.
·
Van Antwerp Building:
o
The
rounded northeast corner contains a large cartouche containing the initials
“GVA” for Garet Van Antwerp,
the pharmacist who built the structure. Garet Van
Antwerp came to
o
The
11-story Van Antwerp building was purchased in 2000 for $687,500 at auction by
Hotels
·
·
Battle House Hotel:
o
Before
the Battle House, the southeast corner of Royal and St. Francis streets had
been the site of the
o
The
Battle Houses were visited by such notables as Jefferson Davis, Admiral Raphael
Semmes, Generals Bragg, Beauregard, and Taylor. It was the location of President Woodrow Wilson's famous
speech in 1913 where he declared that the
o
The
Battle House was owned by several firms. Sheraton hotels bought it in 1958 and
closed it in 1974. Celia Wallace then owned it. The hotel
was reopened in 2007 as part of the Retirement System of
Alabama Battle House Project.
·
Bob
Baumhower, the former Alabama and Miami Dolphins
lineman who owns the Wings Sports Grille restaurants, said he still wants to
open a new concept restaurant in the former Roussos restaurant at 166 S. Royal
St. – PR 8/12/07
·
Cooper Riverside Park honors the memory of Ervin
S. Cooper.
·
o
o
Posner
lives in one of the restored houses when he's in town overseeing the
restorations. He estimated he has invested about $2 million. Construction is
under way on the circa 1857 Spear-Barter House on St. Emanuel Street, which
will be restored as 6,000 square feet of office space; and the adjacent
Hall-Ford House, a nine-room bed and breakfast with meeting parlors. The two
structures are expected to cost at least $2.5 million to restore, Posner said.
Two small buildings in the Village still need to be renovated, including the
future site of the
·
Conde-Charlotte House:
o
Built
on the site of Mobile’s first jail (erected 1822-1824). In 1940 a renovation
revealed the jail’s foundation.
o
Renovated
in 1850 as a residence for Jonathan Kirkbride, master
builder from New Jersey, and remained in the Kirkbride
family until 1926.
o
Unusual
in its use of Greek Doric and Corinthian columns in its two story portico.
o
Now
a museum, it has been furnished to represent key eras in
·
o Southern
Market buildings and
municipal offices. Stalls for farmers, butchers, game sellers, and fishermen
were on the ground floor. Seat of municipal government from 1858 to 1994, when
the Mobile Government Plaza was built. Served as
a military armory before and after the Civil War.
o The structure was heavily damaged by
Hurricane Frederick in 1979, then fully restored in
1982.
o The Italian Renaissance building
features murals depicting a pictorial history of
o Now houses the Gulf Coast Exploreum
and Museum of
Mobile, which moved there from 355 Government (now housing the Mobile Carnival
Museum) in 2001.
·
Admiral Raphael Semmes
Statue. Government Street, just east of Royal. Scupltor is Casper Buberl, who
cast the Union Army bas reliefs on the
·
The
·
Office of Dr. Henry LeVert.
·
The
·
·
La
Clede Hotel.
o In the early 1980s, Tom Leavell, developer Allen Cox Sr. and Jim Mattei , co-founder of the Checkers burger chain, bought
and restored the LaClede. Leavell
and the remaining partners sold the building to a local law firm. – PR 5/18/08
·
Guesnard
House.
·
·
o The
·
Radisson
Admiral Semmes Hotel
·
Government
Street Presbyterian Church:
·
Lafayette Plaza Hotel
·
Mobile Carnival Museum,
o
The
·
·
o
For
$2,750, Willoughby Barton and
several others bought a track of land in downtown
o
Henry Hitchcock chaired the committee to raise funds
for the building, a large part of which came from his own fortune. Hitchcock
hired Gallier and Dakin. The Cast iron fence came
from
o
In
1852, Barton became
o
It
was used as a Union hospital after the fall of
o
Until
recently Barton housed the Mobile County Board of School Commissioners.
Restoring the outside will cost up to $8.3 million, but an estimate on how much
money will be needed to repair the will depend on what the incoming
superintendent, Roy Nichols, decides to do with it. School officials have said
they would like to establish a school at Barton once again. The building is
structurally sound, according to a study conducted recently by TAG Architects.
- PR
·
Kennedy House:
·
Haas House
·
Ben May Public Library:
o
·
·
o
The
was brought from the Kennedy brothers for $20. At the time it was one-half
mile beyond the city limits.
o
It
is sectioned with the northern third for Protestants, the southern third for Catholics,
and one-third for Masons, Oddfellows, veterans, Potters
field, and strangers.
o
Boyington Oak. In 1834, Charles Boyington
was convicted of murder. From the scaffold, he declared that an oak tree with
100 roots would grow out of his grave to prove his innocence. The Boyington Oak grew over his burial site.
o
The cemetery was closed for burials in 1898.
o In 1967
the body of Joe Cain was moved from a cemetery in Bayou La Batre to the
o
In 2000, a radar study indicated dozens of possible
burials outside the brick wall to the east and south. If these are indeed
burials, the interred were probably fever victims from the 1819 epidemic,
buried before the graveyard was surveyed and fenced. Originally marked by
simple wooden crosses, these graves would have quickly become overgrown and
forgotten. For much of the late twentieth century the library used the area as
an overflow parking lot. The site will soon be converted into a park and these
long-lost graves acknowledged by a historical marker.
o
Sources: John Sledge, Cities of Silence: A Guide to
·
Big
·
Gilmore-Gaines-Quigley House.
·
Admiral
Semmes House 802
Government
·
·
The Bee Hive:
Other Historic Buildings:
·
Government
·
·
·
·
The
Restaurants
·
Pollman’s
Bakery, 750 S. Broad
(also 31 N Royal,
o
Dauphin Street Historic District
Walking Tour
·
Dauphin
Street was named for the son of Louis XIV. Under the Spaniards who ruled from
1780-1813, the street was called
·
A
fire in 1839 destroyed the older wooden buildings on the street and the two-
and three-story brick commercial buildings that we see today began to be built.
Many of the early structures had the straight lintels and dentil moulding of the Federal style. The Reconstruction period
brought the acceptance of new building trends such as the Italianate style and
cast iron facades. The last decades of the 19th Century brought the Victorian
era and Revivalism which continued into the 20th Century.- MSM
·
Sculptor-designed bike racks are located on
Dauphin, Government, Conti and St. Francis streets
·
The Rotary International Clock was
installed on the southeast corner of
·
Old Register Building, corner Royal and St. Michael, Built
1809. Originally the DeMouy House Inn, then known as
the Lafayette House until 1870, then the Roper House. The Mobile Register,
published by John Lawrence Rapier, was located there until 1832
o In 1826, Louis De Mouy,
son of Charles Orbonne De Mouy, was owner of
an Inn at which LaFayette stayed on his visit to
Mobile. Craighead related in 'From Mobile's Past' that a reception was given
for the Marquis at the Inn, and that for a joke,
someone yelled 'fire' whereupon the Marquis jumped out of the first story
window.
·
The
Kress building was designed by
Seymour Burrell in 1907 with additions in the 1940s. Originally “L” shaped, the
building is now cruciform and has fronts on Royal, Dauphin, St. Emanuel and
Conti streets. The
o S. H. Kress had two locations,
downtown
·
·
·
St. Emanuel Place:
127 Dauphin St. 11-unit apartment
complex owned by Tilmon Brown
·
The Spira & Pincus Building:169 Dauphin
St. Designed by Rudolph Benz in 1899. A
Classical Revival building in stone.
·
o In 1824 when the U.S. Congress
transferred the land, site of the old Spanish Hospital, to the City of Mobile
specifying that the property be forever used as a city park.
o In 1834 the city began acquiring
additional land and by 1849 the city held clear title to the entire block. In
the 1850’s improvements were made which included walkways, a now gone cast iron
fence, benches, and an ornamented central mound.
o In 1890 the “Acanthus Fountain” was
placed by Bienville
Water Works in honor of its founder Dr. George A. Ketchum.
o In 1905, Teddy Roosevelt spoke in the
Square about the importance of the Panama Canal to the
o The current bandstand was built in
1941, as a gift to the people of
o The
Cawthon Hotel occupied the parking lot that faces the west side of
·
The
82,000-square-foot Gayfers building
fronts
o The Mobile County School System bought
the Gayfers building for $1 million in 2003 with
plans to establish a performing arts high school there. The board placed the
building on the market in November of 2004. Board members later said the
purchase was a mistake and the facility would not be suitable for a performing
arts high school. Officials thought they had sold it in the fall of 2006, when
two companies put in competing offers to buy it. But both of those companies
eventually backed out.
o In August 2007, Island Investments LLC
of Orange Beach, comprised of Bo Wilson of
·
O’Gwynn
Building: 16-20 S.
Conception St., was renovated by Tilmon Brown, Ann Bedsole, and Todd Drummond into 10 condo units
·
Crescent
Theater: 208
Dauphin St, was renovated by Max Morey and John
Switzer, with the theatre on the street level and two high-end lofts on the
second and third levels. Switzer purchased the former Monsoon’s building at 210
Dauphin St., next door to the theatre, and is working with Morey to redevelop
that building, with a banquet hall downstairs and two corporate entertainment
suites upstairs. – Egan, Lagniappe, 8/28/07
·
A&M Peanut Company 
1947. All nuts are roasted on the premises
in a machine dating from 1907. This building was designed by James H. Hutchisson in 1886.
·
o Port City
Brewery opened in 1993 after the Legislature approved a restrictive law
allowing breweries only in historic buildings or sites. It must also be shown
that beer once was produced in the same county. The beer also cannot be
possessed, sold or dispensed except on the premises where it's brewed. The pub must
also operate a restaurant with a seating capacity of at least 80 people.
·
Saenger Theater
·
St. Francis
Street United Methodist Church, 15 N. Joachim St. Built in1895.
·
·
Cathedral Square: The buildings in
·
Portier House (circa 1833): 307 Conti St. Michael Portier,
·
The Cathedral-Basilica of the
Immaculate Conception,
is the seat of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of 
Mobile.
o The Cathedral is sited on an early
cemetery known as the Campo Santo, or "Holy Ground." The graves were
marked by plain wooden crosses and in 1793 Manuel de Lanzos,
ordered that it be better maintained and protected from livestock.
o
The cathedral, designed in 1833, by Claude Beroujon, a former seminarian turned architect, is laid out
in a Roman basilica design.
o
Construction began in 1835, but the Panic of 1837, caused
a shortage of funds and delayed the
start of construction until 1842. The cathedral was consecrated for public worship in
1850, by Bishop Michael
Portier, though Beroujon’s
design was not yet fully realized. The portico and towers were to come later.
o
Various
members of the Hutchisson family of architects worked on the building:
cornice and roof (1849); portico (1872-1890); and towers (1890-1895). The
Cathedral features German art glass windows by Adolph Meier, a bronze canopy
over the altar, and 14 hand-carved Stations of the Cross.
o
The
surrounding cast iron fence from Wood and Miltenberger
of New Orleans dates from 1860.
o
The classical portico, with eight massive columns of the
Roman Doric order, was added in the 1870’s, under the direction of Bishop John
Quinlan. The twin towers were completed in 1884, during the watch of Bishop
Jeremiah O'Sullivan.
o
The stained glass windows were made in
o
A
number of bishops who have served
o
In1954, a homeless man, seeking shelter in the church,
caused a fire that destroyed the sanctuary. Bishop Thomas Joseph Toolen’s restoration efforts included the addition of a
massive bronze baldachin, supported by four marble columns, and a new mahogany
cathedra and / pulpit.
o
In 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the cathedral to a minor basilica, a title bestowed on
churches of historical and spiritual importance. A basilica is entitled to have
its own coat-of-arms. Other basilica insignia include Pope John XXIII's
personal coat-of-arms installed above the cathedral entrance, the yellow and
red Umbracullum,
or umbrella, and tintinabulum,
or bell, in the sanctuary.
o
Buildings at 50 S. Franklin (Elkins c. 1854) and 56
·
Horst
House:
·
Scottish Rite Temple:
351 St. Francis St. Designed by George Rogers in 1921,
this Egyptian Revival building has stuccoed battered
walls and is the only Egyptian Revival building in the city. The entrances are
marked by a pair of sphinxes. Built as a Masonic temple, it was sold in 1996 to
Three Georges Southern Chocolates Owner Scott Gonzalez, and became The Temple
Downtown entertainment venue in 2004.
·
·
Mattress Factory 412-416 Dauphin St., was converted
into 24 condos by developer Tilmon Brown in 2007.
·
·
The Mobile Arts & Sports Association , the parent organization of the Senior Bowl , paid $425,000 for a
three-story, 6,000-square-foot building at the southwest corner of Dauphin and
St. Emanuel streets, and plans to renovate the 1890s building and put the Mobile
Sports Hall of Fame Museum on the ground floor – PR 4/22/07
·
Wintzell’s Building: Built in 1891 by black businessman Charles W.
Peters. A two-story
clapboard structure, this is the only wooden structure designed for commercial
use remaining on Dauphin St. Wintzell’s
Restaurant has been doing business in this block since 1938.
·
The Bull:
609 Dauphin St. Restaurant. Renovated by
Wendell Quimby.
·
Creole Fire
House #1: 13 N.
Dearborn St. Designed by James H. Hutchisson in 1872, this two-story brick structure was
built to house the Creole #1
Fire Company. It was converted into a residence by developer Tilmon Brown.
·
Central
Fire Station:
·
Carriage
Works: 701, 709 Dauphin St. Condos developed by Todd Drummond and Ann Bedsole
·
Meaher Building: 755 Dauphin St. Built circa 1930 for Augustine Meaher, this
is a one-story brick building with five wooden storefronts. Now a restaurant,
the building once housed a pecan factory and a landscaping business.
·
Other Historic Buildings:
o Pollock
& Bernheimer Building, 1904, Rudolph Benz (5 Dauphin);
Levy Wolverton Building, circa 1875 (102 Dauphin); Walgreen’s
Building, circa 1938 (110-112 Dauphin); McCrory 5
& 10 Building, 1924 (125-127 Dauphin); Scheuermann
Building, 1893, Rudolph Benz (203
Dauphin); Ann McCaw Building, circa 1885, Rudolph Benz (210 Dauphin); Abraham Spira
Building, 1891, Rudolph
Benz, served as a theatre from 1908-1931 (220 Dauphin); Demouy Building, circa 1879 (222,
224, 226 Dauphin); Crown
Theatre, circa 1909 (270 Dauphin); Sidney Smith Building, 1848 (354 Dauphin);
Jacques Chighizola Building, 1858 (356 Dauphin); John
McGuire Building, 1852 (358 Dauphin); Jacques Chighizola
Building, circa 1854 (407 Dauphin); Maria Crawford Building, 1900 (417
Dauphin); Louis Monin Building, circa 1867 (454-456
Dauphin); Steele Building, circa 1853 (522 Dauphin); Henry Chamberlain
Building, circa 1865 (551 Dauphin); Schumacher
Carriage Works (709-711 Dauphin);
o Daniels,
Elgin & Co. Building, circa 1860 (2 S. Water);
o
o
o Franklin
Fire Engine Company #3, 1852 (6
o Cavallero House, circa 1835 (7 N.
o Augustine Meaher House, 1901 (5 N. Claiborne); John Dahm House, 1873 (7 N. Claiborne);
Past Buildings
·
The Masonic Temple on
Businesses
·
The
Dauphine Shoeteria
has been on
Restaurants
·
Wintzell’s
Restaurant.
·
Picklefish restaurant was opened on Dauphin
Street by Mead Miller in 1995. It closed
in 2008 due to his health. A second Picklefish
location, which opened in 2001 on Old Shell Road near the University of South
Alabama campus, will remain open
·
Roussos, formerly on Royal St., moved to Malbis’
·
Heroes
Bars
·
The Garage
·
Hurricane Brewery.
225
Dauphin St.
·
Veet's.
o Guitarist Tim Kinsey released a solo
album, "What Do You Think Of Me?", available at www.timkinseymusic.com
·
DeTonti Square
Improvement Association
·
Richards-DAR House:
·
258
N. Claiborne: 8 unit apartment complex owned and renovated by Ted Pitsios – PR 8/20/06
Other
areas in the Hank Aaron Loop
·
St. Louis St.:
o St
Louis Lofts: 308 St.
Louis St. Tuscaloosa developer Steven
Barr renovated the former Mobile Fixture & Equipment warehouse in 2007. –Jumper,
PR 8/20/06; Jumper, PR 7/19/09; Egan,
Lagniappe 7/14/09
·
Federal Courthouse: A new $75 million federal courthouse
building is being planned.
·
Ryan Park,
with a statue of Father Abram
J. Ryan. In 1912 a
·
The Tower on Ryan Park (758 St.
Michael Street) opened as a residential building in 1951.
·
·
Gulf City Lodge 601 State St. The Elks Lodge was
built in the 1870s. It is now used primarily as an entertainment venue. 
It is owned by
·
·
·
·
·
Orange Grove Housing Project consists of the 12 blocks between Bloodgood and Marion streets near Interstate 165, just
north of downtown. It's adjacent to two other public housing communities,
Albert F. Owens Homes (built 1959) and
o 
In
June 2004, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the
Housing Board $20 million to tear down the Owens and Thomas developments and
replace them with a mixed-income community of townhouses, single-family homes
and a senior citizens complex. The HOPE VI project also includes construction
of 12 single-family homes in the
·
·
Other
Historic Buildings:
o Claiborne Apartments – renovated 2006
(258 N. Claiborne);
·
Oakleigh Garden District
·
Oakleigh
Garden District Map
·
Oakleigh
Garden District Society
·
The Oakleigh Venture Revolving Fund was launched in 2001. – PR 8/8/2004
o It has received grants from the Fannie
Mae Foundation and the Bedsole Foundation, according
to Palmer Hamilton, a local attorney who spearheaded the fund along with other
residents in Oakleigh. The idea is to revive
abandoned, rundown houses, sell them and use the money to do it all over again.
The fund members are volunteers and take on projects as the balance in their
operating account allows. The fund has created almost
$5 million of new or improved houses. Marine Street, the fund's first targeted
street, has been transformed into a vibrant part of the neighborhood.
In 2005, the Bedsole Foundation, one of the OVRF's
original funding sources, asked the fund to expand its work to Mobile's Central
Business District.
o The Oakleigh
fund is an unincorporated subcommittee of the nonprofit Historic Development
Commission. The nonprofit commission is separately incorporated from the
closely related city agency of the same name. The Oakleigh
fund has a separate board and has operated independently from the Historic
Development Commission. The Mobile Historic Development Commission also handles
the Mobile Revolving Fund.
o The OVRF received $705,385 from the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2003. The money was
earmarked for the Oakleigh fund by U.S. Sen. Richard
Shelby, who has ties to the fund's president, Mobile lawyer and lobbyist Palmer
Hamilton. The Oakleigh fund spent $438,113 paying off
work that had been done earlier by another entity, Springhill in Oakleigh Partners. But under federal rules, the money
couldn't be spent on things done before Feb. 20, 2003, when Congress passed the
law doling out the money, raising the question whether the money may need to be
returned. – PR 12/23/07
·
Oakleigh Mansion:
·
Magnolia Cemetery:
·
·
1867 Philips-Turley house at the corner of Charles and
Palmetto.
·
Blacksher
Hall
·
Bellingrath
Carriage House:
·
Burgess-University of
·
Tacon-Tissington-Jones House:
·
Paterson/Dean Estate:
·
A
developer out of the
·
The
Oakleigh Venture Revolving Fund started a major
revitalization effort on Marine Street
in 2002 and far has restored almost 30 houses. Marine Street is Oakleigh's oldest street, dating from the 1830s. The fund's
members try to use
Restaurants
·
Callaghan’s Irish Social Club: Woodrow Callaghan opened his club at
the corner of Marine and
·
The
Leinkauf neighborhood, and
·
The
Old
·
Source:
Old Dauphin Way Association
·
The
Old Dauphin Way District is part of the Price and Espejo
tracts, large Spanish land grants of the early 1800s.
·
Very
little development occurred in the area until 1830-1840. From then on frequent
listings in
·
Most
of the older structures in the district are simple frame cottages which
originally housed carpenters, florists, bar pilots, steamboat captains, and
commission merchants. Grander houses were also built and can still be seen
along
·
·
Towle
House, built in 1874,
faces
·
·
Three
·
o Anchoring the block at
·
North
Monterey Street & Fearnway
are separate subdivisions
of Fearn Realty, both developed in the first
decade of the 20th-century. Houses on
·
·
1551
Dauphin is the design of C.L. Hutchisson, Jr., and is done in the Classical Revival
style with a red tile roof. At 1555, 1557, and 1565 Dauphin are large two-story
houses of varying designs, yet each is inspired by the Classic Revival.
Anchoring the end of the block at 1569 Dauphin is a 
much earlier house constructed in 1869
in the Gothic Revival style.
·
Magnolia Manor,
·
Vincent-Doan House/Mobile Medical Museum: 1664 Springhill. Built circa 1826, it
is
·
Trinity Episcopal Church
·
Greene-Marston House,
aka Termite Hall,
o Three distinct architectural
styles are reflected in this house: The original 1-1/2 story cottage was built
in the mid-1800s by the Greene family. This cottage was incorporated into the
2-1/2 story Victorian structure built by Martin Van Heuval
in 1903. The cottage is now referred to as "the wing". In 1910, the
house was further remodeled by William Syson.
o Termite Hall was purchased
in 1919 by Mrs John Lawrence Rapier (Regina DeMouy Rapier), wife of the owner of the Mobile Register, to replace the DeMouy house lost by fire in 1917. Many of the
Marston/Rapier/Demouy clan moved into the house.
o Termite Hall got its name
in the 1920s when the porch rails disintegrated, riddled by termites,
which luckily never reached the main house.
o Adelaide Marston Trigg (1918-2008) and
Eleanor Marston Benz (born 1916) resided in Termite Hall and hosted dozens of
artists, writers and intellectuals and fostered local culture. Trigg also
co-founded The
Haunted Book Shop.
Eleanor was a librarian
at McGill Institute for several decades after 1955.Eugene Walter wrote Delectable Dishes from Termite Hall. New
Orleans author Helen Scully wrote In the Hope of Rising Again,
loosely based on the life of her great-grandmother, Regina Rapier Marston. –
PR10/13/08 Picture
·
The Loop:
In the early 1900s, The "
o The
Loop Group is a community action group for
residents of the Loop -- that section of
o
o Little
Flower Catholic Church
·
Murphy High School, built 1926
·
·
Visitation Monastery and Academy
·
Springhill Avenue
·
From
1933 to 1949, the Oak Hills Country Club, once the Oak Hills Public Golf Course,
was situated where the
·
“Pill Hill” was the name for the
neighborhood near the Mobile Infirmary when many physicians lived
·
The Village at Midtown is a proposed redevelopment of a 17
acre track which is currently Lakeside Park Apartments located on Bragg Avenue
just North of the Mobile Infirmary, USA Women's and Children's Hospital and The
Mitchell Cancer Institute into luxury, gated apartments. Developer is Kenneth Payne of Pensacola,
current owner of the apartments.
·
·
Siena Vista Drive is famous for its Christmas
decorations
·
·
Tacon
Station on what is
now the Illinois Central Railroad at
·
The
Graf Dairy Farm was located on 36
acres at the southeast corner of
·
Businesses
·
“Society Shell”: Founded in 1946, Griffith Shell at
the intersection of Ann and Government Streets features "full service"
pumps. Tom Perez
wrote a play named “Society Shell”
·
The 19th Hole was a bar on
·
Widemire's
Old Dutch Ice Cream
Shoppe at
Restaurants
·
The Dew Drop Inn:
·
Butch Cassidy's:
·
Chuck’s Place:
·
Queen G’s Café:
·
Built
primarily in the 1930s-1960s, many south
·
James
M. Seals, Jr. Park (renamed from
·
St.
Martin de Porres Hospital ,
·
Naman’s Food Store was started on
·
Ladas
Pharmacy, 1050 S. Broad was started in 1959 by Louis Ladas
·
South
Bay Apartments are owned by Summit Asset Management in
Maysville
·
Frank
W. Boykin Homes, , and
Birdville
·
"
Farnell
Mertz
·
Mertz Station came
into being in the 1800s as a railroad stop at which farmers from
·
·
Zion
Baptist Church was started in 1848 by Mertz’ pioneer families - Farnells, Rowells, Lundys, Yeagers, Pollards, Southhalls – PR 8/31/08
·
·
The
Carmelite Monastery is on
·
Tiny
Diny,
·
Yen
Restaurant, a Vietnamese Restautant, was started by the
late Yen Le and is run by his family.
·
Osman’s Restaurant
·
The
Four Strong Winds Coffee House was on
Navco
·
Gulf
Manor was developed in the late 1950s, lies at the end
of
Crestview
·
Crestview
subdivision, south of U.S. 90, just east of
·
Parks
on
o
o
o
The
streetcar ran from Crichton, through
o
In
the 1990s, it was proposed that
o
·
o
Facing
criticism that the state docks' container terminal and railyard
development at the former site of
o
The
Alabama State Port Authority plans a public park by late 2008 or early 2009 on
more than 20 acres just east of Brookley Industrial
Complex on
o
The
park does not include Arlington Point -- a key element of the plan the Port
Authority discussed as early as 2003. That 15-acre, man-made spit of land juts
into the bay between Brookley and the McDuffie Coal
Terminal. The U.S. Army owns the land, and the Airport Authority has about 30
years left on a lease of part of the property. The plan to include Arlington
Point was maintained during a series of public meetings in early 2005. However,
in October 2005, $2.5 million in improvements to an existing dock facility at
Arlington Point was included as part of a package of incentives used to lure the
EADS tanker aircraft assembly center to Brookley
Field. That project, plus a Coast Guard presence on Arlington Point, have tied
up the Arlington Point property
o
The
docks will use some of the land it purchased to replace wetlands it destroyed
in developing its container terminal at Choctaw Point.
o
o
In
addition to its $1.3 million to buy the Airport Authority land, the state docks
would spend about $2 million to develop the park, Port Authority officials
said, and another $5 million to create the new wetlands, a project headed by
Thompson Engineering.
o
Bayfront Park
Rendering (PR)
·
Fort Whiting Armory, 1630 S. Broad,
was built in 1938. It has been used by a number of Mardi Gras
societies. Home of the Alabama National Guard unit, it underwent a $6 million
renovation in 2003.
·
When Europeans first settled in the
·
The
Dog River Cotton Factory was built in the 1850s and burned after the Civil War
·
Early
residents of the
·
The Alba Club was founded in 1903. It is named in
honor of Peter Francis Alba, Indian fighter with Robert E. Lee, Confederate
cavalry captain, founder of the Mobile Humane Society
·
Mobile Yacht Club was organized in the 1840s (earlier
called the Mobile Regatta Club), and began holding large regattas on the
Eastern Shore which attracted racing yachts and high stakes from all along the
Gulf Coast. The club's membership suffered during 
reconstruction, but by the 1880s,
Mobile yachtsmen had reorganized their club and sold stock to build a clubhouse
on a newly acquired plot on the
·
Sources:
Mary Eddins, “A Pictoral
Oral History of
Restaurants
·
·
Grand Mariner Marina and Mariner
Restaurant
·
There
is only one entry by land into the community, along
·
The
Linksman Golf Course opened in 1972 and was
originally known as
·
The
city of
·
Hippie
Beach is an area on Hall’s Mill Creek about a mile northwest of where the creek
meets Dog River which became an infamous teenage hangout. The land is owned by Creekline, Inc., whose representatives Grubb &
Ellis/Peebles & Cameron said they will prosecute any tresspassers.
It is off Shipyard Road near the Cypress Shores community, which is south of
Hall’s Mill Creek. – PR 7/14/08,7/15/08
·
Confederate
troops who protected
·
Campground
continued to grow steadily throughout the early 20th century. Largely an
African-American working class neighborhood, a professional middle class
including doctors, dentists, businessmen, schoolteachers, nurses, secretaries
and postal carriers emerged and residents lived harmoniously intermingled. Some
notable prosperous individuals worked and owned businesses along
·
The
Campground consists of roughly 10 city blocks, bordered on the north by
·
The
block bounded by Michael Donald Avenue, Ann Street, Spring Hill Avenue and Old
Shell Road, dominated by The Oaks apartments and a nearby convenience/liquor
store, has been targeted by Mobile police as "the heart of the beast"
of area crime including drugs and prostitution. A police initiative, undertaken
with various city agencies, is targeting the neighborhood for rehabilitation
with increased police patrols and prostitution stings combined with neighborhood
beautification efforts and crackdowns on eyesore properties. – PR 7/6/08
·
Toulminville began a
small settlement on the property of Harry Toulmin.
Toulminville was along the Mobile and Ohio
Railroad northwest of
·
During the Irish potato famine in the 1840's, many Irish
(including the McNulty's, McAndrews, McDonoughs, McDonalds and the Reynolds etc.) immigrated and
staked their lots as farmers in Toulminville.
·
In World War II, Toulminville
had become an upper-middle class suburb, with many affluent neighborhoods built
along Stanton and Summerville Streets.
·
In 1956 Toulminville was
annexed into the city of
·
In the 1960s, white flight issues caused by desegregation
and an upsurge of crime on Mobile's northside
(highlighted by an incident in 1966 in which a white nun was raped by a black
man at Catholic Cemetery on Davis Avenue, now Martin Luther King Avenue) caused
the district which was majority white in 1960 to become nearly 80% black by
1975, and Toulminville was the bedrock of the
district which elected John
LeFlore, a Mobile NAACP leader who became the
first black elected to the legislature in Mobile County. The final holdout
against white flight were neighborhoods along Stanton and Summerville Street
which finally became nearly all black in the 1980s, though they remained
affluent areas. Toulminville had a serious crime
problem during most of the 1980s and 1990s.
·
·
Roger Williams Housing Project is “one of
·
·
·
1860
The Clotilde was the last
known ship to arrive in the
o Timothy Meaher
was a Mobile shipyard owner in business with his brothers Burns and James Meaher, all of whom were from
o
In
o By the time the Clotilde arrived
in
o The Africans were distributed to those
having an interest in the Clotilde expedition
including the three brothers, the ship's captain, and others in south
o In a federal court case in 1861, US v. Burns Meaher,
Timothy Meaher, and John Dabey, the
three were charged with importing 103 natives of Africa for the purpose of
slavery in the
o Five years later, the Civil War over, the slaves were free. After selling or releasing most of the